Grant Avenue

There’s good news and weird news announced by Theatre Communications Group. The 2010 Edgerton Foundation gave its New American Play Awards this month to 38 theater companies, including two Florida-related properties that will get money for developing a new work. The grants are for between $5,000 and $75,000, primarily to fund a longer rehearsal time that allows the playwright to continue to work on the script.

The good: New Theatre in Coral Gables has receive an undisclosed grant to produce the world premiere of Shirley Lauro’s play The Radiant March 25 to April 17. The drama about Madame Curie was commissioned and written in 2008, received three staged readings in 2008 and 2009, and was staged in a workshop at The Actors Studio in June 2009 starring Angelica Torn and ‘mentored’ by Estelle Parsons.

The weird: Actor’s Express in Atlanta got an undisclosed grant to produce the ‘world premiere’ of Miami native Marco Ramirez’s play Broadsword in January. You might be a bit confused since Mad Cat Theatre mounted two full productions at The Miami Light Box in April 2009 and then at the Arsht Center last April.

The foundation is aware of the earlier productions that are being termed workshops, according to a spokeswoman for Theatre Communications Group. Ramirez rewrote parts of the show between the two Mad Cat stagings and said Friday that he is rewriting it again for the Atlanta bow.

The exact definition of the world premiere label ‘ a much-sought designation for marketing purpose ‘ has become a complex issue that involves contractural bragging rights, in this case singeing a few local bridges. We’ll take an in-depth look later this fall at the world of world premieres and how it illustrates the radical change in new play development over the past three decades.