Center Theatre Group is now accepting submissions for the 2021 Dorothy and Richard E. Sherwood Award. The deadline to submit an application is June 17, 2020, at noon.
The Sherwood Award is an annual $10,000 prize that supports innovative and adventurous theatre artists and engages them in a professional relationship with Center Theatre Group. The award is presented to one theatre artist each year at the Ovation Awards ceremony produced by LA Stage Alliance. Two additional Sherwood finalists will also receive a $2,000 honorarium.
“Dorothy and Richard Sherwood understood that, while theatre is an ancient artform, the art of making theatre is in a perpetual state of evolution,” said Center Theatre Group Artistic Director, Michael Ritchie. “In this current moment, as we are unable to bring audiences together, it is more important than ever to seek out and engage with artists that are innovating and imagining the ways that theatre can continue to adapt and respond to an ever changing world.”
Center Theatre Group invites individual theatre artists to submit an application if they have resided in Los Angeles for at least two years and have developed or collaborated in at least two fully produced projects in Los Angeles. Sherwood awardees demonstrate leadership qualities, push existing boundaries and are dedicated to improving the future of their respective artistic fields. Artists are not limited by title, role or genre, but they must have a relationship to contemporary performance rooted in theatre.
Center Theatre Group will be hosting an Artist Statement Workshop via Zoom for interested applicants on Saturday, June 13 at 11am. Previous Sherwood recipient Miranda Wright, Center Theatre Group Line Producer for Artistic Projects Patricia Garza and Sherwood Fellow Brianna Saranchock will answer questions related to the application process and lead applicants through a series of exercises that will help them craft a captivating artist statement for the application and future endeavors. This session is recommended but not required. To RSVP please email [email protected] by Thursday June 11, 2020.
Created in memory of Richard E. Sherwood in 1996 and renamed in 2018 following the passing of his wife Dorothy, the $10,000 award aims to cultivate theatre artists working in Los Angeles who push formal and aesthetic boundaries and demonstrate dedication to improving their artistic fields. Dorothy and Richard E. Sherwood were patrons of the arts with a special appreciation for artists who are in the vanguard of theatre. Richard served on the Center Theatre Group Board of Directors including as President and Chairman until his passing in 1993. The award is established as an endowed fund at Center Theatre Group by their family, friends, colleagues and fellow board members, to honor the family’s passionate commitment to theatre. Dorothy Sherwood was deeply involved in the curation and selection process, hosting salons at her home for many of the artists, traveling to theatres around Los Angeles to support new work and ensuring that the award would truly help recipients.
Past recipients of the Dorothy and Richard E. Sherwood Award include performance maker Mat Diafos Sweeney, performance artist Kristina Wong, projection designer Hana S. Kim, lighting designer Pablo Santiago, Miwa Matreyek of Cloud Eye Control, Sean Cawelti of Rogue Artists Ensemble, Miranda Wright of Los Angeles Performance Practice, Lars Jan of Early Morning Opera, lighting designer Christopher Kuhl and costume designer Ann Closs-Farley, among others.
Center Theatre Group, one of the nation’s preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles’ leading nonprofit theatre company, which, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Ritchie, Managing Director Meghan Pressman and Producing Director Douglas C. Baker, programs seasons at the 736-seat Mark Taper Forum and 1600 to 2100-seat Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to presenting and producing the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the country, Center Theatre Group is one of the nation’s leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics and circumstance to serve Los Angeles.
For more information about the Dorothy and Richard E. Sherwood Award, please visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org/
