Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theater, is pleased to announce the recipients of the first round of the 2017 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $359,000, allow 13 productions extra time for the development and rehearsal of new plays with the entire creative team, helping to extend the life of the play after its first run.

Over the last eleven years, the Edgerton Foundation has awarded $10,244,900 to 348 productions, enabling many plays to schedule subsequent productions following their world premieres. Twenty-five have made it to Broadway, including: Curtains, 13, Next to Normal, 33 Variations, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), Time Stands Still, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, A Free Man of Color, Good People, Chinglish, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Bronx Bombers, Casa Valentina, Outside Mullingar, All the Way, Eclipsed, Bright Star, Hamilton, The Columnist, In Transit, A Doll’s House Part 2, Indecent, Dear Evan Hansen, and Oslo. Fifteen plays were nominated for Tony Awards, with All the Way, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Oslo, a three hour, three act LCT commisioned play about the Oslo Peace Accords, winning the best play or musical awards. Nine plays were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with wins for Hamilton (2016), The Flick (2014), Water by the Spoonful (2012), and Next to Normal (2010).

“Every year, we count on the Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards to introduce the field to important new plays,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG. “With the goal of giving these plays the best odds for productions beyond their premieres, Edgerton Foundation grants are helping deepen and expand the theatrical canon for the U.S. and beyond.”

The first round of the 2017 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards were presented to:
Starstruck
by Lucile Lichtblau
at Alabama Shakespeare Festival

This Ain’t No Disco
musical & lyrics by Stephen Trask & Peter Yanowitz
book by Rick Elice
at Atlantic Theater Company

The Agitators
by Mat Smart
at Geva Theatre Center

Fireflies
by Matthew Barber
at Long Wharf Theatre

This Flat Earth
by Lindsey Ferrentino
at Playwrights Horizons

The Treasurer
by Max Posner
at Playwrights Horizons

Willow Run
by Jeff Duncan
at The Purple Rose Theatre Company

Skintight
by Joshua Harmon
at Roundabout Theatre Company

Imperium
by Mike Poulton
at Royal Shakespeare Company

Curve of Departure
by Rachel Bonds
at South Coast Repertory

**Little Black Shadows
by Kemp Powers ( **The Temblors, One Night In Miami)
at South Coast Repertory

The Four Immigrants
by Min Kahng
at TheatreWorks

Where Storms are Born
by Harrison David Rivers
at Williamstown Theatre Festival

The Edgerton Foundation New Plays Program, directed by Brad and Louise Edgerton, was piloted in 2006 with the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles by offering two musicals in development an extended rehearsal period for the entire creative team, including the playwrights. The Edgertons launched the program nationally in 2007 and have supported 348 plays to date at over 50 different Art Theaters across the country.