Aug 14, 2009  |  By: Staff & Wire Reports  | COMMENTS     

Arena Stage, one of the first non-profit theaters in the U.S., has received a $1.1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the theater announced, which it will use for a new play development initiative called the American Voices New Play Institute.

Arena Stage affirmed its commitment to new theater with the third production of this year’s gay-themed play, “Looped” by gay writer Matthew Lombardo about bi actress Tallulah Bankhead and a gay man who helps her through a looping session. Arena Stage has long been a haven for gay actors and plays — gay playwright Edward Albee has had several of his works produced there and the theater has also produced works such as “Cabaret” and Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

The Institute is designed as a center for research and development of effective practices, programs and processes for new play development in the American theater.

“Building on Arena’s legacy of inquiry intrinsic to the theater since its founding, our record of successes with new work, the expertise of current staff and programs and the expanded capacity of our new home, the Institute is a logical next step in the evolution of one of the first resident professional theaters in the U.S.,” Molly Smith, Arena’s artistic director, said in a statement.

When she said “new home,” she was referring to Arena’s new campus, the Mead Center for American Theater, under construction now in Southwest Washington. Smith says the New Play Institute will be at the heart of the Mead Center.

“The Institute’s programs will test promising advances around the country,” Smith said, “with the intention of developing the infrastructure for new plays and new voices nationwide. For more than two years, Associate Artistic Director David Dower and I have laid the groundwork for this Institute and now with the support from the Mellon Foundation, we are ready to build.”

Gay theater professionals were ecstatic to hear the news.

“This news is thrilling not just for Arena Stage and D.C. audiences, but for anyone interested in the American theater,” said Brad Erickson, a gay playwright, actor and executive director of Theatre Bay Area in San Francisco. “Arena Stage, situated in the nation’s capital, and supported by the sweeping vision of the Mellon Foundation, will be positioned to propel a generation of new work and new voices — including marginalized perspectives — into the national spotlight. Parochially speaking, we in the Bay Area are thrilled to see our long-time colleague, David Dower, teamed with Molly Smith, at the forefront of this exciting endeavor.”

Promotional materials from Arena say the Institute will be a “full-spectrum laboratory for testing and disseminating promising advances in the field; an incubator for practices, programs and processes; a place for convening for new play leaders and a centralized hub for information and activity in the new play sector.”

The American Voices New Play Institute will begin operation with a suite of interrelated programs such as a playwright residencies program, fellowships for producing new plays, audience enrichment seminars, a new play development program and more.

Arena says these programs will address a significant gap in the national new play development infrastructure.

“While there are many promising and productive practices scattered around the field that could help strengthen the overall ecology for new plays and playwrights, there is no central focus for advancing the sector as a whole,” according to an Arena statement. “Promising innovations remain locked inside their originating context, with no way to test their capacity for successful replication around the field.”

The Institute will be under the leadership of Smith, guided by Dower and will work in partnership with Georgetown University’s Theater Department, led by Derek Goldman.