Lincoln Center Theater (LCT) has announced the creation of a new artistic initiative – The Beaumont New Play Commission Program.
Although LCT has had a long-standing play commission program for all its stages, The Beaumont New Play Commission Program will engage today’s leading playwrights to create works specifically for the Vivian Beaumont Theater - LCT’s Broadway, Tony Award-eligible house. The program’s first commissioned playwrights are Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Lynn Nottage and Marco Ramirez. Additional writers will be announced.
The Beaumont New Play Commission Program will give writers the opportunity to create new work for a large canvas, taking advantage of the size and breadth of the Vivian Beaumont stage (the third largest in New York after the Metropolitan Opera and Radio City Music Hall), as well as providing the production values and resources afforded to a Beaumont production.
Lincoln Center Theater produced the LCT3 production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins War, directed by newly appointed Resident Director Lileana Blain-Cruz, at the Claire Tow Theater and Marco Ramirez’s The Royale, directed by Rachel Chavkin, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Intimate Apparel¸ the opera based on Lynn Nottage’s acclaimed play, with music by Ricky Ian Gordon and a libretto by Ms. Nottage, directed by Bartlett Sher, was in previews and scheduled to open at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater before theaters were shut down due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Intimate Apparel is scheduled to resume performances and open in the Newhouse this coming spring.
“I believe that we are in a golden age of American playwrighting and Branden, Lynn and Marco are three of the finest writers at work today,” said André Bishop, LCT’s Producing Artistic Director. “We can think of no better way to inaugurate this program than to engage these three artists to use their imagination, creativity and passion to create new works for the Beaumont stage.”
Playwrights who are currently commissioned by LCT include Christina Anderson, Sarah DeLappe, Christopher Durang, John Guare, Miranda Rose Hall, Jeremy O. Harris, Phillip Howze, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Michael R. Jackson, Sarah Jones, Steven Karam, Sylvia Khoury, Young Jean Lee, Taylor Mac, Aasif Mandvi, Chris Miller & Nathan Tysen, Dominique Morisseau, Itamar Moses, Max Posner, Caitlin Saylor Stephens and Bryna Turner.
