NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and New Georges Announce Creation of “Made in NY” Fund for New Theatrical Works

Announcement Made at New Georges Annual Big Benefit, Celebrating the NYC Women’s Fund and its Theatre Recipients - Event photos available HERE

NEW YORK - The NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) and New Georges announce the creation of the “Made in NY” Fund for New Theatrical Works, which will enable artists to fully develop and place new theatrical works in venues across New York City. In collaboration with New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), MOME will provide the funds to New Georges to support three new artist-led theatrical projects to be produced in partnership with other NYC theatres, totaling $150,000.

The announcement came at New Georges’ annual Big Benefit on September 29. The evening celebrated former recipients of the NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre, a groundbreaking initiative from MOME and NYFA that, through a $10 million investment over six years, targeted the equity challenges in the media and entertainment industries.The “Made in NY” Fund takes the next step in MOME’s enduring effort to make the City of NY’s creative sectors accessible to all New Yorkers by ensuring that opportunities are available to underrepresented and diverse creative voices.

The New Georges Big Benefit celebrated 21 theatrical works – either produced or supported specifically by New Georges, or by New Georges Affiliated Artists – that received funding from the NYC Women’s Fund, including The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-Burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel, A Woman Among Women and Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica in the Woods. Former NYC Women’s Fund recipients on the benefit committee include Aya Ogawa, Bailey Williams, Deepali Gupta Zeer, Emma Horwitz, Grace McLean, Julia May Jonas, Lee Sunday Evans, MJ Kaufman, Nadira Simone, nicHi douglas, Raquel Almazan, Sanaz Toossi and Tara Ahmadinejad.

“We are so proud to announce the ‘Made in NY’ Fund for New Theatrical Works during the New Georges Big Benefit, which will enable our office to continue uplifting and providing opportunities for the creative visionaries of our city’s theatre community,” said Commissioner of the NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, Pat Swinney Kaufman. “We loved celebrating last night with New Georges honorees and leadership, and thanks always to NYFA for their support of NYC’s creative industries and MOME. This fund builds on the success of the NYC Women’s Fund to ensure equity across our city’s entertainment sectors.”

“It’s deeply meaningful to us that MOME, over five NYC Women’s Fund grant cycles, has recognized New Georges’ commitment to adventurous artists and ambitious new work, and to New York City and its many-sided theatrical ecosystem,” stated Susan Bernfield, Artistic Director/Producer, New Georges. “NYCWF-funded shows here represent some of our proudest achievements, productions that are now cornerstones of our body of work. We’re elated to announce this significant boost to our artists and their vision. Made in New York, we confidently approach the next two seasons.”

"We are thrilled to celebrate MOME's groundbreaking NYC Women's Fund initiative and its $10 million investment in making the entertainment industry more equitable. Being able to recognize recipients is a wonderful way to honor the program and its impact,” said Michael Royce, CEO, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). “Partnering with MOME on this program and its new 'Made in NY' Fund for New Theatrical Works deepens our work in supporting NYC artists and championing new creative voices,” he added.

For 33 years, New Georges has supported women (cis + trans) and nonbinary artists by building productive relationships over time, resulting in artist-centered programs and structures that play a unique role in the field. Over the last decade, New Georges has expanded its producing model and now supports more artists in production than ever before: through productions/co-productions; mentoring self-producing artists; and, in a recent development, partnering with other theatres on new works by New Georges artists. These collaborations respond to artists’ evolving needs. MOME’s acknowledgement, through NYC Women’s Fund and now in this new iteration, positions New Georges to pursue its goals.

Mayor Adams, the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, and other members of the administration have collaborated on many new initiatives to support NYC’s theatre and live performance sectors and make them accessible to all New Yorkers, including hosting the first-ever “Made in NY” Awards Ceremony dedicated completely to the theatre and live performance community; convening the first-ever Live Performance Industry Council to gather leaders in live performance and government together to address challenges and identify strategies for growth; collaborating with Seats on the Spectrum to make mainstream theater performances more welcoming to audience members on the autism spectrum; and ongoing support for the “Made in NY” Stagecraft Bootcamp in collaboration with the Roundabout Theatre Company Theatre Workforce Development Program, which has trained and placed over 150 New Yorkers in good paying jobs in the theater, many of which joined unions or who are on track for membership.

Since 1992, New Georges (Susan Bernfield, Artistic Director/Producer; Jaynie Saunders Tiller, Executive Director/Producer) has advocated for an intergenerational ecosystem of exuberant theatrical minds, furthering fierce new works along with long-term wellbeing, expanding aesthetic boundaries and gender equity in tandem. Projects in our influential, boundary-pushing aesthetic have wit (in the classical sense), are funny (in any sense), are idiosyncratic, often impossible, maybe messy. Our work is relational, not transactional; grounded in community and collaboration, development pathways, resources, and artist services include The Room, our permanent workspace, founded in 1994. They scaffold and support New Georges' affiliated artists, the largest ongoing working community of women+ theater artists in New York City. Honors for New Georges, its plays and its people include National Theatre Conference’s Outstanding Theatre Award, 5 Obie Awards, 2 AUDELCO Awards, The Lilly Award, Susan Smith Blackburn and Kesselring prizes, and A.R.T./New York’s Exuberant Imagination Award. A pivotal home and launchpad for now three generations of artists, our impact reaches every corner of the culture.