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In the Greenroom
theatre buzz
Shaw Festival Establishes
Gabriel Pascal Memorial Fund
The Shaw Festival at Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, has established
the Gabriel Pascal Memorial Fund in honor of the man
Bernard Shaw regarded as a “genius.” The renowned director,
producer and friend of Bernard Shaw, was honored at the Shaw
Festival on August 14 with the unveiling of a memorial plaque in
the Festival Theatre lobby and the establishment of a memorial
fund in his name. Members of the Shaw Festival community and
friends of Mrs. Valerie Pascal Delacorte, wife of the late Pascal,
were in attendance. Delacorte took part in the ceremony, via
Skype, from the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Gabriel Pascal was the only person to single-handedly convince
Bernard Shaw to give him the film rights to his plays, which include
Major Barbara, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles and the Lion, The
Devil’s Disciple and Pygmalion. Shortly before his death in 1954 at the
age of 60, Mr. Pascal retained an option for the musical My Fair Lady.
Within two years after his death, My Fair Lady opened on Broadway
and the Pascal Estate, worth nothing at the time of Mr. Pascal’s
death, grew to an estimated $2 million when the movie rights for
My Fair Lady were optioned. Mrs. Valerie Pascal Delacorte received
a portion of his royalties. She has generously decided to irreversibly
bequeath the rights she currently holds on My Fair Lady and the
motion picture adaptations of The Devil’s Disciple, Major Barbara
and Pygmalion to the Shaw Festival upon her death. This gift will be
known as the Gabriel Pascal Memorial Fund.
Lynn Nottage & Will Eno
Named First Recipients of
the Horton Foote Prize
The first Horton Foote Prize was awarded to Ruined
by Lynn Nottage for Outstanding New American Play
and Middletown by Will Eno for Promising New American
Play. The new award, which will be presented biannually,
is named in honor of the legendary writer, and
honors excellence in American theatre. Each playwright
will be presented with $15,000 and a limited edition of
Keith Carter’s photograph of Horton Foote.
As contenders for Outstanding New American Play
and Promising New American Play, Nottage and Eno
were nominated by Manhattan Theatre Club and
Vineyard Theatre respectively. More than 50 resident
theatres throughout the country, all with a strong history
for producing new work, were invited to submit a
produced or unproduced play for consideration. With
produced works, its premiere production must have
occurred between January 1, 2008 and December 31,
2009. Nominated playwrights must be the author of a
minimum of three original full-length plays which have
been fully produced by professional theatres.
NEA Awards $100k in New Play Development Grants
The 2010 cohort for the NEA New Play Development Program
has been named. Five theatres will each receive a grant of
$20,000 to support the early stages of development for a new
play with strong potential to merit a full production. The theatres
are: About Face Theatre (Chicago, Ill.), for Tanya Saracho’s The
Albert Cashier Project; Children’s Theatre Company (Minneapolis,
Minn.) for Larissa FastHorse’s Fancy Dancer; Cornerstone Theater
Company (Los Angeles, Calif.) for Tom Jacobson’s West Hollywood
Musical; McCarter Theatre Center (Princeton, N.J.) for Emily Mann’s
Hoodwinked; Woolly Mammoth Theater Company (Washington,
D.C.) for Danai Gurira’s Zimbabwe Project. Working in close collaboration
with the playwrights, each theatre will use this funding for
development activities, such as dramaturgy, design workshops
and consultations, read-throughs, public readings, workshop
productions and open rehearsals.
“In order for the American theatre to remain vibrant and
vital, we need to invest in new work,” said NEA Chairman Rocco
Landesman. “I am proud and honored that the NEA is investing
in the development of new plays by five of this country’s most
exciting playwrights.”
Arizona Theatre Company and Actors Theatre Of Phoenix Awarded
$150,000 Grant From Piper Trust
The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust has awarded Arizona
Theatre Company and Actors Theatre of Phoenix a $150,000
grant over a two year time period. This grant will allow these
professional theatre companies to explore possible collaborations,
either artistically, administratively or both, to better fulfill
the missions of both organizations. La Piana Consulting from
Emeryville, Calif. will be helping through these investigations,
explorations, discussions and possible implementation.
“We are thrilled to get this opportunity to actively explore
collaborative ideas with our colleagues at Actors Theatre,” said
ATC Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein.
“New models are certainly needed to ensure the long term
stability and sustainability for all not-for-profit arts and culture
organizations in this changing economic climate,” added
Matthew Wiener, Actors Theatre’s producing artistic director.
“Due to the history and leadership of both companies we are
uniquely situated to explore a possible strategic alliance that will
enhance our collective work on stage and expand educational
and outreach services to our communities.”
The Piper Trust awarded 11 grants totaling $1.2 million
through its Arts Restructuring and Transformation Fund (ART
Fund). The one-time arts and culture initiative resulted from
redirecting remaining grants funds from the wind-down of
Metro Phoenix Partnership for Arts and Culture (MPAC) in April.
Thirty-seven previous Piper arts and culture grantees were
invited to apply.
6 October 2010 • www.stage-directions.com