Theater News

Signature Announces $300,000 Grant to Commission New Musicals

Marisa Michelson
(© Blanche Mackey)
Marisa Michelson
(© Blanche Mackey)

Signature Theatre’s artistic director Eric Schaeffer has announced a $300,000, multi-year grant from The Shen Family Foundation for The Next Generation, a program to help emerging composers create new works for musical theater. An expansion of Signature’s American Musical Voices Project, this program will award three commissions in 2008.

Composers Matt Conner, Adam Gwon, and Gabriel Kahane will each receive a $25,000 commission to write new musicals for Signature Theatre. The theatre is also awarding Peter Foley and Marisa Michelson $5,000 grants for the development of their musical ideas in preparation for three additional $25,000 Next Generation commissions to be given in May 2009.

Conner’s credits include Nevermore, Crossing, and A Carol Christmas for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC; Gwon’s writing credits include Ordinary Days, Bernice Bobs Her Hair, and Ethan Frome; and Kahane’s most well-known work is his Craigslistlieder, an eight-movement song cycle comprised of settings of anonymous classified ads from craigslist.org. Foley’s music and lyrics for The Hidden Sky earned him an NEA grant, the Richard Rodgers Award, the Stephen Sondheim Award, and a Jonathan Larson Foundation grant; and Michelson’s writing credits include Still Life With Toe Shoes, and Hotel Sarajevo.

For more information, visit signature-theatre.org.