LOS ANGELES: The Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy at the Japanese American National Museum has awarded this year’s Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship to Nicole Leung and Adam Wassilchalk. The fellows will each receive a $5,000 award for the six-month fellowship.
Leung is a dancer, performer, and writer whose work regularly appears in the Dance Enthusiast. She is a graduate of the International Ballet Academy and earned a BFA in dance from the Julliard School.
Wassilchalk is an arts and culture critic, stage manager, and production manager whose work has been published in the New Haven Independent as part of the Independent Review Crew initiative. He holds a B.A. in theatre, dance, and performance studies from Yale University.
The Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship is made possible through a gift from Sharon Mizota to honor her late aunt, Irene Yamamoto.
NEW YORK CITY: Candela has announced the fellows for its second annual Playwrights Summer Fellowship program, formerly known as the Playwrights Summer Jam. Founded by writer, director, and professor Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Candela works to close the gap of geographic, economic, and social obstacles for emerging playwrights, lyricists, and librettists of Latin American and Caribbean heritage.
The 2024 fellowship class consists of musical theatre writers, including Khristián Méndez Aguirre, R. Réal Vargas Alanis, Carissa Atallah, Phillip Gregory Burke, Jessica Carmona, Demian Chavez Galvan, Julio Hanson, Joshua Jean-Baptiste, Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj, Maya Malan-Gonzalez, Allex Miranda, Ryan Oliveira, Samora la Perdida, Phanésia Pharel, Rosarito Rodríguez, Nataylia Roni, Rebbekah Vega-Romero, and Dionne Verwey.
The Working Theater has announced the recipients of the 2024-25 Mark Plesent Commission Fund: A.G. Norton and Alex Rodriguez.
Norton is a storyteller, archivist, and activist who has worked as a social worker and end-of-life doula. She has spent three years performing archival research on photographer Berenice Abbott, writing, performing, and touring a storytelling and slideshow production about Abbott’s work.
Rodriguez is a lifelong New Yorker who has written and produced the plays Sparks of Uncertainty and Smoke & Mirrors with Working Theater. His writing has also been featured in the Red Hook Star-Revue.
The Mark Plesent Commission Fund supports new play commissions for first-time playwrights providing mentorship, financial support, and developmental resources.
The Dramatists Guild Foundation, in partnership with the Lillys, has named Darrin Terpstra and Morgan Webber-Ottey the 2024 recipients of the Hansberry-Lilly Fellowship. Each will receive a $25,000 stipend for each year of graduate school matriculation and up to $75,000 for living expenses.
Terpstra is a Korean American playwright who is pursuing an MFA in playwriting at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. They are a recipient of the Iowa Arts Fellowship.
Webber-Ottey is a “recovering lawyer” who now works as a screenwriter and script coordinator. She is an incoming MFA candidate at Northwestern University.
The Dramatists Guild Foundation manages the $2.5 million Hansberry-Lilly Fellowship endowment and administers awarding of the fellowship each year. The fellowship helps the next generation of women and nonbinary playwrights of color follow in the footsteps of playwright Lorraine Hansberry regardless of their economic situation.
CINCINNATI: Theatre director and educator Olivia Bellido has been named the 2024 recipient of the Stephen Schwartz Musical Theatre Teacher of the Year Award. Bellido leads the thespian troupe at Charles E. Jordan High School in Durham, N.C.
“Olivia Bellido is a prime example of someone who has devoted years filled with talent, creativity, and plain hard work to helping her students thrive and grow,” Schwartz said in a statement, “and I’m proud she is receiving an award that bears my name.”
An alumna of Charles E. Jordan High School, Bellido has taught performance there for 18 years and developed a student-led technical theatre program. Bellido has previously received an honorable mention from the Tony Awards for excellence in theatre education. She will be recognized at the Educational Theatre Association’s Theatre Education Conference in September.
MINNEAPOLIS: The Playwrights’ Center has announced their new cohort of Core Writers and Core Apprentices.
The Core Writers who will receive three years of support for new-play development include Cris Eli Blak, Brandy N. Carie, Chloé Hung, Charlie Oh, Alejandro Rodriguez, Jasmine Sharma, and Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay.
Additionally, Salwa Meghjee, Ro Reddick, and Elle Thoni will join PWC as Core Apprentices for the upcoming season, in partnership with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. The Core Apprentice program funds and supports play development workshops throughout a nine-month mentorship.
GLOBAL: TheTheatreTimes.com has won the 2024 award for Excellence in Digital Scholarship from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and the American Society for Theatre Research. The award is granted annually to an individual or team that demonstrates innovation and rigor in the use of digital media to produce and disseminate knowledge about theatre and performance.
TheTheatreTimes.com is an all-volunteer, open-access global theatre and performing arts portal which strives to offer global theatre coverage through local sources. Since its launch in November 2016, TheTheatreTimes.com has published over 5,300 articles and theatre reviews covering theatre in 90 countries and regions and has over 60 media partners.
PARK CITY, UTAH: The Sundance Institute has announced the 2024 cohort of the Sundance Women to Watch x Adobe Fellowship. The yearlong program supports and sustains the creative practices of women artists, particularly filmmakers from underrepresented communities.
Among the eight fellows is playwright Sylvia Khoury, who was a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play Selling Kabul. Khoury also developed the feature film script I’m Heather as a 2024 Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Lab Fellow.
Fellows are awarded with a $6,250 cash grant and a yearlong membership to Adobe Creative Cloud, in addition to workshops and other career development and networking opportunities.
