National Endowment for the Arts FY 2017 Fall Grant Announcement

will engage nonprofit partners with ties to the immigrant community in Philadelphia, and project artists and
staff will convene community discussions around themes of homeland, exile, loss, political ideologies, and the
cost of maturity.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (aka Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company)
$40,000 Washington, DC
To support a production of "HIR" by Taylor Mac. The play is a family epic about a Marine returning from war
who is shocked to come home to a world completely changed. His controlling and abusive father has had a
stroke and is severely incapacitated, his mother has upended the power dynamics of her marriage, and his sister
Max has embraced a transgender identity. The play explores topical issues including reentry, addiction, domestic
violence, gender identity, the housing crisis, and health care. The theater will partner with local service
organizations and veterans groups to design community engagement programs to complement the production.
Wooster Group, Inc. (aka The Wooster Group)
$20,000 New York, NY
To support the development and performances of the Kantor Project, a new theater production that will
celebrate the life and work of Polish artist Tadeusz Kantor. The artist's life and practice chronicle the major
artistic movements and historical transformations of the 20th century. The work will explore Kantor's work in
visual art, film, and theater through a contemporary lens. Kantor's daughter Dorota Krakowska will serve as
dramaturg for the production. Development and work-in-progress showings will take place in New York, and the
finished work is expected to premiere at the SummerScape Festival on the Bard College campus.
Yale University (On behalf of Yale Repertory Theatre)
$20,000 New Haven, CT
To support the world premiere production of "Imogen Says Nothing," a new play by Aditi Brennan Kapil at the
Yale Repertory Theatre. The play tells the story of Imogen, a mysterious woman who stumbles into an
Elizabethan theater and finds herself not only on stage, but suddenly written into Shakespeare's "Much Ado
about Nothing." In early printed editions of Shakespeare's play, the character of Imogen, Hero's mother, appears
in the first two acts. She has no lines, and the character disappears from later published editions. Kapil's play will
imagine how this so-called "ghost character" found its way into the printed text, and explore the consequences
of erasing a person from human history.
Zachary Scott Theater Center (aka ZACH Theatre)
$40,000 Austin, TX
To support the development and world-premiere production of "JJ's Arcade," a new play by Jose Casas. This
bilingual play was inspired by the real-life story of Caine Monroy, who became an Internet sensation after
building a cardboard arcade in his father's auto-parts store in downtown Los Angeles. The play explores the
power of imagination, the importance of creativity, and the true meaning of being a family. The project will
provide an opportunity for the theater to continue its partnership with Teatro Vivo to develop a work that will
reach both English and Spanish speakers in the Greater Austin area.
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Information is current as of
December 7, 2016.