A still from CNP's 'Smoke, Lilies and Jade,' mounted at CalArts in 2008.
Last week, the Theatre Communications Group (TCG)—the national organization for nonprofit American theater—announced the latest round of funding for the MetLife/TCG A-ha! Program—with CalArts’ Center for New Performance (CNP) named as one of five grant recipients for 2011.
CNP was awarded a $50,000 Do It grant, which supports the implementation and testing of new ideas. The grant, funded by the MetLife Foundation and administered by TCG, will help the Center for New Performance convene a TEDx conference in the LA area to bring together “creative minds from disciplines across the contemporary performance landscape to expand understanding of the live arts.”
The MetLife/TCG A-ha! Program has two complementary components. In addition to Do It grants, Think It grants ($25,000) give theater professionals the time and space for research and development. The applications were reviewed by an independent national panel of theater and technology professionals.
From the TCG website:
The intent of the program is to enable theatres to dare to try new approaches to problem-solving artistic, managerial, production and/or technological challenges-to try things the organization doesn’t and couldn’t normally do. The MetLife/TCG A-ha! Program doesn’t want to encourage theatres to create programs that are only a reflection of the latest novelty or trend, but to discover and identify new strategies that will have far-reaching effect in helping organizations do their best work.
The other 2011 A-ha! Program grant recipients are the Perseverance Theatre of Douglas, Alaska (Think It), Curious Theatre Company of Denver (Do It), Salvage Vanguard Theater of Austin, Texas (Do It) and the New York City-based The Wooster Group (Do It).