Paris Ray Dozier Receives 2022 Jonathan Larson Grants

The honorees will each receive an unrestricted grant of $15,000, as well as additional support in the form of residencies, concerts and recording grants.?

By: Chloe Rabinowitz for Broadway World

The American Theatre Wing has revealed the recipients of the 2022 Jonathan Larson Grant. This year’s honorees – Christie Baugher (Music, Lyrics & Book), Paris Ray Dozier (Music & Lyrics), and Jaime Lozano (Music) – will each receive an unrestricted grant of $15,000, as well as additional support in the form of residencies, concerts and recording grants.?A special ceremony honoring the artists, and featuring performances of their recent work, will be announced at a later date.

“We are so delighted to celebrate the talents of these three incredible artists, who have been awarded this year’s Jonathan Larson Grants,” said Heather A. Hitchens, President & CEO of the American Theatre Wing. “This initiative is so vital to our mission as an arts organization, and our commitment to doing all we can to help remove the barriers talented young artists face when entering a career in the theatre. We’re ecstatic to see the continued development of the brilliant work being created by Christie, Paris and Jaime, through this most essential program.”

The Jonathan Larson Grants are an unconditional annual investment in individual talent. They are awarded to musical theatre composers, lyricists, and librettists, or writing teams, early in their career, to support artistic endeavors and safeguard long-term music writing careers. Recipients are given free rein to put the grant’s resources towards what they see as the best use for furthering their creative endeavors with the hope that the grant will provide the support necessary for artists to see their work from concept to cultural success. The grant is a clear indicator of what is new and next in musical theatre, and provides recipients with a platform to amplify stories and figures that can shape contemporary culture. Rather than financing a specific piece or project, the grant provides emerging artists with enhancement opportunities in addition to general funding in an effort to promote lifelong development as creatives.

Recipients were selected by an expert panel consisting of Producer Amanda DuBois (The Lehman Trilogy, Spring Awakening), General Manager and ShowTown Theatricals CEO Nathan Gehan (Parade, Into the Woods), Opera Composer Kamala Sankaram (Thumbprint, The Last Stand) and Composer/Lyricist Max Vernon (KPOP; 2015 Larson Grant Recipient).

Previous grant recipients include Grace McLean (In the Green), Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin (The Prom, Elf), Shaina Taub (Suffs), Benj Pasek & Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, La La Land), Laurence O’Keefe (Legally Blonde: The Musical), Joe Iconis (Be More Chill), Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812), Amanda Green (Hands on a Hardbody), Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal), Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop), and many more.

ABOUT THE 2022 RECIPIENTS  

Paris Ray Dozier

(Music & Lyrics) is a composer & lyricist from Los Angeles, California, whose Musical Theatre productions have opened across the United States. Dozier’s career began when he was 15, after attending the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. He went on to write songs for artists on Disney Music Group’s Hollywood Records, where he was also signed as a singer-songwriter and producer. After Hollywood Records, Dozier headed up the music department for B InTune TV, which broadcasted to 100 million households worldwide on NBC and Fox. Dozier also composed the music & lyrics for musicals and plays including Last Stop on Market Street, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money and X Marks the Spot. In 2018, he composed Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Empower Youth Musical: We Got Next. In 2021, Dozier was brought on to write the music & lyrics for Emerald City, at Seattle Repertory Theatre.

Tim J. Lord Receives a 2023 Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts

Tim J. Lord is the recipient of a 2023 Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts recognizing his work as a playwright. The Fellowships are competitive awards granted to New Jersey-based artists in 12 rotating disciplines in order to help them produce new work and advance their careers. For this fellowship Tim submitted his play WE DECLARE YOU A TERRORIST which the selection panel evaluated to be of “very high artistic quality.” He will use his fellowship funds to support the completion of his radical re-imagining of an Oedipus trilogy that resets the story in a contemporary version of Thebes and re-focuses the classic story on the people at the fringes of society who are forced to cope with the failures of their leaders.

MAD by Sarah Bierstock to be Read at the Inaugural Fall Reading Series of The Contemporary American Theater Festival

The Contemporary American Theater Festival will be presenting its inaugural Fall Reading Series. For over thirty years, the professional new play festival held performances in July. This is the first time the festival will offer programming outside of its traditional summer season.

Peggy McKowen, appointed as the festival’s Producing Artistic Director last year, selected the plays. “I was looking for plays that felt fresh – exploring themes and styles CATF has not recently produced.”

Sarah Bierstock

The plays produced in the Fall Reading Series are under consideration for CATF’s 2023 July season, which will be McKowen’s first season of curating the festival’s summer repertory.

The plays in the Fall Reading Series are: Spiritus/ Virgil’s Dance by Dael Orlandersmith; Our Shrinking Shrinking World by Richard Dresser; MAD by Sarah Bierstock; Your Name Means Dream by José Rivera; and Lavender Men by Roger Q. Mason

“These plays have some laughs, something we all need right now. But, they also have a strong sense of purpose about life,” said McKowen.

Readings will take place between October 21 and November 5 and will take place at the Marinoff Theater on the campus of Shepherd University, which hosts CATF, and at the Old Opera House in Charles Town, WV.

Audience members can determine their own admission price, with a suggested amount of $10.

For the full schedule, to make reservations, and for more information about the Contemporary American Theater Festival’s Fall Reading Series, visit CATF online at catf.org.

It’s Officially Till Trilogy Week in DC !

Playwright Ifa Bayeza holds a proclamation given by the DC City Council and Chairman Phil Mendelson designating the second week of October as The Till Trilogy Week.

Mayor, City Council Proclamations Designate Till Trilogy Week in Washington, DC

Over the weekend, we were honored to have members of Congress, City government, the Till family, and Mosaic supporters experience The Till Trilogy together. Mayor Muriel Bowser awarded a proclamation to Mosaic and the City Council and Chairman Phil Mendelson formally named this week “The Till Trilogy Week” in the District of Columbia.

Join us to see these potent, important works.

Marvin Bowser, brother of DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, reads a statement from the Mayor acknowledging the  admirable work of playwright Ifa Bayeza and Mosaic Theater to stage The Till Trilogy in the nation’s capital. 
Ifa Bayeza accepts a proclamation from the DC City Council naming the second week of October The Till Trilogy Week.