National Endowment for the Arts FY 2017 Fall Grant Announcement

$10,000 Portland, ME
To support the world premiere production of "String Around My Finger," a new play by Brenda Withers.
Selected as the winner of the 2016 Clauder Competition for New England writers, the play tells the story of an
engaged couple whose wedding plans are upended by a medical emergency. Withers' play explores how average
Americans deal with relationships, health care, families, and determining what matters most in life. The play will
be developed in the theater's Little Festival of the Unexpected before premiering on the mainstage.
Pregones Touring Puerto Rican Theatre Collection, Inc. (aka Pregones Theater, Pregones/PRTT)
$20,000 Bronx, NY
To support the creation and production of "Torched!." The new musical about the epic South Bronx fires in the
1970s will explore historical suspicions that local residents set their own homes, schools, businesses, and houses
of worship on fire. Testimony will be drawn from Bronxites who lived through the devastation, as well as from
first responders who came to the rescue. The piece will interrogate accounts of collusion among absentee
landlords, insurance companies, and city bureaucrats, exploring the human costs and dilemmas of urban
planning, safekeeping, speculation, and displacement.
Red Eye Collaboration (aka Red Eye Theater)
$10,000 Minneapolis, MN
To support the development and world premiere of "Splitter Island," a new, interactive performance piece by
Hayley Finn. The play follows the character of Bea, who has just lost both of her parents and is now
contemplating who she might become. Staged from a first-person perspective with performances encircling the
audience, the play is structured as a series of formal and informal interviews using simultaneous live
performance with live and pre-recorded audio feeds to audience headphones. The piece is designed to actively
engage the audience in the investigation of public versus private identity and representation in an increasingly
digital era.
Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center, Inc. (On behalf of Alliance Theatre)
$30,000 Atlanta, GA
To support the Alliance Theatre's National Graduate Playwriting Competition. The program provides an artistic
home for emerging graduate school playwrights to develop new work and transition into the world of
professional theater. The winning playwright is given the opportunity for a full-scale production of their work,
and finalists are provided with development opportunities. The 2017 winner, "Too Heavy for Your Pocket" by
Jireh Breon Holder, is a reflection on the dominant Civil Rights Movement narratives of the 1960s, and a new
framing of the ethical dilemmas of the era.
Roundabout Theatre Company, Inc. (aka Roundabout Theatre Company)
$20,000 New York, NY
To support the world premiere of "Napoli, Brooklyn," a new play by Meghan Kennedy. Set against the backdrop
of the crash of a United Airlines flight in Brooklyn in December 1960, the play explores sisterhood, freedom, and
forgiveness through the lens of a first-generation Italian-American family. The play raises questions about
personal identity, and how it is shaped by love, religion, violence, and national identity. The theater has an
ongoing relationship with Kennedy, whose previous work has been developed through the Roundabout
Underground program for emerging writers.
Rude Mechanicals-A Theatre Collective (aka Rude Mechs)
$15,000 Austin, TX
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Information is current as of
December 7, 2016.