Your help has impact
As we gather with loved ones this holiday season, we share stories to strengthen the bonds between us, reminding us of the power of human connection. Plays and musicals have the power to do this on a massive scale, healing our divisions and uniting our entire human family. But in this season of celebration, many of the writers who shape our world for the better are in jeopardy.
DGF’s Emergency Grants give financial support to writers who find themselves in severe circumstances. These writers face challenges that make creative expression impossible – unexpected medical crises, childcare emergencies, domestic violence, natural disasters, and more. On this day of universal philanthropy, please support DGF with a gift so we can provide Emergency Grants to every writer in need. Gifts of $250 or more entitle you to membership with exclusive benefits in The Write Stuff Society, DGF’s giving community.
Read on to meet some of our recipients and see how your contributions provide much needed relief for writers, composers, and lyricists in distress.
“In January of this year my rent department notified me that they’d miscalculated my rents for September, October, November, and December 2018. They also informed me that unless I paid the back rents IMMEDIATELY I would be evicted. And indeed, I received four such notices. Unfortunately, my income doesn’t allow for a financial crisis of that kind. Also the threat of eviction with a life-partner in the final stages of COPD ended my ability to write for five months. Fortunately for us, Dramatists Guild Foundation Emergency Grants intervened and paid my building most of what they’d suddenly decided I owed. The relief provided was not only financial. I am again writing and have completed a new script. Thank you Dramatists Guild Foundation for your Emergency Grants!”
- Lanie Robertson, Playwright (The Insanity of Mary Girard, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill)
“I’m writing to say thank you. Not only did your care and generosity rescue me financially, the sense of security it provided served as a wellspring for an artistic, educational, and compassion-based project, QUEER, ILL + OKAY.”
- Joseph Varisco, Program Director, QUEER, ILL + OKAY
“I really appreciate that the Dramatists Guild Foundation considered my proposal and the conferral of the Emergency Grant. Puerto Rico was significantly damaged by Hurricane Maria. Most of my work is voluntary and is meant for marginalized communities. I have access to these communities through creative writing workshops and dramatic art programs that have become an outlet for individual and collective sorrow. We have developed stronger communities able to express their inner voices through the arts and have given them tools to deconstruct their past and construct a brighter future. I really appreciate this opportunity and feel blessed to know that artists in the world are supporting each other.”
- María Teresa Marichal Lugo, Playwright