Tidtaya Sinutoke (left) and Ty Defoe (right) at the 2017 Jonathan Larson Grants awards ceremony in New York. | Photo: Playbill
Lyricist, playwright, performer and CalArts alumnus Ty Defoe (Theater BFA 10), along with collaborator Tidtaya Sinutoke, is one of the recipients of the 2017 Jonathan Larson Grants for emerging musical theater writers.
Given in honor of the late Rent composer-lyricist-book writer Jonathan Larson, the grants recognize emerging composers, lyricists and book writers that continue the Tony Award-winning composer’s dream of infusing musical theater with “a contemporary, joyful, urban vitality.” Each winner receives an unrestricted $10,000 in grant money.
A member of the Oneida and Ojibwe Nations, Defoe’s plays have been workshopped and performed at the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, Native Voices at the Autry and the Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.
In addition to Defoe and Sinutoke, the Jonathan Larson Grants recipients are Ben Bonnema, Maggie-Kate Coleman and Erato A. Kremmyda, and Michael R. Jackson.