| Transport Group Announces Joanna & Steven Sanders New Works Program | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 10:15 am EST 12/03/20 | |
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| TRANSPORT GROUP ANNOUNCES JOANNA & STEVEN SANDERS NEW WORKS PROGRAM 2020-21 SEASON FOCUSES ON DEVELOPMENT OF FUTURE PRODUCTIONS Transport Group Artistic Director Jack Cummings III and Executive Director Denise Dickens have announced the institution of The Joanna & Steven Sanders New Works Program, focusing on the development of new American theatrical productions. While Transport Group will continue its exploration of revivals, this program will deepen the company’s commitment to producing world premieres. Transport Group will use the remainder of the 2020-’21 season to focus on the launch of this program. A new, permanent addition to Transport Group's annual operations, The Joanna & Steven Sanders New Works Program will foster new plays and musicals in preparation for full production. The program supports playwrights, librettists, and composers through every step of the process from first draft to final dress, letting each work dictate its tailored course of development through commissions, readings, writers' retreats, demos, and fully staged workshops, among other elements of the development process. Transport Group is committed to carry all commissions through to production in upcoming seasons after robust development via The Joanna & Steven Sanders New Works Program. Artistic Director Jack Cummings III says about the program: “We are incredibly grateful to Joanna and Steven Sanders for their belief in and support of new work and the development process necessary for writers to explore the full potential of their individual voices. With Joanna and Steven's generous gift, Transport Group will be able to keep its eye on the future by reliably providing the means for these artists to fully experiment in creating new work that will add to the American theatre canon. We are excited to begin these collaborations as soon as possible to make sure that once we can return to the theatre, we will be well on our way to producing commissioned world premieres." Joanna & Steven Sanders say about the program: “While this global pandemic prevents us from staging live performances, we can seize this moment to support our American playwrights, librettists, and composers to conceive and produce original plays and musicals that will inspire us when we can all joyously retake the stage. We are excited to give Transport Group artists a stable platform to create new works of American theatre, during these challenging times, and beyond.” Transport Group’s 2020-21 season also includes While We’re Home: a collection of commissioned, weekly essays by alumni artists, reflecting on the company’s 20-year history. Additionally, Transport Group streamed its fall 2019 critically acclaimed musical, Broadbend, Arkansas, compensating over 30 artists of the original production and supporting The Black Theatre Network. The month-long stream, offered free of charge, reached 46 states, 20 countries, and nearly 3,000 households. The company produced a Virtual Conversation series, produced in partnership with Walk Tall Girl Productions/Marcia Pendelton, featuring the cast and creative team of Broadbend, Arkansas, Minneapolis theatres (New Dawn Theatre, Pillsbury House, Theatre Latte Da), representatives of The Black Theatre Network (Andre Harrington, Michael Dinwiddie, Kathryn Ervin) and Black arts activists (Talvin Wilkes, Jonathan McRory, Chris Berry, Monique Martin, and Kevin Powell). The archived conversations as well as the While We’re Home essays are available via Transportgroup.org. Transport Group is the recipient of a special Drama Desk Award recognizing its “breadth of vision and presentation of challenging productions,” a special citation from the prestigious New York Drama Critics’ Circle, and a special OBIE Award, as well as numerous other awards and award nominations from the Outer Critics’ Circle, Lucille Lortel Awards, Obie Awards, Off-Broadway Alliance, Drama League, and others. Founded in 2001, Transport Group stages new works and re-imagined revivals—both plays and musicals—that explore the challenges of relationship and identity in modern America. Currently headed by founder Jack Cummings III (Artistic Director) and Denise Dickens (Executive Director), Transport Group most recently produced the revival of Meredith Willson’s The Unsinkable Molly Brown (starring Tony nominee Beth Malone) nominated for seven Drama Desk awards, and the world premiere musical Broadbend, Arkansas. Other recent productions include the critically acclaimed revival of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, Carmel Dean and Dick Scanlan’s world premiere musical Renascence (Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical), Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke (starring Tony Award nominee Marin Ireland) with Classic Stage Company, Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude starring David Greenspan (Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance as well as an Obie Award for Greenspan and Cummings), and Picnic & Come Back, Little Sheba: William Inge in Rep, which received two Drama Desk nominations and three OBIE Awards (Jack Cummings III for Direction, Heather MacRae for Performance, Dane Laffrey for Scenic Design). Additional recent productions include the first off-Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress, starring Jackie Hoffman and John “Lypsinka” Epperson; Three Days To See, a world premiere theatrical exploration of Helen Keller through her own writings; Broadway’s Lysistrata Jones, the critically acclaimed revival of John Cariani’s modern classic Almost, Maine; Michael John LaChiusa’s Queen of the Mist (winner of the Outer Critics’ Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical), and a re-imagined revival of the John Van Druten’s classic I Remember Mama which was included in The New York Times’ Top Ten Productions of 2014 and The New Yorker’s Top Cultural Moments of 2014. In addition to mainstage productions, Transport Group also produces one-night-only, star-studded concert events, often featuring the productions’ original orchestrations performed by as many as 60 actors and musicians. Concert titles have included Baby (2012), The Music Man (2014), Peter Pan (2016), A Man of No Importance (2016), Man of La Mancha (2017), Promises, Promises (2018), and Sweet Charity (2019). |
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