Yale Daily News

The Yale Repertory Theatre was informed through an email on Friday that the National Endowment for the Arts had terminated a $30,000 grant for a planned production of Zora Neale Hurston’s “Spunk.”

Florie Seerie, the theater’s managing director, told the News the show will proceed. It is scheduled to open on Oct. 9 and run through Oct. 25, according to an audition notice posted in March. Representatives for the Yale Rep did not provide details about whether the grant loss will affect the performers or other production expenses.

Dean James Bundy DRA ’95, who is the Yale Rep’s artistic director, and other administrators at the David Geffen School of Drama sent an email to faculty and students on Monday addressing the termination of the grant. They reaffirmed a “fundamental obligation to support concerted national efforts to create art that inspires joy, empathy and understanding in the world.”

The NEA cut to “Spunk” followed a series of funding rollbacks at peer institutions nationwide, such as the cancellation of NEA grants at the Berkeley Repertory Theater.

Bundy — who is stepping down from his post as dean and artistic director this summer — wrote in a statement to the News that the show’s original budget was in the “mid-six-figures,” substantially larger than the grant amount. Despite the setback, he wrote, the theater remains committed to producing “Spunk” and plans to look for alternative sources of funding.

In its budget request for the 2026 fiscal year released on May 2, the Trump administration announced its plans to defund and eliminate the National Endowment of the Arts and other programs to “enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities.” The NEA is currently the only arts funder operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

Bundy wrote in a statement to the News that he was dismayed by the loss of the grant and the proposed elimination of the NEA, considering the institution’s long history of impact.

“It’s disappointing to see a process of thoughtful deliberation by professionals and subject experts undone, and to have all the work put in by hundreds of arts organizations that prepared thoughtful proposals devalued,” Bundy wrote.

Bundy said that these grants help the U.S. remain a world leader in “cultural exports.” Additionally, he said, such funding provides necessary outlets for students and children from varied backgrounds to gain access to the arts.

“We deeply regret the loss of a grant previously adjudicated in good faith by public servants at the NEA,” the Drama School administrators wrote in their email on Monday. “We will exercise our rights to resist the elimination of a federal agency that has done so much to uplift the spirits of the American people and the free exchange of ideas around the globe.”

They added that they “stand in solidarity with hundreds of other defunded theaters whose joyful artistry is essential to civic life and civil discourse.”

Bundy wrote to the News that NEA cuts will have damaging effects across the country at other theaters, which may have to “reduce other programming or lean more heavily on their donor communities.”

He added that the Trump administration’s move “brings greater stress to a sector still recovering from the pandemic. For some organizations, the amounts involved will be profoundly destabilizing.”

Significant NEA funding cuts have hit another theater in New Haven. Long Wharf Theatre was notified on Friday that four grants from the NEA were terminated.

In an email sent to the News, Eric Gershman, the theater’s interim managing director, said that the canceled grants totaled over $170,000.

“This funding was meant to support community-centered work across New Haven, from classrooms to cafes,” Gershman wrote. “Its loss will have a real and immediate impact on the programming we’re able to offer and the people we can reach.”

According to Gershman, the NEA has enabled organizations to appeal the decision within a seven day window, and Long Wharf Theatre is preparing its appeal.

Bundy told the News that the Yale Rep is connecting with other theaters to organize “collective action,” but did not specify which theaters they have reached out to. He suggested initial steps to push for the NEA to continue.

“I am a big believer that whatever their views, citizens should write their representatives in Congress and participate in the democratic process,” Bundy wrote.

The Yale Repertory Theatre is located at 1120 Chapel St.