It has been a very, very good two weeks for the Yale Repertory Theatre.
Hot on the heels of the July 19 announcement of a $950,000 gift from the Robina Foundation — a private nonprofit based in Minnesota — the Yale Rep announced a second major gift Wednesday, this time for $1 million, from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, according to a University press release issued Wednesday.
Both gifts will help to support the Yale Center for New Theatre, an initiative founded in 2008 by the Rep and the School of Drama to cultivate new plays and musicals for the national stage. These donations come as additions to the $2.85 million already gifted by the Robina Foundation to kick off the Center’s launch in 2008.
Referring to the Mellon Foundation’s $1 million grant, University President Richard Levin said in Wednesday’s press release that the donation will help the Rep to continue its support of “some of the most vital and important voices in contemporary drama.”
“[The gift] will help ensure Yale Rep’s continued leadership in new play development through the strategic initiatives of the Yale Center for New Theatre,” Levin said.
School of Drama Dean James Bundy DRA ’95, the artistic director for both the Rep and the Center, said in the press releases that the donations will help the Center to expand both in the depth of resources it is able to offer and the scope of its reach, adding that the Mellon Foundation’s gift will have “national impact.”
The Center has already staged three of its commissioned works, including the Andy Warhol-inspired musical “Pop!,” which premiered at the Rep last fall. The next work to go up at the Rep is a new musical by Adam Bock and Todd Almond called “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” which is based on the eponymous Shirley Jackson novel. Other works are scheduled to premier in the coming year at a variety of theaters, including the Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3 in New York City and the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, Calif.