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Announcing The Inaugural Recipients of The New York City Small Theatres Fund
The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York and the Howard Gilman Foundation are thrilled to announce the 23 recipients of the inaugural cycle of the New York City Small Theatres Fund. Selected from an initial application pool of over 170 applications, the funded theatres will receive two years of flexible, general operating support to support the operations of their theatre companies. As New York City theatres continue to recover from the impacts of the ongoing pandemic, we are excited to be able to provide multi-year support to this vibrant and crucial segment of New York City’s cultural ecosystem.
The incredible small theatres funded through this year’s grant cycle represent a range of theatrical aesthetics, organizational structures, methods of working, and artistic communities served. They include theatres working with young audiences, documentary theatres, developmental companies, venues and itinerant theatres, theatres focused on serving a specific geographic or cultural community, devising ensembles, and companies consistently challenging what theatre is – and can be.
For some of the grantees, this funding will help push them to their next level of growth, as they continue to build resilience and capacity, while some grantees will use this support to take some space to stabilize and right-size. Adam Odsess-Rubin, Founding Artistic Director of National Queer Theatre shared, “This is our first-ever multi-year grant, an important marker in establishing our sustainability to continue providing impactful programming to LGBTQ+ artists and audiences across New York.” Congratulations to the inaugural recipients!
FY23-24 New York City Small Theatres Fund Recipients
Amaterasu Za features talented bi-lingual theater artists exploring classic and contemporary Japanese works for Japanese and English-speaking audiences. Through our productions and ongoing training in Japanese-influenced movement and theater techniques, Amaterasu Za hopes to foster a deeper understanding between cultures, and a deeper understanding for Japanese-Americans and Japanese living in the US of their own cultural heritage that is so under-represented and misunderstood in popular culture. http://www.amaterasuza.org
Amerinda's mission is to make the indigenous perspective in the arts available to a broad audience through the creation of new work in contemporary art forms. www.amerinda.org
BRTW exists to disrupt any and all oppressive systems that marginalize Black people using narrative and performance as a methodology to recenter Black people and experiences. With economic, social, educational, healthcare, housing, and political injustice facing our community, BRTW aims to tackle the issues that impact us while becoming a beacon for Black opportunity within the arts. https://www.TheBRTW.org/
Blackberry Productions is a Documentary Theater Company that develops and produces theater that sheds light on issues impacting our communities and brings cross-sections of the community together to encourage greater cultural awareness, compassion, and community capital. www.blackberryproductionsco.org
Emit Theatre is an immersive educational theatre company committed to creating theatrical experiences through which learners of all kinds have the freedom to explore stories through direct interactions. At our core is a dedication to inclusive learning through the arts, placing artists and audiences side by side to provide one-of-a-kind opportunities for wonder and discovery. We are committed to sharing high-quality adaptations of Shakespeare and innovative new works with diverse young audiences in non-traditional settings and ADA compliant spaces. We invite each audience member to approach our productions from their own curiosity with a high level of agency. www.emittheatre.org
Grand Pistachio creates original theater for young people utilizing larger than life forms of puppetry, mask, and music. Our mission is to help young audiences build empathy, see resiliency in action, and provide context for how their own stories are connected to and shaped by history. We achieve these goals by highlighting the stories of people who may not be included in history books or cultural records. Through this lens we explore the hardships of immigrant families in Layer the Walls, untapped poetic potential within ourselves in Blown Away By Poetry, and dangers of sanitation workers in City of Trash. http://www.grandpistachio.com
IRT is a grassroots laboratory for independent theater and performance in New York City, providing space and support to a new generation of artists. IRT’s mission is to build a community of emerging and established artists by creating a home for the development and presentation of new work. http://www.irttheater.org
Kyoung’s Pacific Beat (KPB) is a peacemaking theater collective dedicated to working with artists, non-artists, and local communities to transform experiences of oppression into peace messages through public performance. http://www.kyoungspacificbeat.org
Founded in 1996, LEIMAY (CAVE Organization Inc.) is an arts organization/ensemble that stimulates dialogue on multidisciplinary performing arts; develops LUDUS (a training program in the lineage of Butoh and experimental theater); offers space and residencies; and shares creations from the LEIMAY Ensemble made by its co-directors Ximena Garnica (Colombian) and Shige Moriya (Japanese). Their activities take place at CAVE in Brooklyn and other venues in NYC, the Americas, and beyond. https://www.linktr.ee/LEIMAYfoundation
Founded in 2009, Leviathan Lab is an award-winning, NYC-based nonprofit creative studio whose mission is the advancement of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) theatre artists and their work. Through the speaking of AAPI artists’ words, and the presentation of AAPI bodies, presence, and gestures on stage and film, Leviathan works to open spaces that promote social justice, bridge communities, and assert the power of art to change the world. We function as a lab where early-career and established AAPI artists can be courageous, experiment, and thrive as they create works that captivate the audiences we serve. http://www.leviathanlab.com
National Queer Theater is an innovative theater collective dedicated to celebrating the brilliance of generations of LGBTQ artists and providing a home for unheard storytellers and activists. By serving our elders, youth, and working professionals, NQT creates a more just future through radical and evocative theater experiences and free community classes. http://www.nationalqueertheater.org
ANightdrive makes rigorously irreverent, demandingly vulnerable, borderline-impossible plays that use indelible moments of stagecraft to build thrillingly personal relationships with audiences, empowering them to reimagine themselves and what they’re capable of. Dispatching new, surprising ways of telling stories that we create in our hyper-collaborative playmaking process, Nightdrive chauffeurs our artists and audiences through the darkness of the world outside, the quiet horror of sharing their tenderness, and the clandestine rush of taking risks together anyway, practicing the collective compassion and boldness it will take to make a more profoundly imaginative world together in the morning. https://nightdrive.org/
Noor Theatre is an OBIE-winning company with a mission to support, develop, and produce the work of theatre artists of Middle Eastern and North African/South West Asian and North African (MENA/SWANA) descent. http://noortheatre.org
Oye Group is a Brooklyn based Production Company that serves as an incubator for artists both local and immigrant to New York City. We present an eclectic mix of theater, dance, poetry, music, video installations and film, through festivals and productions. We curate work that sparks a dialogue over political and social issues critical to our community’s growth. We work with emerging artists to create, play, and grow in an environment that challenges and supports them. We also provide quality arts education programming that gives our Brooklyn Community the tools to generate forward-thinking art. http://www.oyegroup.org
Patty Cake Theatre's mission is to foster educational excellence by helping to shape character through theater, film and classes thus encouraging creativity, personal growth and social responsibility. Our slogan is: "Enrichment Beyond The Classroom" http://jurukan.org
Since 2010, Pioneers Go East Collective inspires a lively exchange of queer art and culture by connecting people to ideas and experiences. Dedicated to performing artists who explore stories of vulnerability and courage for social change, we empower LGBTQ and Feminist artists reflecting on issues still affecting our community. The collective's generative process has been inspired by the Walt Whitman poem, "O Pioneers!" that pays homage to the pioneers who ventured forth courageously seeking a brighter future. Similarly, the collective comprises Latinx and BIPOC immigrant artists and arts educators, taking risks and revealing stories that reflect individual strength. www.pioneersgoeast.org
Pipeline Theatre Company believes that an unbridled imagination is a force of magic with the power to provoke a more courageous and compassionate world. https://pipelinetheatre.org/
Rooted Theater company engages, challenges, and inspires audiences through theatrical productions that range from the classics to new and emerging works; our programming encourages social consciousness through Real, Open, and Objective Theater Education. We celebrate the diversity of our community's roots, our present struggles, and future successes through intentional theater https://www.rootedtheaterco.org
Safe Harbors focuses on the development and production of Native Theater and Performing Arts in New York City within the broader American theater; we combat stereotypes and support vibrant Native communities. We develop ongoing dialogue with Policymakers about the approach to cultural and socioeconomic issues using Theatrical performances, Performing Arts, Native Cultural Consultancy, panel discussions, and Cultural Events. https://safeharborsnyc.org/
Spiderwoman Theater’s mission is to inspire, nurture and challenge Indigenous and women theater artists and their communities to discover and explore their dreams and their futures through collective storytelling and performance through theater performance, training and cultural education rooted in an urban Indigenous performance practice. https://www.spiderwomantheater.org/
The Parsnip Ship is a podcast play company that amplifies bold artists for audiences who crave accessible stories and storytellers. Our live events and audio podcasts are eclectic and transformative, creating communities in person and digitally. Through our work, we revolutionize the way you hear theater. https://www.theparsnipship.com/
The audience is the hero. We are their trusty sidekick. Based in New York City, Trusty Sidekick Theater Company creates bold, original productions for young people and their families. By developing new work in collaboration with young audiences as dramaturgs, every adventure is rooted firmly in the belief that kids deserve theater that ignites their imaginations and makes them think about the world in a new way. https://www.trustysidekick.org/
Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre's mission is to create invigorating performance and education initiatives that expand access to - and promote understanding through - the arts. https://ysdt.org/
NYC Small Theatres Fund Grant Panelists
Panelists were selected from community nominations, consisting of theatre artists and administrators familiar with New York City's small theatres. Carefully reviewing each application and considering it against the evaluation criteria, all nineteen panelists (across two rounds of the application process) brought their knowledge, attention, and time to the evaluation process.
For more information on the panelist process and how you can nominate a panelist for future A.R.T./New York grants, please click here.
Becky Baumwoll
Artistic Director at Broken Box Mime Theater and Associate at Arts Action Research
Amara Brady
Freelance Generative Artist
Hope Chávez
Former Director of Artistic Planning at Long Wharf Theatre and Freelance Consultant and Facilitator
Mashuq Mushtaq Deen
Freelance Playwright
Hannah Fenlon
Consultant and Cultural Strategist
Chelsea Fryer
Artistic Programs Manager at The Playwrights Realm
Ryan Gedrich
Advancement Director at Clubbed Thumb
Arnaldo J. López
Managing Director at Pregones/PRTT
Lauren Miller
Development Director at The Bushwick Starr
Patrice Miller
Artistic Associate at Untitled Theater Company #61
A.J. Muhammed
Producer at The Fire This Time Festival and Dramaturg
Robert Neill
Artistic Director & Founding Ensemble Member at the New York Neo-Futurists
Jolene Noelle
Institutional Giving Manager at Rattlestick Theater
Lauren Nordvig
Programs Manager at the Brooklyn Arts Council
Holly Sansom
Operations Director at Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
Martha Steketee
Freelance Dramaturg, Critic, and Researcher
Suzi Takahashi
Freelance Actor and Director
Kate Trammell
Managing Director at the New York Theatre Barn
Ellpetha Tsivicos
Co-founder of One Whale’s Tale
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