Dramatists Guild Foundation

While we at DGF hope to reach as many dramatists as possible with our programs, we also recognize that there are organizations that historically excelled at serving specific communities. This initiative is built to identify and support organizations that have aligned missions of empowering and resourcing historically under-resourced or underrepresented communities of dramatists through the Dramatists Guild Foundation's Community Partnership Initiative.

Through a year-long incubation program with DGF, each organization is invited to schedule rehearsal room space at DGF before reservations open to the general public. This also includes access to our staff-only spaces, including the conference room and terrace, for organizational needs. We are also offering the organization the opportunity to host public readings in our space (pending availability).

Please keep in mind that we may not offer financial awards this year as part of this initiative. 

The Hansberry-Lilly Award
  The Lillys’ Lorraine Hansberry Initiative, under the leadership and vision of Julia Jordan and Lynn Nottage, has generously developed this opportunity to honor the great American Lorraine Hansberry and ensure the next generation of women and or non-binary playwrights of color is able to follow in her footsteps, regardless of their economic situation.

  Two Hansberry-Lilly awardees will be given stipends of $25,000 each year of their graduate education in playwriting. The award is a need-based scholarship to both acknowledge and combat the financial disparities between races and between genders. The awardees must be newly accepted to or currently enrolled in one of the designated MFA programs. The funds awarded are to be used to support cost of living expenses that are not otherwise covered by other scholarships, subsidized tuition, or fellowship monies. The Hansberry-Lilly Award was specifically created to ensure that our awardees have protected time to actually write, time to develop relationships with peer collaborators, and time to nurture relationships with mentors that will endure through their careers.

Persons Wishing to Apply Must:
 

• Be a person of color  
• Be a woman or female-identifying
• Be a first-year/newly accepted into one of these graduate dramatic writing programs:  Brooklyn College, Brown, Columbia University, Julliard, NYU-Tisch School of the Arts, Northwestern, Yale, University of California at San Diego, and Hunter College.

This form is for dramatists (playwrights, composers, lyricists, librettists) to apply for emergency financial assistance from the Dramatists Guild Foundation. 

If you hold more than $15,000 in your combined bank accounts, we kindly ask that you refrain from applying at this time. 

While we hope our Crisis Relief Grants will be one time awards, we understand that hardship can occur unexpectedly and at different times during a writer’s career. With that in mind, dramatists may be eligible to receive multiple Crisis Relief Grants. First time applicants will be prioritized and multi-time recipients may experience longer processing times. 

Grants applications typically take between 1-4 weeks to process.

DGF serves all dramatists based in the United States, regardless of their immigration status. 

This form is for dramatists (playwrights, composers, lyricists, librettists) who wish to apply for a Bridge Grant from the Dramatists Guild Foundation. 

Please note: DGF's eligibility restrictions have recently changed. If you hold more than $15,000 in your combined bank accounts or if you have received a DGF Bridge Grant in the past, we kindly ask that you refrain from re-applying at this time.  

DGF serves all dramatists based in the United States, regardless of their immigration status.