Dramatists Guild Foundation


The Dramatists Guild Foundation is a public charity. According to its website, its mission is "to aid and nurture writers for the theater; to fund non-profit theaters producing contemporary American works; and to heighten awareness, appreciation, and support of theater across the country."

Overview

Dramatists Guild Foundation is a national charity that fuels the future of American theater by supporting the writers who create it. DGF fosters playwrights, composers, lyricists, and bookwriters at all stages of their careers. We sponsor educational programs; provide awards, grants, and stipends; offer free space to create new works; and give emergency aid to writers in need. By supporting and nurturing the creators of today, we protect the stories of tomorrow.

Programs

The Legacy Project is a set of filmed interviews between an experienced dramatist and an emerging one. Volume I was released in 2011. The videos are a resource for students, theater-lovers, and the general public. Producers include Nancy Ford, Carol Hall, Peter Ratray and Jonathan Reynolds. The interviews are filmed and directed by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest of Transient Pictures.
Volume I features Lee Adams with Brian Yorkey, Edward Albee with Will Eno, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick with David Zippel, A.R. Gurney with Itamar Moses, John Kander with Kirsten Childs, Arthur Laurents with David Saint, Stephen Sondheim with Adam Guettel, Joseph Stein with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Charles Strouse with Michael John LaChiusa, Lanford Wilson with Craig Lucas.
Volume II features Terrence McNally with Annie Baker, Tina Howe with Sarah Ruhl, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty with DGF President Andrew Lippa, Frank Gilroy with Doug Wright, Thomas Meehan with Douglas Carter Beane, Charles Fuller with Lynn Nottage, Mary Rodgers with Marsha Norman, Jules Feiffer with Paul Rudnick, and Tom Jones with Harvey Schmidt.
Volume III features Tony Kushner with Michael Friedman, Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford with Georgia Stitt, Micki Grant with Charlayne Woodard, James Lapine with Lisa Kron, Larry Kramer with George C. Wolfe, Alan Menken with Kristen Anderson-Lopez, John Patrick Shanley with Stephen Adly Guirgis, John Weidman with J.T. Rogers, Stephen Schwartz with Jeanine Tesori, and Stephen Sondheim with Adam Guettel.
DGF also hosts the Traveling Masters program that partners professional writers with American theaters across the country. The writer travels to the theater and conducts workshops and leads discussions with local dramatists.
To support the future of American theater, the DGF Fellows program helps create that future by propelling the most promising creative talents to their full potential. The Fellows program is a selective, year-long intensive for playwrights, composers, lyricists, and bookwriters. The program provides these talented writers access to accomplished professionals who help them hone their process and find their unique voice. This program increases the likelihood that Fellows will be able to turn their passion and talent into a successful career, impacting audiences around the globe. The Fellows program, currently headed by Michael Korie, Laurence O’Keefe, Migdalia Cruz, and Lucy Thurber, is highly sought after for its uniquely successful format of partnering playwrights and musical theater writers together in the learning process. In addition, Fellows receive a stipend and the opportunity to partner with several arts organizations for Fellows-specific development opportunities.
In April 2018, DGF launched its New Voices program, which brings trained teaching artists into classrooms to lead students in the collaborative creation of their own plays. It is crucial that young students are given the proper access and training to theater so they can share their stories and learn the power of their own voices. These young playwrights will help the art form thrive for years to come.
In 2019, DGF opened the Music Hall to provide a free space for writers to feel inspired and supported.

Grants

The Dramatists Guild Foundation awards two types of grants:
Grants for Theaters - Grants to nonprofit theaters/institutions across the country that develop and/or produce contemporary American plays and musicals.
Grants for Writers - One-time individual emergency grants to playwrights, lyricists and composers.