LMDA ANNOUNCES RESIDENCY GRANTS FOR 2008

LMDA is pleased to announce the following Residency Grant recipients for 2008: Vanessa Porteous at The Old Trout Puppet Workshop in Calgary, Canada; Jacqueline Lawton at the African Continuum Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.; Priscilla Page at Company One Theatre in Boston, MA; and Norman Frisch at Figures of Speech and Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine.

The LMDA Residency Grant awardees were chosen from among a field of excellent proposals because they expanded the arena of dramaturgy and the role of the dramaturg. LMDA is pleased by the many worthy applications for dramaturgical residencies received this year. The volume of proposals serves as evidence of the vital connections that dramaturgs have made with theater projects of note across the U.S. and Canada. Thank you to everyone who applied.

Vanessa Porteous will be working with The Old Trout Puppet Workshop in Calgary, Canada. This marks the first Canadian Residency Grant awarded by LMDA. The Old Trout Puppet Workshop is dedicated to making professional puppet theatre for both children and adults and to creating original, unique, and exuberant art. With the dramaturgical imput of Vanessa Porteous, it will be developing its next production, based on the story of Don Juan, which will premiere in Calgary, Canada, in the 08/09 theatre season.

Dramaturg Jacqueline Lawton will be working at the African Continuum Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. She will be supporting their Fresh Flavas new play development program and doing dramaturgy related to their Spring 2008 production of Intimate Apparel.

The HCC/LMDA Residency grant has returned this year with two grants that will bring dramaturgy to a theatre in Boston and two theatres in Maine. Dramaturg Priscilla Page will be working with Company One Theatre in Boston, MA. Page will be dramaturging Company One Theatre’s spring production of Kirsten Greenidge's The Gibson Girl. Dramaturg Norman Frisch will be working with two theatres in Maine: Figures of Speech and Portland Stage Company. The HCC/LMDA grant will make it possible for these two companies to employ the expertise of Frisch as a consultant and facilitator for their collaboration on the Peer Gynt Project, in which actors, puppets and media will interact.

Haymarket Community Corporation is a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization supporting the theater arts in its region in conjunction with the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. The LMDA is pleased that HCC has agreed to award Residency Grants for 2008 to these New England theater companies in a continuation of a partnership that supports innovative dramaturgs and theatre companies. Thank you to HCC and Joe Coyne for their ongoing support of LMDA's activities.