National New Play Network Receives $425,000 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant

The National New Play Network (NNPN) has received a $425,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The contribution, to be used over three years, will be used to support the group’s flagship program Continued Life of New Plays Fund.

Through this initiative, NNPN supports three or more theaters which choose to mount the same new play within a twelve-month period, resulting in a “rolling world premiere” through which the playwright develops a new work with at least three different creative teams, for three different communities of patrons.

To date, NNPN has championed the continued life of 23 new plays in this fashion. Current and upcoming rolling world premieres include Luis Alfaro’s Oedipus El Rey, Steve Yockey’s Afterlife, Allison Moore’s Collapse, and Kara Hartzler’s Arizona: No Roosters in the Desert.

In addition to supporting and expanding NNPN’s work in these rolling world premieres, the Mellon grant will allow the organization to enhance current programs such as the MFA Playwrights Workshop at the Kennedy Center, its Playwright-in-Residence program, and a continuing partnership with the Lark Play Development Company, while also creating new ones.

NNPN’s 26 member theaters are: Actor’s Express Theatre (Atlanta), Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte (Charlotte, NC), Borderlands Theater (Tucson), Curious Theatre Company (Denver), Florida Stage (Manalapan), Florida Studio Theatre (Sarasota), Fountain Theatre (LA), Horizon Theatre Company (Atlanta), InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas), Magic Theatre (San Francisco), Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA), Mixed Blood Theatre Company (Minneapolis), New Jersey Repertory Company (Long Branch), New Repertory Theatre (Watertown, MA), New Theatre (Coral Gables, FL), Orlando Shakespeare Theater (Orlando), Performance Network Theatre (Ann Arbor, MI), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis), Playwright’s Theatre of New Jersey (Madison), Prop Thtr Group (Chicago), Salt Lake Acting Company (Salt Lake City), Southern Rep (New Orleans), Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO), Victory Gardens (Chicago), and Woolly Mammoth Theater Company (Washington, DC).

For further information, visit: www.nnpn.org.