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Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre have received the largest financial gift in their history. The funds will support the creation of new plays and musicals for the American stage.
The $18 million gift will permanently endow Yale’s ongoing new plays program, says Yale Rep Artistic Director James Bundy.
"To our knowledge, it’s the largest gift in the history of the American Theatre specifically for programming, which is to say that funds from the endowment will go to the commissioning, development and production of new plays."
Jennifer Kiger, director of the New Plays program, says Yale seeks out work by artists with distinctive voices.
"I think it’s a process of reading for voice, rather than reading for product. It's not so much about reading one play and thinking, is this play ready to go on the stage? It's about reading maybe several plays or a body of work up to date for a particular artist, and getting to know their voice and then starting a conversation with them about that."
One of the artists is Will Eno, called “a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation” by the New York Times. His play The Realistic Joneses, running now at Yale Rep, was commissioned through the program.
"For me, writing a play has always been I sit by myself in a chair for a number of years and that’s sort of how it goes. But this has been a very different and much more engaged with other people process. These guys, to a person, it's a bunch of sweet-natured intellectuals if I had to come up with a phrase. But very, very, very smart people who are just very easy in a very human way."
Eno says the calmness and wisdom he’s found this time around only happens when you know the bills are being paid. Yale’s renamed Binger Center for New Theatre honors businessman, theatre impresario and philanthropist James Binger, founder of the Robina Foundation which gave the gift.
