NEA Steps Up!

To the tune of 280 Grand.

The NEA New Play Development Program has $90,000 each available for two scripts; they must be already written and attached to theater companies planning to stage their world premieres by the end of 2010.

And there's $20,000 each for five shows that are at a more germinal stage, where a writer and theater company need money to work on an idea, without a full commitment yet to a production.

The playwrights must be American citizens or permanent U.S. residents; the theaters must be nonprofit...

The NEA says that almost any theatrical style is eligible..."Ensemble plays, solo plays, plays with music, plays with puppets, plays with movement, plays with multimedia -- the theater in America is a 'big tent,' " the application guidelines say.

That last bit is a big step, methinks. Theatre is not just "written" by loners in garrets anymore.