Every show you have seen, read, listened to, shared, and loved all began with a blank piece of paper. The struggle of filling that paper is something we can all relate to. Thankfully, the thousands of writers every year that interact with the Dramatists Guild Foundation have found ways to push through that doubt. They have inspired me and our whole team to take bold steps to better serve our community across the United States.

Personally, I faced the blank page, paper after paper while pursuing my Masters in Nonprofit Management at Columbia. I am proud to share with all of you that I graduated this year, and could not be more excited to be putting my new skills to use for DGF.

The last year and a half has been full of new beginnings. We have welcomed new staff and Board members, ushered in a new program, and expanded our outreach to writers in exciting ways. First, our Traveling Masters, supported by Roe Green and the Roe Green Foundation, has now reached writers and students in nearly all 50 states – we will reach this goal by the end of 2019!

We launched the New Voices program last year and have now expanded into a new school, doubling the number of 4th grade students we have helped find their unique voices. The program is already receiving generous support to help it grow, including a grant from the Maurer Family Foundation that supports formal evaluation of our curriculum to improve our efficacy and ensure that young students are receiving the best playwriting education possible.

In December 2018, we received an incredibly generous gift from the Seller-Lehrer Family Foundation for $2 million in support of our Fellows program and Emergency Grants. The Fellows program continues to be a leading entity in identifying and elevating the most promising voices of the future, with former Fellows like Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Michael R. Jackson, Antoinette Nwandu, Lauren Yee, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and others making tremendous waves in the community with their groundbreaking work. We also awarded the inaugural Stephen Schwartz Award to former Fellow Oliver Houser. Thank you, Stephen!

We have worked to grow our community, reaching out to several luminaries of the stage who have become wonderful allies of DGF and our mission. In March, we were joined by legends Judith Light and Tony Kushner, who we awarded the Madge Evans and Sidney Kingsley Awards for Excellence in Theater. We also had the distinct honor of being joined by Hadestown composer, lyricist, and bookwriter Anaïs Mitchell for a Salon in June, just days before she and the production won eight Tony Awards. As these individuals inspired us with their commitment to the preservation and continuation of the craft, so did many of you by joining DGF’s new The Write Stuff Society. Thanks to our newly hired Development Director Mady Schuman and our Development Manager Jamie Balsai, The Write Stuff Society brings together our most dedicated supporters from all backgrounds.

Please click here and take at the Donor Impact Report to learn more about our programs and see first hand how your support is creating exponential benefit to the lives of writers across the country. Educational programs, free space, and awards, grants and stipends that you help fund are having a huge impact on writers at all stages of their careers. Those programs, and all of the wonderful milestones we have hit this year, are all because of you. Just as writers inspire us to challenge ourselves and reach toward a more beautiful future, you too inspire us to thrive in our mission every day.

Thank you!

DGF Announces New Fellows and Program Chairs Dramatists Guild Foundation would like to formally announce a new 2019-2020 class of DGF Fellows, as well as new Chairs to the program.

The new Fellows class includes Melis Aker, Nolan Doran and Avi Amon, Kate Douglas, Elliah Heifetz and Jessica Kahkoska, Nikhil Mahapatra, Kyoung H. Park, Andrew Rincón, Andy Roninson, and Paulo Tiról. Each of these writers and writing teams has proven themselves to be of exceptional talent and promise. These writers will spend the year developing full-length shows with the guidance of the Program Chairs. In addition, Fellows receive a stipend, access to guest artists, and an additional opportunity with one of DGF’s partner organizations to further develop their piece. The program will culminate in a presentation of their work at an Off-Broadway theater.

Furthermore, after seven years of service as the Playwriting Chair of the Fellows program, Diana Son (Stop Kiss) will be stepping down from the position, and Migdalia Cruz (El Grito Del Bronx) and Lucy Thurber (The Hill Town Plays) will be the new Playwriting Chairs. Cruz and Thurber will join Musical Theater Chairs Laurence O’Keefe (Heathers) and Michael Korie (Grey Gardens) in stewarding the program. On the announcement of the new chairs, DGF Program Manager Tessa Raden Gregory said, “DGF is grateful to welcome Migdalia and Lucy into the position of Fellows Program Chairs. As artists whose work resonates with audiences across the country, they embody DGF’s commitment to serving the national theater community. We are excited for them to continue Diana’s legacy of education and artistic excellence.”

The Fellows program is a selective, year-long opportunity for playwrights, composers, lyricists, and bookwriters to develop full-length pieces. The Fellows program is highly sought after for its uniquely successful format of partnering playwrights and musical theater writers together in the learning process, with the musical theater writers working particularly closely with the Musical Theater Chairs, and the playwrights working more closely with the Playwriting Chairs. On her enthusiasm with the new crop of Fellows, Cruz added: “I am excited to continue a journey begun by Diana Son with patience and beauty, alongside my fierce colleague Lucy Thurber. We will tell the truth and keep it real. Looking forward to begin working with five brave and talented writers. Mentor, n. Someone who tortures you into becoming who you were always meant to be.”

Former Fellows include Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Frozen), Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop), Antoinette Nwandu (Pass Over), Lauren Yee (King of the Yees), Stacey Rose (Legacy Land), Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen) and many more.

This is one of a two-part series. Click here to hear our thoughts on the important legacy of queer writers.

The art of queer writers helps to translate the joy, rage, history, and humanity of the LGBTQI+ community. Hear why these seven artists believe it is crucial that queer writers are given space on the American stage:

“As a trans and yellow American person making theater, I am aware that stories from my communities have been systematically and institutionally silenced so it’s important to get our work out no matter how it is produced or if it is produced, because our folx need to see ourselves onstage in order to feel that same theater magic that makes a person feel alive, possible, and human.”

• Kit Yan, Playwright, Lyricist, and DGF Fellow

“At a time when trans people, and especially black and migrant trans women, are facing so much violence, the humanizing power of authentic trans stories on stage can be lifesaving.”

• Corinna Schulenburg, Playwright and WAG Recipient

“As a queer, black boy in the middle of the country, I looked to the storytellers illuminating our history and our stories through the written word. James Baldwin, Tony Kushner, Robert O’Hara, Paula Vogel, Tarell Alvin McCraney—these writers shaped me as a person and as a dramatist. Their brave work could illuminate for folks like me—not yet out of the closet or sure of their voice, not yet living in a time of radical acceptance—how to build, unapologetically, a life in the theater telling queer stories.”

• Keelay Gipson, Playwright, New Voices Teaching Artist and DGF Fellows Alum

“It’s important to tell many different kinds of Queer stories about many different kinds of Queer people, because our history has so often been forced into the shadows. We’re proud to be Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellows, DG Members and Queer artists who make things that celebrate LGBTQ+ stories and complicate traditional narratives.”

• Brandon James Gwinn and EllaRose Chary, Composers, Lyricists, and DGF Fellows Alumni

“Visibility is survival. The centering of queer narratives validates our right to live, create, succeed, fail and thrive. It is essential now more than ever because queer people are fucking dying all around the world and no one seems to care. Queer visibility is survival.”

• Khiyon Hursey, Composer, Lyricist, and DGF Fellows Alum

“Queer people exist in the world, so when our stories aren’t included, it’s a lie about what the world is. Let’s all enjoy learning about the lives of everyone in our beautifully diverse world.”

• Bill Nelson, Playwright, Lyricist, and DGF Fellows Alum

The Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) has announced that it will be bringing its Traveling Masters program to Ohio and Minnesota over the course of this month. Traveling Masters is a nationwide education program providing master classes and events on the craft of writing. The program presents an incredible opportunity for students, aspiring professionals, and theater lovers to connect with the giants of American theater to be inspired, challenged, and empowered. Participants get the chance to interact with award-winning writers, allowing them to learn, ask questions, and develop their talents with input from true experts. Participants in each of these states will gain insight into the real-life experiences of these renowned playwrights.

Steve Yockey will be in Cincinnati on April 20. Steve Yockey is a Los Angeles based writer with work produced throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. His plays Bellwether, Pluto, Afterlife, Octopus, Large Animal Games, CARTOON, Subculture, Very Still & Hard to See, The Fisherman’s Wife, Wolves, Disassembly, and Niagara Falls & Other Plays are published and licensed by Samuel French. Other plays include Blackberry Winter, The Thrush & The Woodpecker, and Mercury. This season: Reykjavík will open as a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere at Actor’s Express (Atlanta), Rorschach Theatre (DC), Kitchen Dog Theatre (Dallas), and Southern Rep (New Orleans) and Sleeping Giant will premiere in the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Steve holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and currently serves as a writer/producer for the television series Supernatural. To learn more about Steve Yockey’s events in Cincinnati, please email info@dgf.org.

Daniel Alexander Jones will be in Minneapolis on April 25. He is an acclaimed interdisciplinary artist. Performance works include Black Light (Public Theater, Greenwich House Theater), Duat (Soho Rep), An Integrator’s Manual (La MaMa), Bright Now Beyond (Salvage Vanguard), and Radiate (Soho Rep and National Tour). His alter-ego, Jomama Jones, is completing a forthcoming fifth album of original music, Anew, for release in 2019. Among many honors, Daniel received the Doris Duke Artist Award, the Alpert Award in the Arts, and was in the first class of Creative Capital grantees. A primary contributor to the Theatrical Jazz Aesthetic, he is Associate Professor of Theatre at Fordham University. Daniel Alexander Jones began his relationship with PWC as a 1994 Many Voices Fellow, was a Jerome Fellow, and held a McKnight National Residency. Jones will be presenting excerpts from his upcoming book and participate in a conversation about the intimate relationship between creative practice and personal transformation. The evening will be facilitated by Professor Sarah Myers of Augsburg University and feature Jones’s longtime collaborator Elissa Adams. To attend this reading and conversation, you can reserve a ticket here.

The Dramatists Guild Foundation will be presenting these Traveling Masters in partnership with Know Theatre of Cincinnati and Playwrights’ Center.

If you will be in any of these areas during this time and would like to know more about the public events with these writers, please reach out to info@dgf.org.

“Personal space.” “Claiming space.” “Safe space.”

All of these expressions inspire feelings of safety, empowerment, freedom, imagination. And they all speak to the power of space. Give the same word to 100 writers, and you’ll never find the same idea twice. But the following is undeniable: All writers need space where they can feel inspired, supported, and free to explore.

That’s the founding philosophy behind the DGF Music Hall. Our salon-style rehearsal space has all the resources a writer might need: a conference table and chairs, music stands, a state-of-the-art projector, surround sound system, a small theatrical library, and a baby grand piano (donated by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty).

What makes us most proud, however, is that we’re able to offer this space for free thanks to the generosity of the Grisham Foundation and the beloved late Carol Hall (Best Little Whorehouse in Texas).

“ From the first moment I walked in the Music Hall, I felt a warm and safe energy. It was the perfect place for my collaborator and me to explore our script without the pressures of the outside world.”

— Nolan Doran Lyricist, Bookwriter WOODY – A New Fairytale, Honor and Family

When you strip away the piano, the sound system, the library… what’s most important about the Music Hall is the space. That’s the real luxury.

The Dramatists Guild Foundation is located in midtown Manhattan, an area where real estate is priced by what seems like the millimeter. And for many writers, budgeting for rehearsal space is stressful, renting a separate office space is often impossible, and working from a cafe is an unreliable option. All of these present limitations. It’s hard enough to get into a creative flow without someone’s latte dangerously tipping near your laptop, overhearing a primetime-worthy breakup at the table over, or choosing between renting space and eating breakfast.

This is particularly true in New York City, but the same can be said of anywhere that creative communities struggle to connect and thrive because of fiscal or physical constraints.

When it comes to space, of course it’s about cost, but it’s more about the value for these artists.

“As an emerging writer, the greatest cost of my craft is simply space. We live in New York City where real estate is the hottest commodity, and every writer in the room at [my] reading came up to me afterwards to ask what the catch was. How could DGF just give space away? I hope you’ve all had the opportunity to see a writer’s face light up when they are told that there is no catch.”
-Alex Rubin, Playwright, Lyricist, Bookwriter The Actual Paucci, Dear Diary

Moreover, for writers with a dedicated space to work, the quality of output is much higher.

From the point of view of traditional corporate settings, the ability of those in creative fields to work from home may be enviable. But we would challenge that mindset with a brutally candid question: when you work from home, are you expected to work from home well?

And let’s not forget the gifts that collaboration and co-working can bring.

Without space, a writer can not easily share their words with other artists. With actors, audience, producers, even other writers. This is a critical step in the creative process. Where a new work leaves the vacuum of writer and page and enters the space of the world, where it can, hopefully, find a home.

We are endlessly impressed by the work being developed in the Music Hall.

Because of access to space, the work of artists like Cara Reichel and Peter Mills has been nurtured and transformed into wildly successful works like Hello, Girls.  The Music Hall helped Bobby Cronin and Crystal Skillman create Mary and Max. Every day, new productions join us to discover, share, and experiment on new pieces (some of which you can see on our Instagram feed).

This buzzing energy of creation in the office inspires our own work as an organization. We are passionate about the benefits of the Music Hall on both practical and creative levels, so our challenge to you is…

What spaces can you establish? Where can you encourage writing to happen?

We’re living in the Share Economy. From AirBnB to Lyft and co-working communities, people are increasingly willing to open up their spaces and to open up their lives to others.

And you certainly don’t need a baby grand and a wall of books to offer enormous value to writers.

Maybe your office has some scratch paper and an empty conference room a couple times per week.

Maybe your empty nest craves a community, and your own living room could host a salon-style reading once a month!

Perhaps you’re a small theater company whose volunteer base could monitor before or after-hours access to a writing group. (Our own Music Hall operations would be nearly impossible without the aid of our incredible volunteers).

People are everywhere. And thus, writers are everywhere. When we consider the amazing things that have come out of our space, we get excited to ponder what could come out of other communities. You have the opportunity to cultivate work like this. To stimulate your local art scene. To awaken your own creative pursuits.

Think what could happen if more writers could take creative journeys and get lost in space, rather than having the space simply be lost. That’s a world we want to live in!

For more information about the DGF Music Hall, visit https://dgf.org/programs/music-hall/

It’s a DGF Writing Challenge:

Quick! Grab a pen and paper (or open a blank note on your desktop!) Choose one of the following words and free write for 2 minutes on the role it will play in your 2019: 

Live. Perspective. Fear. Joy. Limits. Flow. Play.  

How was that experience for you? Were you surprised by the word you chose or by your response to it?

In an effort to profile more of the writer’s experience and to kick off 2019, we invited our community to share their intentions and inspirations for the new year. We sent a prompt to our community of fellows, grant recipients, and volunteers.

This was an open invitation: whether you love New Year’s Resolutions or loathe them; what you’re committing to creatively or personally; share a something that’s inspiring you. As you may have experienced in the above writing challenge, we didn’t know what to expect from the assignment. And as usual, we were surprised and delighted by the wide array of responses we got. Upon closer reading, however, we saw some common themes in the lives of these writers. You guessed it– Live. Perspective. Fear. Joy. Limits. Flow. Play.

Though each of us have different formations, creative processes, taste in art, we are all connected and committed to telling stories that matter. Below you’ll find some of the responses we received from writers in our community. And we invite you to share your intentions with us in the comments below. It may be the end of January, but the year is still very new, and February 1st is as good a time as any to challenge and stretch yourself.

We’ll do the same!

Commitments:

“What I am committing to personally and creatively this year is being in a spirit of ‘YES.’ Yes opens doors and from yes, all blessings flow!”  

 – Nambi E. Kelley, Playwright and DGF Fellow

“In the new year, I’m committing to perspective. It’s so easy in this industry, in this city, in this time, to get swept up in the urgency of joy and pain close at hand, when the fact of the matter is that life can’t exist on a single dimension. Perspective makes the impossible feel doable, the wonderful feel sustainable, and the confusing seem less threatening. Perspective is the engine of change. I am committing to perspective in love, life, and my writing, because none of these things is ever done becoming the most complete version of itself.”

 – Rae Binstock, Playwright and DGF Fellow

 “I’d like to do a cartwheel (aka have more fun in everything I do including writing musicals) in 2019!”

– Kit Yan, Playwright, Lyricist, and DGF Fellow

“In 2019, I’m committed to continuing to fight white supremacy, capitalism, and the patriarchy, by telling honest and joyful stories of the lives of women of color, queer, and trans folx. To challenge myself while acknowledging my limits. And to also drink more water.”

– Melissa Li, Playwright and DGF Fellow

“In 2019 I am committed to using my superpowers as a playwright to wrestle all my fears to the ground.”

– Charles Gershman, Playwright and DGF Fellow

“This year, I’m starting to write my first musical. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but that’s okay. I’m entering this year with an open heart and improved time-management skills.”

– Adrianna Mateo, Composer, Actress, and Music Hall Volunteer

Inspiration:

“I’ve been really loving 35mm, the song cycle by Ryan Scott Oliver based on the photos of Matthew Murphy. I take it not only as very listenable music, but also a call to let interest and curiosity be the lead in artistic endeavors.”

– Ethan Hardy, DGF Marketing Manager

“I’ve only seen the movie Blade Runner once, but the line delivered at the end by Edward James Olmos is constantly floating around my head these days. ‘It’s too bad she won’t live…but then again, who does?'”

– Rae Binstock, Playwright and DGF Fellow

“I’m so inspired by this Emily Dickinson poem. It has been ringing in my ears every time I sit down to write:

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant–

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth’s superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind–

Oh. And I saw The Favourite and The Ferryman. Neither are to be missed!”

– Hannah Kloepfer, Artist, Music Hall Volunteer, and DGF Marketing Assistant

Everything Marie Kondo says is currently inspiring me, but especially “When we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.”

– Kit Yan, Playwright, Lyricist, and DGF Fellow

Thank you to all who have contributed to this list. Have anything to add?

Tweet @DGFound and let us know what’s inspiring you this year or leave a comment below!