TCG/METLIFE EXTENDED COLLABORATION GRANTS

Since its establishment in 1989, TCG’s Extended Collaboration Grants have given theatre companies the opportunity to host playwrights and collaborating artists over an extended period of time. Supported by the MetLife Foundation, the program extends standard preproduction and rehearsal schedules, and often funds travel, research and workshop components of the play development process. In 2004-2005, the latest and final round of grants totaled $33,000 and were awarded to support the creative work of six theatre companies and their collaborators.

TCG/MetLife Extended Collaboration Program Grant Recipients

  • The Alliance Theatre (Atlanta, GA) to support playwright Regina Taylor in the development of Magnolia, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Magnolia will focus on the rise of Atlanta's black business class in the middle of the twentieth century. Ms. Taylor will conduct research and interview with members of the Atlanta community who were part of the 1950's African-American business explosion.
  • The Children's Theatre Company (Minneapolis, MN) to support playwright Lonnie Carter as he researches and develops a new play about the Lost Boys of Sudan, who traveled through the deserts of Sudan and Ethiopia in order to escape a brutal civil war. Mr. Carter's play explores the cultural collision experienced by some of the Lost Boys who relocated to the United States.
  • Cornerstone Theater Company (Los Angeles, CA) to continue their collaboration with playwright James Still on A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters, a play with music that examines the religious diversity of contemporary Los Angeles. Several dozen community-based actors and singers of different generations, cultural heritages and religious backgrounds were included in the cast and contributed to the development process of the work.
  • The McCarter Theatre Center (Princeton, NJ) to host a workshop of playwright Dael Orlandersmith's Subterranean Letters, a work-in-progress about letters written between real and fictional correspondents that address how their lives have been shaped by race, gender, ethnicity and childhood experiences.
  • Ping Chong, artistic director of Ping Chong & Company (New York, NY), to collaborate with scenic and lighting designer Randy Ward, as well as artists from the U.S. and China, on Mr. Chong's Cathay, a large-scale multidisciplinary puppet theatre work exploring China's ancient past, tumultuous recent history and emergence as a global economic and cultural force in the 21st Century.
  • The Shotgun Players (Berkeley, CA) to collaborate with playwright Adam Bock on Wonderland, an original adaptation of Alice in Wonderland with material generated from movement, text and music workshops, as well as from interviews with adults and children within their community.