Vanguard Arts Fund

Application Process

Please complete the Vanguard Arts Fund application form, which requests the following information.

Application Format

• Point of contact information (pronouns, email, phone number, city/state)
• In 1-4 pages:
  • Project description and artistic vision
  • At what stage of development is this project currently?
  • What is the project’s development history?
  • What are your goals for this workshop?
  • The names and bios of the artists/collaborators involved in this project
  • Number of performers and other types of artists needed for a workshop (if known)
• Availability for full weeks for you and your entire generative team to be onsite between September 1, 2026 and July 31, 2027.
• We may request additional information/material if needed. Please do not include additional materials unless asked.

• We conduct Zoom interviews of finalists before making final decisions.

   

When do you need this, and what’s the selection process?

The submission deadline is June 30th, 2026, at 5 pm EST.

Our selection process is internal, led by full-time members of the artistic staff. Our goal is to decide by September 1, 2026 which will give us time to review, conduct interviews, and ask questions if needed. 

Do you accept applications from artists outside of the United States? 
No, we are not able to accept international applications at this time.

Will you accept applications past the deadline of June 30th, 2026? 
No, we are not able to accept applications past this deadline.

Can I submit more than one project for consideration?
No. We ask that you limit your involvement to one project.

Can I submit a project that I’ve submitted to the Vanguard Arts Fund in previous years? 

If developmental work has been done since your last submission, you can submit a new proposal with that project.

Does Olney Theatre Center provide individual feedback on project applications? 

Due to the high number of submissions we receive each year, we are not able to provide individual feedback. 

I have more questions.
Write to vanguard[AT]olneytheatre.org

Currently in Development for 2025-26:

Pepi! 

Generative Artists: Lila Rose Kaplan & Adam Ben-David

Pepi was a Yiddish Drag Ding in the early 1900s. She was born in 1874 to a poor family in Russia and became a cross-dressing vaudeville performer, activist, and observant Jew, a mother, a wife, and the leader of a theatre troupe. She was highly successful and performed all over the world. Our musical is about Pepi Litman and her incredible life. Imagine Hedwig meets Yentl.

Full On Cleopatra

By Yussef El Guindi

Directed by Risa Brainin

A traveling soothsayer, Asim, wanders into the courtyard of Cleopatra’s palace and starts chatting with the queen’s handmaiden, Charmian. He promises to read her fortune. As the unhappy future of the court begins to unfold, this soothsayer soon becomes a witness, then finally a participant in the last days of Cleopatra and Antony. A somewhat comedic look at the dramatic last days of two of history’s great partnerships.

Someone Over The Rainbow 

Co-Conceived and Book by Jessia Hoffman

Co-Conceived and Music & Lyrics by Kyle Ewalt

Co-Conceived and Directed by Ken Savage

A new queer dance-pop reality dating show musical where the audience chooses the fate of its hopeful romantics. On a fundamental level, all humans want to find love, and because romance, sex, and partnerships are paramount in our lives; we’re naturally obsessed with watching people date. Set to the discography of our composer’s dance/pop band Kyven and inspired by The Wizard of Oz and Sondheim’s Company, this new musical invites audiences to ride the love life rollercoaster – and to choose whether or not there really is some ONE or MANY over the rainbow.

Past Projects Include:

Artificial: Generative Artists: Prince Gomolvilas, Jeff Liu

After a failed career in standup comedy, Simon has taken a soul-sucking job as an AI engineer at his younger brother Jetsada’s thriving chatbot company. But when the artistic bug bites again, Simon decides to leverage the company’s AI technology to write jokes, and he hits open mic nights once again—much to Jetsada’s dismay. The sparring brother sibling rivalry reaches epic proportions in this timely yet timeless exploration of a fractured Thai-American family, the uneasy intersection of art and technology, and the question of what it means to be human in the modern age.

Okuni: Generative Artists: Naomi Iizuka (book and lyrics), Paul Hodge (book, lyrics and music), and Lisa Portes (director) 

A musical based on 16th-century Japanese Kubuki artist Okuni. Her life sets in motion questions that speak to our present day in uncanny ways: what is the role of the artist in a totalitarian regime? What does it mean to be a woman in a man’s world? How do you survive the vicissitudes of politics, war, and economic unrest? And beyond surviving, how do you make sense of and challenge a corrupt status quo?  Okuni’s story explores these questions and more in compelling, thought-provoking ways.

In Dahomey: Generative Artists Monty Cole & Breon Arzell

This project is a resurrection of the 1903 first musical performed on Broadway that was written by and

starring African Americans. It is conceived as a way to honor the legacy of what has been written and bring it into the present. The original piece, featuring music by Will Marion Cook, book by Jesse A. Shipp, and lyrics by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, was written as a satire on the American Colonization Society's back-to-Africa movement of the earlier nineteenth century.

Carla Hall: Here I am, Generative Artists Carla Hall, Lori Kaye & Leslie Thomas

About the life of Carla Hall. Will be in our 25-26 season!

Built for This: Generative Artists Kira Stone (music & lyrics) and Lauren Gunderson (book)

An athletic feminist pop musical centered on five fierce young gymnasts.

The Music Man:  Deaf performer Joey Caverly pitched the idea of a Deaf-hearing production of this classic musical back in 2017. Olney Theatre Center gathered a directing team and ten actors to try out the idea, working on only two numbers. This led to a successful full-scale production in the summer of 2022. The production was nominated for nine 2023 Helen Hayes Awards (and won two!).

A.D. 16:  a new musical by Bekah Brunstetter and Cinco Paul, about teenaged Mary Magdalene, was developed in 2019 via a Vanguard workshop. The show got its world premiere at Olney Theatre Center in 2022. 

The Joy That Carries You:  Pitched during the heart of the pandemic as a response to the murder of George Floyd and rising anti-Semitism, co-writers Awa Sal Secka and Dani Stoller received two Vanguard Arts Fund workshops to develop this play, which combined traditional narrative and spoken-word poetry to tell its story.  Olney Theatre Center committed to producing the show after its first workshop and produced it in 2022. The production was nominated for five 2023 Helen Hayes Awards, and won the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Work.