Venturous Theater Fund
Program Overview
Venturous Theater Fund supports ambitious new work for the stage and the writers who create it. We make grants to fund the production of audacious, irreverent new plays that are “venturous”—ambitious in scale, epic in scope, challenging in form, controversial in subject matter, or experimental in concept—and unabashed in their theatricality.
We also fund artist-driven initiatives that embrace agency, champion creative growth, and bolster financial security for playwrights at all stages of their careers. Our grantmaking provides dramatists and other theater workers with increased access to health insurance and healthcare resources, as well as opportunities for relationship-building and artist-to-artist collaboration across national boundaries. Key initiatives include the Venturous Playwright Fellowships at the Playwrights’ Center, the Legacy Playwrights Initiative at the Dramatists Guild Foundation, and support for playwright collectives and writers who self-produce.
Strategies
Venturous Capital Grants
Support productions of bold, experimental, and/or large-scale new plays that are perceived as difficult or impossible to produce.
Health Insurance and Healthcare Resources
Advance initiatives that provide information and resources for dramatists and other theater workers to access health insurance and healthcare.
International Collaboration
Create opportunities for U.S.-based playwrights to build relationships and collaborate with theater artists from other countries.
Playwright Fellowships
Offer production subsidy grants and playwright fellowships in partnership with the Playwrights’ Center in St. Paul, MN.
Collaboration Acceleration
Empower producing/developmental organizations to support individual artists and writer collectives in their most venturous work, and seed multi-theater collaboration in the production and development of new plays.
Legacy Playwrights Initiative
Provide leadership funding for the Dramatists Guild Foundation’s initiative to spotlight the achievements and influence of notable elder playwrights whose work has fallen out of the public eye.
Recent Grantees
National New Play Network Collaboration Fund (NNPN)
Program support to support NNPN member theaters to work collaboratively to produce or advance towards production new plays that otherwise exceed theaters’ individual capacities.
PlayCo’s Artist Residency Program
Project support for international residencies for U.S. playwrights and other theater artists over two years and advancing work for future residency partnerships.
United Hospital Fund
Project support for the creation of Riskier Business: A Guide for Dramatists and Performing Arts Workers on Finding Affordable Health Coverage and Care, a free, online guidebook for arts professionals.
Ufot Family Cycle
Project support for Mfonisio Udofia’s nine-play Ufot Family Cycle, performed at theaters throughout Greater Boston over two years, in partnership with the Huntington Theatre.
Connect With Us
We accept unsolicited Letters of Inquiry for our Venturous Capital Grants(opens in new tab) program. All other programs accept applications by invitation only. Visit Venturous Theater Fund’s website(opens in new tab).
