Christopher Hibma, Associate Director, Sundance Institute Theatre Program

“Sundance has a Theatre Program?” As I travel around the country to our different venues to develop new work, this is the question I hear most often as I’m chatting up my seatmates on planes or introducing the Institute to potential collaborators. I have my elevator speech down pat at this point: “Yes, we do have a Theatre Program and we’ve been around since the founding of the Institute almost 30 years ago. In fact, our program has seeded some of the most interesting work that audiences have seen on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and around the country, including the runaway hit musical Spring Awakening, indie favorite Passing Strange, and the regional theatre darling Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker.”

And there’s so much more to say about the Theatre Program. We’ve grown from a two-week Theatre Lab in Utah to a year-round program that supports artists every day. In just the last 14 years, we’ve supported 145 theatre projects and thousands of artists. Since our program office moved from Los Angeles to New York nearly four years ago, we’ve significantly increased our support for new writing and our ability to connect with our community. Our team can regularly be seen at Broadway openings, readings in warehouses in Brooklyn, and new play festivals around the country. At every event, there is bound to be a community of Sundance alumni present, and more than 90% of the work we develop goes on to receive a major production.

We think it’s time to celebrate our work and the many accomplishments of our alumni. And we want you to celebrate with us. On Monday, March 12 in New York, we’re hosting a private performance of An Iliad, an amazing new play developed at the Theatre Lab in Utah in 2009 and featuring Sundance alum Denis O’Hare (of HBO’s True Blood). At a dinner afterwards, you’ll have an opportunity to take in Christine Ebersole and Scott Frankel’s  Grey Gardens and get a sneak peak at a fantastic new musical written by Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron called Fun Home.

Please take a moment to click here to find out more about the evening. By buying a ticket to this event, you will help us celebrate our alumni and their accomplishments, as well as enable us to continue working with theatre artists for many years to come.