Legacy Playwrights Initiative
The Legacy Playwrights Initiative shines a spotlight on the achievements and influence of playwrights whose work has fallen out of the public eye. To that end, the Dramatists Guild Foundation and a constellation of theater professionals, publishers, and educators have teamed up to create a pathway to rediscovery for these Legacy Playwrights’ lifetime bodies of work, and to provide financial support for the exigencies of late life.
The Initiative has several components: two monetary Legacy Playwright Awards; advocacy for professional theater production of their work and for the reissuing of previously published plays; programs to raise awareness within the theater field and in universities; and filmed interviews highlighting the Legacy Playwrights' careers. Over the award year, the LPI team works with honorees to tailor this support to their specific needs and current artistic/career goals.
Conceived and developed over several years by Anne Cattaneo, formerly of Lincoln Center Theater, DGF Executive Director Rachel Routh, Benita Hofstetter Koman, Todd London, and colleagues across the field, LPI is supported by a leadership grant from the Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation (Program Director Ben Pesner), the Dramatists Guild Foundation, the Ettinger Foundation, and generous gifts from individuals, including John Lee Beatty and Marsha Norman.
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, nominators and jurors will change each year. Nominations will be kept in circulation for two years.
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 were the inaugural recipients of the Legacy Playwrights Initiative Award(s).
The 2022 winners are Carlyle Brown, and Milcha Sanchez-Scott.
The 2023 winners are Frank Chin, and Migdalia Cruz.
The 2024 winners are Cherríe Moraga, and Richard Wesley.
(Please see our Initiative Winners page for more information about these important Legacy playwrights.)
If you want to know even more about the LPI or how to connect with these Legacy Playwrights, contact project director Todd London at [email protected].
The Initiative has several components: two monetary Legacy Playwright Awards; advocacy for professional theater production of their work and for the reissuing of previously published plays; programs to raise awareness within the theater field and in universities; and filmed interviews highlighting the Legacy Playwrights' careers. Over the award year, the LPI team works with honorees to tailor this support to their specific needs and current artistic/career goals.
Conceived and developed over several years by Anne Cattaneo, formerly of Lincoln Center Theater, DGF Executive Director Rachel Routh, Benita Hofstetter Koman, Todd London, and colleagues across the field, LPI is supported by a leadership grant from the Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation (Program Director Ben Pesner), the Dramatists Guild Foundation, the Ettinger Foundation, and generous gifts from individuals, including John Lee Beatty and Marsha Norman.
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, nominators and jurors will change each year. Nominations will be kept in circulation for two years.
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 were the inaugural recipients of the Legacy Playwrights Initiative Award(s).
The 2022 winners are Carlyle Brown, and Milcha Sanchez-Scott.
The 2023 winners are Frank Chin, and Migdalia Cruz.
The 2024 winners are Cherríe Moraga, and Richard Wesley.
(Please see our Initiative Winners page for more information about these important Legacy playwrights.)
If you want to know even more about the LPI or how to connect with these Legacy Playwrights, contact project director Todd London at [email protected].
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