| Jeremy O. Harris and New York Theatre Workshop Announce the Golden & Ruth Harris Commission - Two $50,000 Commissions for New Theatrical Works | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 07:16 pm EST 12/04/20 | |
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| NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP JEREMY O. HARRIS AND NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP ANNOUNCE THE INAUGURAL GOLDEN & RUTH HARRIS COMMISSION TWO $50,000 COMMISSIONS FOR NEW THEATRICAL WORKS (December 4, 2020 - New York, NY) Jeremy O. Harris and New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) (Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director Jeremy Blocker) announced today the inaugural Golden & Ruth Harris Commission. A collaboration between Harris and New York Theatre Workshop, the Golden & Ruth Harris Commission offers two $50,000 commissions for a new theatrical work, allowing the recipients to dream expansively and extensively about a theatrical creation while working to relieve them in part from the need to seek other income over the course of the commissioning year. "At the core of my practice is the belief that the work of being a playwright is in community building," Jeremy O. Harris said. "My grandparents, Golden and Ruth, always modeled charity and generosity within their community. Moreover, their generosity to me is the only reason I was able to write my first plays. Hopefully this commission can do the same for other artists at the theatre that gave me my first significant opportunities in the American theatre. In this moment of global unrest and unprecedented stasis for world theatre, my hope is that this can model for our community and our government a method to radically invest in the future of our medium." "Jeremy is an artist, a spirit, unlike any other," said New York Theatre Workshop Artistic Director James C. Nicola. "Not only is he ablaze with imagination and inspiration in the convention-shattering work he makes himself, but he is also equally compelled to reinvent the art form. In this new world that he is commanding to materialize, the fight for the common good of the artists that dwell there is at the very core of his efforts. With this initiative he has created, he enlists NYTW to become his partner in not just generously supporting theater-makers, but also in building a new paradigm of theater itself." In this inaugural year, the commissions will be awarded to two generative artists who are Black womxn: one of whom is an artist who has yet to have an Off-Broadway New York production as a generative artist, and one of whom is an artist who made a significant impact early in their artistic lives but has not had adequate support of late. Over the next several months, a wide array of nominators will recommend nominees from every area and medium of the field, who will submit proposals to an independent panel of artists. The panel will review the nominees and submit finalists to Harris and New York Theatre Workshop, who will select the recipients. Harris and New York Theatre Workshop most recently collaborated on the off-Broadway, World Premiere of Harris's play, Slave Play. Slave Play is currently nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including Best Play. For more information, visit www.NYTW.org. While the timeline for resuming in-person performances in New York City remains uncertain, NYTW has re-committed to its extraordinary community of artists to create and develop new work and to share that work with audiences in both existing formats and in ways yet to be imagined. The group of Artistic Instigators includes Ayad Akhtar, Hilton Als, Clare Barron & Sam Gold, Lileana Blain-Cruz, David Cale & Dael Orlandersmith, Victor I. Cazares, Rachel Chavkin, Dominican Artists Collective, Rebecca Frecknall & Martyna Majok, Aleshea Harris, Jeremy O. Harris, Modesto Flako Jimenez, Denis O'Hare & Lisa Peterson, Liliana Padilla, Rubén Polendo & Theater Mitu, Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby, Tina Satter, Geoff Sobelle, Celine Song, Whitney White, Kristina Wong and Doug Wright. These artists have been engaged to imagine work in our present moment that creates community within the given circumstances of social distancing, celebrates the liveness that is inherent in a theatrical experience, and examines the relationship between theatre, distance and technology. While the Artistic Instigators are supported in their exploration of form and content, audiences will be invited to experience the evolution of the work through work-in-process sharings and behind-the-scenes conversations with artists. NYTW is asking audiences to take a leap. What it promises in return is a front-row seat to the unfolding of this experiment-and that the definition of a "front-row seat" will shift throughout the year. Some events will be exclusively virtual experiences while others may take place in person-when it is possible to do so with appropriate safety measures. For tickets and more information about these projects and the Artistic Instigators, please visit www.nytw.org. Alongside its artistic and community engagement programming, NYTW is engaged in the essential, sustained commitment of becoming an anti-racist organization in support and affirmation of Black people, Indigenous people and people of color in their community. In June, NYTW published its Core Values statement and initial action and accountability steps. In an effort to provide greater transparency, NYTW shared an October update with next steps at nytw.org/accountability. NYTW will continue to publish updates in the coming months about further commitments and the progress updates. New York Theatre Workshop empowers visionary theatre-makers and brings their work to adventurous audiences through productions, artist workshops and educational programs. We nurture pioneering new writers alongside powerhouse playwrights, engage inimitable genre-shaping directors, and support emerging artists in the earliest days of their careers. We've mounted over 150 productions from artists whose work has shaped our very idea of what theatre can be, including Jonathan Larson's Rent; Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul; Doug Wright's Quills; Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde; Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla; Martha Clarke's Vienna: Lusthaus; Will Power's The Seven and Fetch Clay, Make Man; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath; Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh's Once; David Bowie and Enda Walsh's Lazarus; Dael Orlandersmith's The Gimmick and Forever; and eight acclaimed productions directed by Ivo van Hove. NYTW's productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, 25 Tony Awards and assorted Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. NYTW is represented on Broadway with Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin and the upcoming Sing Street, based on the motion picture written and directed by John Carney, with a book by Enda Walsh, music and lyrics by Gary Clark & John Carney, directed by Rebecca Taichman. |
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| Link | http://www.NYTW.org |
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