Legacy Playwrights Initiative
The industry-wide Legacy Playwrights Initiative is a program devoted to the rediscovery and advocacy of important elder playwrights whose writing has fallen out of the public eye. The Initiative aims to honor these writers and, as necessary, provide financial support for the exigencies of late life. The Initiative includes: Legacy Playwright Awards for sustained achievement, enduring excellence, and influence on the American theatre; advocacy and, when possible, financial incentives for professional theatre production; reissues of previously published plays; activities to build awareness within the profession and within American universities, to get so the Legacy playwrights’ work can be read, taught, and produced by a new generation.
This initiative was launched by a founding committee of Anne Cattaneo (Lincoln Center Theater), Benita Hofstetter Koman (formerly of The Roy Cockrum Foundation), Todd London (Dramatists Guild), and Rachel Routh (Dramatists Guild Foundation), with fiscal sponsorship from the Dramatists Guild Foundation and in partnership with The Dramatists Guild of America and numerous theatre professionals from across the industry. Founding support comes from Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation, John Lee Beatty, Marsha Norman, and others. Initiative partners include Broadway Play Publishing, Concord Theatricals, Dramatists Play Service, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, and the National New Play Network.
Each year ten potential Legacy playwrights will be nominated by a group of theater professionals from across the U.S. and selected by a separate jury of three theater artists. Drawn from all theatrical disciplines with attention to racial, gender, and aesthetic diversity, as well as knowledge of the recent history of the field, all nominators and jurors will change each year.
The Initiative was established in 2020, with the first Awards announced in December 2020. Esteemed American playwrights Ed Bullins, Constance Congdon, and Philip Kan Gotanda are the inaugural recipients of the Legacy Playwrights Initiative Award(s).
The Legacy Playwrights Initiative’s second round of awards will be announced in Fall 2021.
This initiative was launched by a founding committee of Anne Cattaneo (Lincoln Center Theater), Benita Hofstetter Koman (formerly of The Roy Cockrum Foundation), Todd London (Dramatists Guild), and Rachel Routh (Dramatists Guild Foundation), with fiscal sponsorship from the Dramatists Guild Foundation and in partnership with The Dramatists Guild of America and numerous theatre professionals from across the industry. Founding support comes from Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation, John Lee Beatty, Marsha Norman, and others. Initiative partners include Broadway Play Publishing, Concord Theatricals, Dramatists Play Service, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, and the National New Play Network.
Each year ten potential Legacy playwrights will be nominated by a group of theater professionals from across the U.S. and selected by a separate jury of three theater artists. Drawn from all theatrical disciplines with attention to racial, gender, and aesthetic diversity, as well as knowledge of the recent history of the field, all nominators and jurors will change each year.
The Initiative was established in 2020, with the first Awards announced in December 2020. Esteemed American playwrights Ed Bullins, Constance Congdon, and Philip Kan Gotanda are the inaugural recipients of the Legacy Playwrights Initiative Award(s).
The Legacy Playwrights Initiative’s second round of awards will be announced in Fall 2021.
