NEW YORK CITY: Atlantic Theater Company has announced playwrights Zachariah Ezer, Keiko Green, and Emma Watkins as recipients of the 2025 Judith Champion Launch Commissions. Now in its 11th year and underwritten by Judith Champion, the Launch Commissioning Program offers early-career playwrights support in writing a new play and facilitating relationships in the theatre industry. Atlantic’s literary manager, Kalina Ko, runs the program. Previous recipients include Paola Lázaro, Amy Staats, Abby Rosebrock, Tori Sampson, Sanaz Toossi, Lily Houghton, and Brian Otaño. Lázaro, Rosebrock, Staats, Toossi have received productions at Atlantic since their commissions.
NEW YORK CITY: Candela has announced the 16 musical theatre writers and playwrights selected for its third annual Playwrights Summer Fellowship program, a.k.a. Summer Jam: Fran Astorga, Christin Eve Cato, Georgina Escobar, Mark-Eugene García, Khalif Gillett, Sasky Louison, Brett Macias, Maya Malan-Gonzalez, Angele Maraj, Alan Mendez, Anya Paiz, Jessica Peña Torres, Jermaine Rowe, Mario Vega, Maiga Vidal, and Roy Alexander Weise. These writers represent Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Mexico, St. Lucia, and a wide variety of languages and Creoles. They will learn from writing workshops, craft talks, mentorship, and a supportive artistic community led by Broadway and Off-Broadway professionals. Founded by writer, director, and professor Darrel Alejandro Holnes and co-directed by scholar, director, and professor Dr. Daphnie Sicre, this fellowship expands theatre education for Latin American and Caribbean playwrights, book writers, and lyricists.
DALLAS: The Moody Fund for the Arts has announced the recipients of its 2025 grant awards, distributing $445,000 to 66 Dallas-based arts organizations. Now in its eighth year, MFA has awarded more than $2.8 million in total funding, continuing its mission to empower small, emerging, and historically marginalized groups across Dallas. Grants support a range of disciplines—from dance and theatre to visual arts, film, and multimedia—with an emphasis on cultural equity and community impact. These flexible grants range from $3,500 to $12,000 and support everything from new works and artist residencies to operating expenses and capacity-building efforts. Theatre recipients include Soul Rep Theatre Company, Teatro Dallas, Echo Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater Company, Prism Movement Theater, Second Thought Theatre, Undermain Theatre, and more.
HONOLULU: Kumu Kahua Theatre and Bamboo Ridge Press have announced the winners of their monthly GoTry PlayWrite Contest. Each month, entrants write a five-page monologue and/or a 10-page scene based on a new prompt chosen by Kumu Kahua Theatre’s artistic director, Harry Wong III. In 2025 so far, the winners have been playwright, educator, and arts leader Kemuel DeMoville for June; Oklahoma City-based playwright Derek Kenney for May; Hungarian playwright Robert Csoma for April; Hawaii middle school teacher Randy Otaka for March; playwright, director, and theatre historian Bella Poynton for February; and Hawaii-born writer and editor Lee A. Tonouchi for January.
LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles Performance Practice, in partnership with the California Arts Council, has announced the release of the Individual Artist Fellowship Catalog (2022-24) for L.A. County. The catalog features 90 extraordinary artists whose practices shape the creative life of L.A. Through artist profiles, photos, and reflections, it documents a year of fellowship, mentorship, and mutual support. Theatre artists within its pages include Iranian American playwright Nilgoon Askari, actor/director/educator Raul Cardona, performer/choreographer/arts activist/educator Bernard Brown, Japanese American playwright Ai Ebashi, Haitian American actor/playwright Sarahjeen François, performing artist/director/educator Joyce Lu, and more.
NEW YORK CITY: Broadway Licensing Global announced the awardees for its String grant, made in collaboration with the Educational Theatre Foundation and named after the musical by Adam Gwon and Sarah Hammond. They are Alvin High School, Thespian Troupe #2955, in Alvin, Texas; Hedgesville High School, Thespian Troupe #1696, in Hedgesville, West Virginia; Northeast High School, Thespian Troupe #2914, in St. Petersburg, Florida; Strafford High School, Thespian Troupe #5247, in Strafford, Missouri; and Ysleta High School, Thespian Troupe #799, in El Paso, Texas. Each will receive free performance rights and materials to produce Gwon and Hammond’s newly expanded edition of their musical String, about three sisters, goddesses known as the Fates, who spin, measure, and snip the strings of life for every human on earth. Schools were evaluated on their enthusiasm for producing a lesser-known work and directorial vision for the production.
