Meet the Pop-Up Grants Recipients for May and June
The 2023 Pop-Up Grants continue celebrating engaging events that shared history, poignant tales, and unforgettable experiences. These Pop-Up Grants recipients produced compelling art that delighted audiences everywhere.
Agora Artists present THE ELDERT LOFTS (AT&T Performing Arts Center) Photo by Corey Haynes
AT&T Performing Arts Center
Agora Artists presents The Eldert Lofts
LEARN MORE ABOUT AT&T PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Unrestricted Grant: $2,500 Pop-Up Grant
Artist Bonus Funds: $5,000 Artist Bonus Funding
Through a unique cast of characters exploring the intimacies and intricacies of community, The Eldert Lofts is an original movement-based work with a series of vignettes, following the stories of five tenants in a building as they investigate their own relationships, and explore themes of connection, isolation, and identity.
Formed in late 2019 by Dallas-based dance artists Avery-Jai Andrews and Lauren Kravitz, Agora Artists supports independent dance artists, and more specifically, represents and values ALAANA voices throughout the Dallas dance community. The pair felt the need to create a sustainable model for dancers in Dallas, so they hosted a successful dance festival, Mini-Movement Fest, and then proceeded to host weekly, professional-level dance classes open to the public, a dance community forum, a Choreographic Workshop for local dance makers, and continue their commitment to offering relevant and dynamic opportunities to Dallas dancers.
The Elevator Project is a series of performances by Dallas-based arts groups, presented on the AT&T Performing Arts Center campus. The series provides performance space in the Dallas Arts District to local talent, while giving audiences exposure to the vibrant arts scene around them. Drawing from all genres of performing arts, the projects are chosen through an annual submission process and curated by an independent panel of arts professionals. The Elevator Project was created in 2014 by the AT&T Performing Arts Center and is presented with generous support from the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.
There is no better place to explore and experience live performing arts than the AT&T Performing Arts Center in the Dallas Arts District. On its vibrant 10-acre downtown campus, the nonprofit Center operates three of the nation’s finest performance venues: the Winspear Opera House (the best stage for Broadway in North Texas), Wyly Theatre, Strauss Square and the welcoming public green space, Sammons Park. Keep in touch with AT&T Performing Arts Center on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
NATURAL SHOCKS (Echo Theatre) Photo by Zack Higgins
Echo Theatre
A Celebration of Lauren Gunderson: Natural Shocks & I and You
Unrestricted Grant: $2,500 Pop-Up Grant
Artist Bonus Funds: $5,000 Artist Bonus Funding
Echo Theatre is the Southwest’s premier theatrical organization dedicated to producing work created by women+, now featuring a main stage season, an internationally-downloaded podcast, writing workshops, and a salon series of free play readings. To celebrate 25 years of women+ voices on stage, Echo Theatre kicked off its main stage season with A Celebration of Lauren Gunderson, a mini-festival featuring two dynamic productions from America’s most produced playwright. Echo Theatre champions the diverse voices of women+. Keep in touch with Echo Theatre on Facebook and Twitter.
Natural Shocks is a 60-minute, one-woman tour-de-force that bursts to life through Angela, a fast-talking woman filled with mostly true stories about her mother, her husband, and how likely you are to actually die in a tornado. The play is part confessional, part stand up, part reckoning, and spirals towards a conclusion you’ll never forget.
I AND YOU (Echo Theatre) Photo by Zack Higgins
I AND YOU, captivated audiences with its profoundly moving narrative and powerful exploration of life, love, and the extraordinary connections that can emerge from seemingly mundane circumstances. Caroline, a young girl confined to her room while awaiting a life-saving organ transplant, finds herself trapped in a world of isolation and uncertainty. But fate intervenes when Anthony, an exuberant classmate and ardent admirer of Walt Whitman, enters her life with an urgent homework assignment and an infectious zest for living. What starts as a simple school project on “Leaves of Grass” transforms into a universe-shattering event, unraveling the boundaries of Caroline’s existence and paving the way for a remarkable journey of self-discovery and profound connection.
CIRCE: THE SONG OF BENEDITO (Prism Movement Theatre) Photo by Jay Stork
Prism Movement Theatre
Circe: The Song of Benedito
LEARN MORE ABOUT PRISM MOVEMENT THEATRE
Unrestricted Grant: $2,500 Pop-Up Grant
Artist Bonus Funds: $5,000 Artist Bonus Funding
Circe: The Song of Benedito combined dance, song and martial arts to tell the story of enslaved Africans from Angola who developed Capoeira. The show emphasized the song and dance to secretly develop techniques that allowed them to escape their captors.
Prism Movement Theater aims to provide quality movement theater born of ensemble-based work; emphasizing community outreach, education, and diversity in their work. Jeff Colangelo and Katy Tye founded Prism Movement Theater after collaborating together while both students at Southern Methodist University. Jeff, a fight choreographer, and Katy, an acrobat and dancer found that their particular movement aesthetics could be combined to create entire narratives without using any words. Keep in touch with Prism Movement Theater on Facebook and Instagram.
MANIC MONOLOGUES (WaterTower Theatre) Photos by Paris Marie Productions
WaterTower Theatre
Manic Monologues
LEARN MORE ABOUT WATERTOWER THEATRE
Unrestricted Grant: $2,500 Pop-Up Grant
Artist Bonus Funds: $5,000 Artist Bonus Funding
The Manic Monologues is a play showcasing true stories of mental illness to disrupt stigma. It has shown in-person to thousands of people across four continents, and has been featured by the Washington Post, NPR, Psychology Today, NYT, Broadway World, and many more. The play will have its regional premiere at WTT enhanced by movement & live music for the first time, to bring an immersive experience of this important piece to our theater community playing at the Addison Theatre Centre on the Terry Martin Main Stage for 2 weeks of April.
The Manic Monologues brings to life incredible stories — stories that will challenge and inform your ideas about what it means to be touched by a mental health condition. These true, lived experiences come from diverse and resilient people living across the world. These brave individuals have things to say about struggle and pain, but also triumph and joy.
Founded in 1996, WaterTower Theatre (WTT) is one of Texas’ leading professional theatre companies and a flagship arts institution in North Texas, having played an important role as a leader in developing new talent, new work, and encouraging the growth of the DFW artistic community through its commitment to hiring local artists. Learn more about their impact on their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
WHAT’S A POP-UP GRANT?
We started our Pop-Up Grant program to shine a light on arts organizations creating programming that demonstrates exceptional quality, innovation, and accessibility safely, without skimping on the creative impact.
HOW DO YOU PICK THE RECIPIENTS?
Grant recipients are meticulously selected via a nomination process that incorporates 70+ anonymous volunteers. Nominations are made each month and a selection committee meets afterward to determine grantees based on our criteria above.
To learn more about Pop-Up Grants, please click here.
HEADER PHOTO: Agora Artists present ELDERT LOFTS (AT&T Performing Arts Center) Photo by Corey Haynes
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