Daon Broni in “The New Real” at Royal Shakespeare Company. (Photo by Ikin Yum)
NEW YORK CITY: Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre and the publisher of American Theatre, today announced the recipients of the second round of the 2024-25 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $463,000, allow 10 productions extra time for the development and rehearsal of new plays with the entire creative team, hoping to extend the life of the world premiere play after its first run.
“Playwriting is the heartbeat pulsing through theatres and stimulates our collective imagination forward to a view of the world that is often different from the ones we occupy day-to-day,” said Emilya Cachapero, TCG’s co-executive director of national and global programming, in a statement. “The Edgerton Foundation’s long-standing commitment ensures that playwrights and their collaborators have the extra time needed to fully realize their creative impulses and that future audiences will also be able to engage with the play.”
This round of awards have been presented to The Suffragette’s Murder by Sandy Rustin, which will have an original production at Denver Center Theatre Company; The Brightening Air by Conor McPherson at The Old Vic; The Reservoir by Jake Brasch at Denver Center Theatre Company; The New Real by David Edgar at Royal Shakespeare Company and presented in association with Headlong; 3 Summers of Lincoln, with book by Joe DiPietro, lyrics by Daniel J. Watts and Joe DiPietro, and music by Crystal Monee Hall, at La Jolla Playhouse; Grangeville by Samuel D. Hunter at Signature Theatre, The Estate by Shaan Sahota at National Theatre; !VOS! by Christina Pumariega at Two River Theater; Inter Alia by Suzie Miller at National Theatre; and falcon girls by Hilary Bettis at Yale Repertory Theatre.
“I have tremendous gratitude to the Edgerton Foundation for their generous support of ¡VOS! and countless other world premiere productions across the country,” said Justin Waldman, Two River Theater’s artistic director, in a statement. “Their vision of providing time and space for new writing to grow and flourish is an extraordinary gift—one that is repaid with the nuance, depth, and rigor of extraordinary artists honing their craft to a fine edge.”
The Edgerton Foundation New Plays Program, directed by Brad and Louise Edgerton, was piloted in 2006 with Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles by offering two musicals in development an extended rehearsal period for the entire creative team, including the playwrights. The Edgertons launched the program nationally in 2007 and have supported 553 plays to date at over 50 different Art Theatres across the country.
Over the last 18 years, the Edgerton Foundation has awarded $18,887,534 to those productions, leading to almost 1,500 subsequent productions at TCG Member Theatres following their world premieres. Forty-one have made it to Broadway, including: Skeleton Crew, Paradise Square, Curtains, 13, Next to Normal, 33 Variations, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, A Doll’s House Part 2, Indecent, Hamilton, and the upcoming production of English. Twenty-one plays were nominated for Tony Awards, with All the Way, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Oslo winning the best play or musical awards. Sixteen plays were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with wins for Primary Trust (2024), English (2023), The Hot Wing King (2021), Cost of Living (2018), Hamilton (2016), The Flick (2014), Water by the Spoonful (2012), and Next to Normal (2010).
“The productions in La Jolla Playhouse’s 2024-25 subscription season all share the themes of hope and joy that arise from the complex challenges of transforming into a more humane and just society,” said La Jolla Playhouse managing director Debby Buchholz in a statement. “The support of the Edgerton Foundation allows the Playhouse to provide extra time, care, and intentionality to develop 3 Summers of Lincoln ahead of its world premiere. We are grateful for the Edgerton Foundation’s dedication to expanding the American theatre canon through this production, particularly now when joy and humanity are most needed.”
