Preview, ATC's Online Newsletter
No. 2 – Winter 2011
ATC In Our Community
ATC Awarded Grant from The Edgerton Foundation
Jeffrey Hatcher’s newest play, Ten Chimneys, which was commissioned by Arizona Theatre Company, is a recipient of the 2010 Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. This grant will provide Arizona Theatre Company with financial resources for additional rehearsal and development time for the entire creative team, both onsite at the theatre and in the artists’ respective cities. The world premiere production of Ten Chimneys will be directed by Arizona Theatre Company Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein, and will run in Tucson January 22-February 12 and in Phoenix February 17-March 6.
This grant from The Edgerton Foundation will allow ATC to workshop and develop Ten Chimneys in an exceptional way that fulfills Arizona Theatre Company’s mission to continually strive to reach new levels of artistic excellence by producing a broad repertoire ranging from classics to new works.
Director David Ira Goldstein acknowledges, “In a very real way, the opportunity afforded us by the Edgerton grant could not be more fitting. Jeffrey Hatcher’s Ten Chimneys is about the Lunts spending the summer at their estate in Wisconsin ‘investigating’ Chekhov’s play, The Seagull, before facing the quick and sudden rigors of New York rehearsals. In the same way that the Lunts appreciated the need for time and space to seep in the work they were tackling, the Edgerton grant will allow the artists the benefit of time for investigation. Receiving this Edgerton grant will allow the artists and the creative team invaluable time to immerse themselves more fully in the world of the Lunts in the late 1930’s and the themes of Jeffrey’s play. It will add to the authenticity and veracity of the work.”
The Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award began as a pilot program in 2006 with the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles by offering plays in development an extended rehearsal period for the entire creative team. Those first two plays, Curtains and 13 both went on to successful runs on Broadway. Dr. Edgerton launched the program nationally in 2007 by funding 21 plays, continued in 2008 by supporting 23 plays, and in 2009 supported a record 27 plays. This year 38 awards were granted to TCG member theatres across the country providing a grand total of $924,000.
Among the 2010 Edgerton recipients are City Theatre Company (Pittsburgh, PA) for the play Louder, Faster by Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson, and Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX), the play Ponzi, written by ATC’s playwright-in-residence Elaine Romero.
For more information about the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Awards, visit www.tcg.org.
