For 100 years, EAG has provided emergency financial aid and career support to New York City’s professional performing artists. We take pride in our ongoing effort to find new ways to support our vibrant performing arts community. Understanding how challenging it is for emerging theatre companies to find affordable space for creating work in NYC, we introduced the Open Stage space grant in 2017. With Open Stage, we can support theatre companies by giving them an opportunity to create and present work without the challenges that come with finding and maintaining affordable space.

Open Stage grantees receive:

• a $5,600 credit to be used towards booking up to 80 hours in our historic theatre space
• $1,000 from EAG's Teri Black Performance Fund to be used towards performer/director stipends, AND
• limited funding for some specific line items in their production budgets thanks to public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Applications for our 2026 Open Stage grant will open on May 2025. Before applying for this grant, applicants are encouraged to read the Open Stage FAQ's and testimonials from past recipients.

2025 Grant Recipient

Kinship Theater Collective will present THE HETERO-MONOTONY PROJECT in Guild Hall Summer 2025.

In a cultural moment of unprecedented choice, but also a renewal of conservative panic and pressure, marriage is still consistently framed as a social achievement and ideal, and a “happily after ever” solution - newly including queer folks. Is it ever possible to rehabilitate an institution so squarely built on patriarchy, property, ownership, and normativity? This is an exploration of female desire and dissatisfaction in hetero marriages that then begs the question, "What happens when we push beyond aspiring to an 'I do' and fully realize the power of saying 'I don’t (anymore)'?"

We can't wait to welcome Kinship Theater Collective into our space. In the meantime, give them a follow on Instagram and check out their website. Congrats Kinship Theater Collective!

2024 Grant Recipients

The Anthropologists was awarded EAG's Winter 2024 residency for a developmental workshop of their devised piece axes, herbs, and satchels. 

The Anthropologists is dedicated to the collaborative creation of investigative theatre that inspires action. "Fusing research, expressive movement, and rigorous dramaturgy, we create dynamic plays rooted in social inquiry. We use theatre to engage with challenging questions, to re-contextualize the present and reimagine our collective future."  theanthropologists.org

Good Light Productions was awarded EAG's Summer 2024 residency for a joint production of two solo shows, The Danger of Hope™ and Black American Working Woman.

Good Light Productions is “pushing back the darkness by turning on delight." It exists to create access and opportunity for underrepresented creatives to develop and present stories that have been in the dark far too long. "Transformation becomes possible for all when we dare to share what is behind the curtain of each of our unique human stories."  goodlightproductions.com

Past Grant Recipients

Winter 2017 - Project Y Theatre Company, Landmarks & TRANSformations

Winter 2018 - Athena Theatre Company, Tragic Greek Sitcom

Summer 2018 -  Quick Silver Theater Company, Albino Deer

Winter 2019 - Theater in Asylum, Totally Wholesome Foods

Summer 2019 - Ripple Effect Artists, 2071: The World We'll Leave Our Grandchildren

Winter 2020 - Resolve Productions, Marrow

Spring 2022 (Summer 2020) - Katharine Pettit Creative, Untitled Girl Narrative

Summer 2022 - The Skeleton Rep(resents), The Inconvenient Miracle: A Mysterious Birth Musical

Winter 2023 - Leviathan Lab, Learning to Read by Moonlight

Winter 2024 - The Anthropologists, axes, herbs and satchels

Summer 2024 - Good Light Productions, Black American Working Woman and The Danger of Hope

2024's Black American Working Woman, presented by Good Light Productions, photo by Ahron R. Foster

2023's Learning to Read by Moonlight, presented by Leviathan Lab, photo by Yuko Kudo

2019's Totally Wholesome Foods, presented by Theater in Asylum, photo by Ahron R. Foster

EAG's Open Stage space grant program is supported by the Teri Black Performance Fund, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of  Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Questions?

Director of Operations and Development Rebecca Lovett can help with the Open Stage Space Grant.