Earlier this week, Jerome told you about the second pair of SMU Meadows Prize winners. One of them is hip-hop theater artist Will Power. And now comes word that Power will work with the Dallas Theater Center next year to develop an original piece that will premiere at the DTC. Power will spend time in Dallas this spring writing the piece. In the fall, it will be developed with workshops and readings, including a reading for the public.

Release after the jump.

DALLAS THEATER CENTER ANNOUNCES

Residency with 2010 Meadows Prize

Recipient Will Power

DALLAS (December 7, 2010) – Dallas Theater Center is pleased to announce that 2010 Meadows Prize recipient Will Power will serve two periods of residency with Dallas Theater Center in 2011 to develop an original work for Dallas to be premiered at DTC.  Artists receiving the Meadows Prize work closely with a partnering arts organization and students at Southern Methodist University.

“DTC’s continuing close and vital collaboration with SMU allows each organization to grow and benefit from each other,” says DTC Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty.  “By working with SMU during the selection process and collaborating with them to bring Will Power, a fresh and exciting theater artist, to Dallas to create a new play in and for this city, we are supporting each other’s missions, enriching the local arts community and contributing to the national theater dialogue.”

Will Power is an award-winning playwright and performer whose work includes Fetch Clay, Make Man, which had its world premier at the McCarter Theater Center in Princeton, NJ.  Power’s time at Dallas Theater Center will consist of two three-week periods of residency in 2011.  During his spring residency, Power will write an original work that will be developed in workshops and readings in the fall.  This will include a reading for the general public.  DTC will premiere Power’s new work in an upcoming season.

“The Meadows Prize will allow me to work and teach the crafts of theater, play writing and story-telling to SMU students and to the community.  This will allow me to engage the different aspects of who I am – I am passionate about excellence within the community and excellence within the theater,” says Power.  “Whenever an artist gets this kind of artistic and financial support, they learn a tremendous amount.  I don’t know what I’ll learn, but I’d like to think I’ll be a better artist and a better teacher after going through this process.”

In addition to support for their artistic residency, recipients of the Meadows Prize receive at $25,000 stipend and will conduct classes with the DTC Resident Acting Company and Meadows School of the Arts students.  Choreographer and designer Shen Wei joins Power as a 2011 honoree.  The two follow music ensemble eighth blackbird and public arts organization Creative Time, who received the prize in 2009.

“We’ve taken risks with the Meadows Prize,” says José Antonio Bowen, dean of the Meadows School. “Rather than give it to someone who already has a Pulitzer Prize, we are trying to commission a work that will debut in Dallas, and then win the Pulitzer, or a Tony or an Oscar.  These are artists who will challenge Dallas, but they are also artists who are challenging the art world; that is where the action is.  We are very excited to not only help bring two new works to Dallas, but also two new models of how artists work.  Will Power will work with SMU students and with our community partners to generate new material, perhaps for his new commission, but also to show our students how they can turn their own stories into powerful human drama.  This aligns perfectly with the school’s mission to increase our community outreach and help artists develop relevance.”

ABOUT WILL POWER:

Will Power is an award-winning playwright and performer.  He received the prestigious USA Prudential Fellowship, the first annual TCG Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, a Lucille Lortel Award (Best Musical), a Joyce Award, a NYFA Fellowship, a Jury Award for Best Theatre Performance at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival, and a 2004 Drama Desk nomination.

His recent plays include Fetch Clay, Make Man (McCarter Theatre, Directed by Des McAnuff), and Five Fingers of Funk (Children’s Theatre Company, Directed by Derrick Sanders). His adaptation of the Greek tragedy “Seven Against Thebes,” re-titled “The Seven,” completed a successful Off-Broadway run at the New York Theater Workshop, and made its west coast premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse. His solo show FLOW also received national acclaim.

ABOUT DALLAS THEATER CENTER:

One of the leading regional theaters in the country, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 90,000 North Texas residents annually. DTC is a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. DTC also presents at its former residence, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. DTC engages, entertains and inspires a diverse community by creating experiences that stimulate new ways of thinking and living by consistently producing plays, educational programs and other initiatives that are of the highest quality and reach the broadest possible constituency.

The mission of DTC is to engage, entertain and inspire our diverse community by creating experiences that stimulate new ways of thinking and living.  With the leadership of Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and Managing Director Mark Hadley, DTC is committed to consistently producing plays, educational programs and other initiatives that are of the highest quality and reach the broadest possible constituency.

ABOUT THE MEADOWS PRIZE:

The Meadows Prize replaced the Meadows Award, which was given annually from 1981 to 2003 to honor the accomplishments of an artist at the pinnacle of a distinguished career.   Meadows Prize recipients must be pioneering artists and scholars with an emerging international profile, active in a discipline represented by one of the academic units within the Meadows School: advertising, art, art history, arts administration, cinema-television, corporate communications, dance, journalism, music and theatre.

The Meadows Prize is sponsored by the Meadows School and The Meadows Foundation, in partnership with the new AT&T Center for the Performing Arts and local Dallas arts organizations.