Directing Alum Vijay Mathew, class of 2003, was recently awarded Theater Communications Group (TCG) New Generations Future Leaders Grant. The grant awards emerging leaders in the theatre field with a paid mentorship with accomplished theatre professionals.

This past season, as an Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage, Mathew applied for the grant with Associate Artistic Director David Dower. “We wanted to continue the mentoring relationship that we had started when I was a Fellow, which was about producing and artistic directing, specifically in the realm of new plays,” he said.

The major component of the mentorship is a staff position as the National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Program Coordinator at Arena. “This is a new nation-wide new play initiative by the NEA and is part of Arena's mission to be a center for the development and study of American Theater and this NEA program is an integral piece to that mission,” Mathew explained. “My job is to administer the program, coordinate the application process, and facilitate the communications, documentation, and study component of the program.” In addition to providing support for five early-stage plays for developmental work, the program will support two plays for world-premiere productions at their respective theaters.

“My participation in the NEA New Play Development Program as its coordinator gives me a really privileged perspective of the current state of new work, playwrights, and theaters in the United States—and what an exciting view it is!” he enthuses. “We've received nearly 300 intents to apply and nearly 200 actual finished applications. It's a very active field with an abundance of new plays and opportunities. This mentorship is exactly geared toward my path to becoming an artistic director who wants to produce and develop new plays.”