History
DGF Celebrates 50 Years
The 50th Anniversary of the Dramatists Guild Fund is celebrated in 2012 with a year-long rollout of events and new initiatives befitting an organization that has been a vital part of the American theatre's creativity for five decades.
In 1962, under the bold leadership Alan Jay Lerner, the famed librettist/lyricist of My Fair Lady and Camelot (both running on Broadway at the time), the Dramatists Guild Fund was founded "to stimulate and improve the creation of dramatic and musical works of merit, and to provide assistance to professional writers and their families in time of need." Lerner created the Fund to be a tax-exempt charitable entity built on private donations and bequests from wills and trusts of members.
One such grant, The Kesselring Grant, an endowment established by the estate of Joseph Kesselring (the author of the comedy classic Arsenic and Old Lace), continues to provide individual grants to professional dramatists who are experiencing personal hardships due to health-related issues or other unforeseen circumstances. Since is inception, the Dramatists Guild Fund has also awarded annual grants to not-for-profit theaters across the country that are producing new American plays.
In addition, the Fund has recognized achievement in theater by administrating and/or presenting a number of prestigious awards. They include the Flora Roberts Award, named in honor of the famed theatrical agent; the Kitty Carlisle Hart Award, recognizing Ms. Hart's outstanding philanthropy in the education and support of writers for the theatre; the Kirkwood Award, named in honor of playwright James (A Chorus Line) Kirkwood, to encourage, nurture and mentor emerging playwrights; and the Madge Evans and Sidney Kingsley Awards for Excellent in Theatre, created in the name of the beloved actress and her playwright husband who wrote Detective Story and Dead End.