NEW YORK CITY: The 2026 Horton Foote Prize has been awarded to Talene Monahon for her play Meet the Cartozians. Monahon will receive a $50,000 prize and a limited edition print of Keith Carter’s iconic photograph of Horton Foote, which is part of the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Meet the Cartozians was nominated by Second Stage Theater. The play, directed by David Cromer and starring Andrea Martin and Will Brill, premiered Off-Broadway in November 2025 at Second Stage’s Irene Diamond Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center Theater. Meet the Cartozians was later named a 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, and is published in American Theatre’s summer 2026 print edition. Monahon will have her award presented in a private ceremony in October by director David Cromer.
NEW YORK CITY: Manhattan Theatre Club has announced Samuel D. Hunter as the recipient of the 2026-27 Judith Champion Playwriting Fellowship. The fellowship provides artistic and financial support to create and develop a new commissioned play. The recipient participates in the entirety of the development process and is granted a living allowance, access to office and rehearsal space, a ticket stipend, and a development workshop during their time at MTC. Hunter succeeds the 2025-26 Fellow, playwright Bess Wohl. Past fellows have included Eboni Booth, Sanaz Toossi, and Zora Howard.
NATIONAL: The Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA), the national advocacy organization amplifying the voices of MENA theatremakers, has announced the inaugural recipients of MENA Theater Makers Fund grants, the first of its kind for MENA artists and organizations. It will grant $30,000-$45,000 in general operating support to 18 exceptional U.S.-based theatre organizations with budgets under $500,000.
The recipients are A Host of People (Detroit), Art2Action, Inc. (Tampa, Fla.), Aviva Arts (San Francisco), Body Watani Dance Project (Minneapolis), Boom Arts (Portland), Central Stage (Richmond, Calif.), Chicago SWANA Collective, Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists (CAATA), Dance Elixir (Oakland, Calif.), Flying Carpet Festival (San Francisco), Golden Thread Productions (San Francisco), Hakawati (Los Angeles), LubDub Theatre Co. (New York City), New Arab American Theater Works (Minneapolis), Noor Theatre (New York City), Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble (Seattle), Uprising Theater (Chicago), and Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre (Brooklyn).
The MENA Theater Makers Fund is made possible with the support of the Wallace Foundation’s Advancing Well-being in the Arts Initiative, and in partnership with the National Arts Regranting Partners.
LOS ANGELES: Center Theatre Group has announced the 2026-27 L.A. Artist Residencies. The artists-in-residence selected include Public Assembly, a nonprofit theatre company dedicated to reinventing community theatre in Los Angeles; Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly staff writer Lynell George, who has been commissioned to write CTG’s upcoming L.A. Wildfires Project; and MacArthur fellow, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and Tony nominee Taylor Mac, who is developing a piece on the late dramaturg and activist Morgan Jenness, whose trailblazing theatrical career included work in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum with CTG.
Through these residencies, CTG provides access to rehearsal rooms, costumes, props, furniture, equipment, office space, and additional administrative and creative resources and support. The L.A. Artists Residencies were created in 2023 by CTG artistic director Snehal Desai to foster community and share resources with Los Angeles-based theatre artists, companies, and organizations. Past recipients include Daniel Alexander Jones, Diana Burbano, Kristina Wong, Larissa FastHorse, Madeline Sayet, and Michael John Garcés.
NEW YORK CITY: The 1/52 Project has announced its recipients of early-career grants for the 2026 cycle. The 11 recipients will receive grants up to $17,500. The 2026 cohort includes Bentley Heydt (lighting designer), Calypso Michelet (costume designer), Colleen Doherty (lighting designer), Derek Alfano (wig designer), Eme Ospina-López (projection designer), Jonah Bobilin (lighting designer), Katerina Vitaly (projection designer), Riw Rakkulchon (set designer), Salvador Zamora (sound designer), Shartoya Jn. Baptiste (set designer), and Zoë Hurwitz (set designer).
The 1/52 Project has given out more than $675,000 in grants in the past five years to 46 early-career set, costume, lighting, sound, projections, hair, and makeup designers. Launched in January 2022, the 1/52 Project is primarily funded by Broadway designers who are encouraged to donate their weekly royalties to the fund. The project hopes to encourage early-career designers from historically excluded groups with the aim of diversifying and strengthening the Broadway design community.
NEW YORK CITY: New York Theatre Workshop has announced its newest cohort of 2050 Artistic and Administrative Fellows. Over the next year, these six emerging artists and administrators will gain hands-on experience across NYT and building formative connections with both artists and audiences alike. The new Artistic Fellows are Jasmine Sharma and Jean Carlo Yunén Aróstegui. The new Administrative Fellows are Carly Baker (marketing), Chloe Jung (education & engagement), Jane Su (development) and Anna Zheng (artistic workshop).
LOS ANGELES: Geffen Playhouse has announced its selection of L.A.-based writers to participate in the 2026-27 cycle of the Writers’ Room, a forum for engagement and collaboration between Los Angeles playwrights. The participants are Camilo Almonacid, June Carryl, Preston Choi, Lily Abha Cratsley, Hannah Kenah, and Nico Pang. The 2026-27 cycle will begin in September 2026.
The Writers’ Room is a product of the Geffen’s commitment to fostering bold, relevant new work by the vibrant artistic community of its city. The cohort will attend in-person meetings at the Geffen as they generate the first draft of a new play or musical. Playwrights will receive feedback from their cohort in a forum facilitated by the Geffen’s literary manager and dramaturg. Each playwright receives a reading produced by the Geffen at the conclusion of their residency.
ATLANTA: Theatrical Outfit has announced its seventh cohort of Tom Key Arts Leadership Program apprentices for 2026-27. They are Isaac Breiding, Arielle Rece, and Dane Troy. The apprentices will be in residence at TO for the entire season, and will be offered opportunities for a paid stipend, master classes, and hands-on experience. This program is geared toward stage managers, designers, technicians, directors, producers, and new-work development, and offers a holistic and multidisciplinary approach that incorporates every aspect of professional theatre production.
PORTLAND, ORE: The Oregon Community Foundation has announced Ashland New Plays Festival as a recipient of its Creative Heights initiative, the foundation’s effort to provide opportunities for artists and increase Oregon’s cultural visibility and vitality while supporting unique opportunities for Oregonians to experience innovative arts and culture. With this funding, Ashland New Play Festival, under the leadership of artistic director Jackie Apodaca, have commissioned a play by bilingual Oregonian playwright Octavio Solis, who will gather stories from survivors and first responders of Southern Oregon’s devastating 2020 Almeda and South Obenchain fires.
The foundation is giving out $1 million in funding total in grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 supporting 165 projects across visual art, performance, folk and traditional arts, film and media, literary arts, museum exhibitions, humanities, music, theatre, dance, opera, history, cultural heritage, and multidisciplinary works.
WARWICK, R.I.: The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre welcomes three new fellows to its 2026-27 Gamm Fellowship Program, a partnership between the nonprofit theatre and Rhode Island’s public institutions of higher education. The theatre’s sixth cohort of emerging artists of color includes Mariana Villa Jaramillo, Miguel Soto-Sanchez, and Elijah Lopes. Recent graduates of Rhode Island College, the Community College of Rhode Island, and the University of Rhode Island, respectively, the fellows will be active participants in the theatre’s artistic and education programs.
Fellows are paid a stipend to participate in a 10-month immersive experience. Over the season, fellows will engage in select areas of creative, administrative, and educational theatremaking. Each fellow is paired with an advanced career mentor who will provide guidance about making a living in the theatre industry.
