The members of New Dramatists participate in seven-year residencies to build up their playwriting skills and develop their careers.[1] In addition to housing resident playwrights, New Dramatists also holds workshops for young authors.[2] The organization hosts an annual luncheon at which actors and producers who have made contributions to American theatre are honored.[3]Brian Stokes Mitchell,[4]Glenn Close, and Meryl Streep are among past honorees.[3]
The New Dramatists have a library that is open to the public on weekdays.[5]
Building
New Dramatists is located in a former church built in the 1880s in the Gothic Revival style. It was the location in turn of St. Matthew's German Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, the Lutheran Metropolitan Inner Mission Society, and, by the mid-1960s, the All People's Church.[6][7][8]
New Dramatists was established in 1949 as the New Dramatists Committee.[23] Its formation was instigated by Michaela O'Harra, who became the first executive secretary of the Committee.[24]Howard Lindsay was the first chair; other founders included Benjamin Schankman, Russel Crouse, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein II.[24] The Committee was initially funded by contributions from the Playwrights Company, the Cornell-McClintic Foundation and a donation from John Golden.[24]
^"Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas". gf.org. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2019.