NEW THEATRE WORKS INITIATIVE (NTWI)

PRESS RELEASE

THE INDEPENDENCE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES

FUNDING OF $450,000 OVER THREE YEARS TO

2010 RECIPIENTS OF “NEW THEATRE WORKS INITIATIVE" GRANTS

The Independence Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of its New Theatre Works Initiative (NTWI), a program devised to encourage the development and production of new theatrical work in the Philadelphia region.  

The New Theatre Works Initiative is designed to assist in the development of theatre works by established nonprofit theatre companies in the region.  Rather than limit its scope to a single form, genre or developmental structure, these grants are intended to accommodate the numerous creative styles and unique perspectives of theatre groups to developing new work, whether it is engaging in interdisciplinary work, solo performance or various approaches to play-making.

The 2010 New Theatre Works Initiative recipients are:

People’s Light and Theatre ($150,000/3 years) for the development of a series of new theatre works that will be performed in partnership with Longwood Gardens, one of the great horticultural centers of the world. Over a three-year time span they plan to develop as many as 6 site-specific theatre pieces, using art and science as they intersect with themes of sustainability, conservation, and botanical research as points of departure and as material. 

Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe ($150,000/3 years)  to expand their resources and deepen their commitment to the artists they serve through their Fellowship Program in the Live Arts Brewery, a laboratory for research and development (the LAB), which offers artists rich, comprehensive assistance and structured guidance as they research, develop, create, and test original performance works.  The Festival will strategically enhance the existing LAB Fellowship Program by outfitting an additional studio/work space in an adjacent, unoccupied warehouse in the Live Arts building. Incorporating two studios into the LAB Program allows them to offer artists access to both a rehearsal hall and a black box performance space, in which production residencies will be staged for LAB Fellows to mount their work in front of audiences with full technical support, including lights, sound, and sets.

New Paradise Laboratories ($75,000/3 years) to further investigate the possibilities of integrating new media-websites, social networking, and various geo-locational technologies-into its dramaturgy.  Their 2009 FATEBOOK drew national and international attention with its blend of cyber-space and live-space theatre techniques. It has been hailed as a breakthrough in the combining of traditional theatre with a new kind of viral-based community outreach. New Paradise Laboratories is now on the verge of new developments in this area.  They will develop a new piece in each of the next three years that will utilize new media in its narrative structure and in its outreach components.  All three pieces will result from collaboration among cross-disciplinary artists:  actors, director, playwrights, web-based designers and traditional theatre-based designers. 

Pig Iron Theatre Company ($75,000/3 years) to support the next chapter of their work.  Pig Iron's recent explorations have focused on stripping away, on "doing less," and on keeping a lid on the ensemble's natural tendency toward anarchic, free-spirited invention. Going forward, they want to take the lid off. Playing and playfulness are hallmarks of their work, and they have decided that it's time to revel in their natural instincts instead of finding projects that aim to cut against them. The coming years' projects will push the anything-can-happen concept to open up new avenues in their work.  They will keep building upon the inventive impulses they began to un-cork with their whimsical production of WELCOME TO YUBA CITY, while also introducing the company to new and exciting collaborators, like Toshiki Okada, acclaimed choreographer, playwright, and director of the Japanese company chlefitsch, who will help to expand the possibilities of their work. 

The deadline for the next round of New Theatre Works Initiative grants will be in the spring of 2011.