July 9, 2025
Building for the Arts (BFA) today announces that three accomplished leaders and storytellers have joined its board: philanthropy practitioner, performing arts leader, and visionary Stephanie Ybarra; playwright, film producer, and director Dan Klores; and theater producer, MothWorks instructor, and corporate social responsibility leader Denzell Jobson. They will help steward BFA as the organization continues to expand access to the performing arts in New York and across the country.
Founded in Hell’s Kitchen in 1976 to create a vibrant performing arts hub for the neighborhood, BFA has since grown toward a national approach to cultural access, offering multiple pipelines toward deepened artistic engagement. Through its three signature programs—Theatre Row, Music and the Brain, and The American Playwriting Foundation—the organization vitalizes artistic communities and their audiences. Ybarra, Klores, and Jobson each bring a wealth and wide range of experiences from their respective careers to the Board of the multifaceted organization.
Read the full press release here!
June 6, 2025
by Laura Collins-Hughes for The New York Times
The Verbatim Salon– In this free monthly documentary theater series, actors deliver monologues made from interviews with immigrants speaking about their lives in the United States. Presented by The American Playwriting Foundation, in collaboration with the director Scott Illingworth, the unadorned performances have an extraordinary immediacy, with the actors channeling the words from interview recordings that they listen to on earphones as they speak. The audience is gently invited to discuss each monologue afterward, but our listening feels like just as much of a civic exercise. (June 18, Theater Row)
Read the full article in The New York Times!
September 24, 2024
by Andrew Gans for Playbill
Philadelphia playwright and poet Dave Harris (Tambo & Bones, Exception to the Rule) has been named the winner of the 2024 Relentless Award for his play MANAKIN.
Presented by the American Playwriting Foundation and Building for the Arts, Harris will receive a $50,000 prize as well as developmental opportunities to be announced.
The jury also awarded $2,000 prizes to three finalists: My Father Was Shot in the Back of the Head by Gloria Majule, The Good Boy Game by Patrick Vermillion, and The TeeTee & Lala Show by Donja R. Love.
Read the full article in Playbill!
March 18, 2024
Building for the Arts (David J. Roberts, President), the non-profit organization that programs and administers Theatre Row, Music and the Brain, and the American Playwriting Foundation, announced today that it will offer subsidized, affordable rehearsal space to artists and companies at its Theatre Row Rehearsal Studios, located in NYC’s Theatre District.
This subsidized rehearsal space opportunity is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Building for the Arts will offer 1,500 hours of rehearsal studio time in Theatre Row Studios 3, 5, and 6 at subsidized rates of $8-$10 per. Subsidized rehearsal spaces at Theatre Row are available first come, first served until all 1,500 hours are booked.
Read the full press release here!
August 12, 2023
by Ashley Lee for the Los Angeles Times
“One of the things that happens with creativity in almost anybody is that muscles atrophy, and there’s a cost to these kinds of actions, not just in a financial sense,” says Billy Crudup, who will take the stage at New York City’s Theatre Row later this year for a benefit performance alongside Wayne Brady, Vincent D’Onofrio, Gina Gershon, Walton Goggins, Natasha Lyonne, Sam Rockwell, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Schreiber and Yul Vazquez.
These actors will be performing 10-minute “Picket Plays,” created by the founders of the Relentless Award — originally established in the name of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman — to support WGA members who are unable to work due to the current strike. (Submissions are now open to all current WGA members; the panel of judges — including Tanya Barfield, Eric Bogosian, Aleshea Harris and Lynn Nottage — will select six winning writers to receive a $10,000 grant and five finalists to receive $1,000 each.)
“When we are all in each other’s company, active with our particular skill sets and creating things together, we understand our value and it’s not put into question by somebody else,” said Crudup. “In creating this specific event in the midst of a deprivation of work, we are reminded of our requirement to be serious and relentless about our art. And that just gives you all the more impetus to strike for fair wages and long-lasting contracts for future generations.”
Read the full article in the LA Times!
August 31, 2023
Dr. Horowitz of Columbia University’s Center for Arts Education Research has just wrapped up an extensive, three-year study on the impact of Music and the Brain, and we’re thrilled with the results! The study shows that students who participated in the Music and the Brain program experienced growth in not only music ability, but also in academic and social-emotional learning. Here are just a few of the highlights:
96% of students demonstrated increased self-confidence, focus, and creative thinking skills.
100% of teachers said that the program increased student engagement and comprehension.
Students in Music and the Brain partner schools consistently tested higher in Math and Language Arts than comparable schools without Music and the Brain.
98% of teachers said that Music and the Brain made them better educators.
We’re very grateful to Dr. Horowitz for helping us prove scientifically what we’ve always known to be true- that music is a vital part of education (and that our unique method is engaging and effective for students of all ages!)
Read the study’s executive summary here!
December 22, 2022
by Rachel Sherman for The New York Times
Shayok Misha Chowdhury and Laura Grill Jaye have won the 2022 Relentless Musical Award for their new work, “How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia,” the American Playwriting Foundation announced on Thursday.
It is the first Relentless Award to go to a musical. Chowdhury and Jaye, known as the writing duo Grill and Chowder, will receive a $65,000 prize and have the option to hold staged readings at prominent theaters across the country, including a series at Theater Row in New York.
“How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia,” which centers on race and identity in a musical chock-full of ’90s touchstones like Tamagotchi cyberpets and Abercrombie & Fitch, tells the story of a young white girl whose suburban life is interrupted when she finds an unexpected scar on her shoulder in the form of a brown spot.
Read the full article in The New York Times!
December 8, 2022
By Logan Cullwell-Block for Playbill
Building for the Arts has named former Classical Theatre of Harlem Managing Director David J. Roberts as its new president. Roberts will succeed Wendy Rowden, who is leaving the position December 13 following an eight-year tenure. Rowden will continue to serve on BFA’s Board of Directors.
BFA is a non-profit organization that programs and administers Theatre Row, Music and the Brain, and the American Playwriting Foundation. Roberts served as the group’s interim director of theatre operations in spring 2022, and has also previously worked for Pearl Theatre Company, 651 ARTS, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, and Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. He is also a professor at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and The New School’s College of Performing Arts.
“I’ve long been inspired by BFA’s distinctive work in the performing arts sector, from my early years in NYC witnessing AMAS Musical Theatre’s Off-Broadway production of Zanna, Don’t! as an audience member, to serving as line producer of Sonia Flew by Melinda Lopez at the 2006 Summer Play Festival, both presented at Theatre Row,” says Roberts in a statement. “BFA’s mission-focus on ‘access’ and ‘opportunity’ align beautifully with my personal values, as I’ve actively sought out opportunities in my career where inclusion and diversity are accepted, embraced, and celebrated. I look forward to serving the institution and its vibrant, multi-faceted community of artists, arts organizations, audiences, and educators.”
Read the full article in Playbill!
March 1, 2022
For almost 25 years, we have dedicated ourselves to equitably bringing music into classrooms all over the country. Our mission has stayed the same, even as our curriculum has grown over time. When Covid-19 hit, forcing our teachers and students to adapt to at-home learning, we adapted too, creating Music and the Brain All Access, a state-of-the-art online learning system that gives students the power of music whether they’re in school, at home, or both. We are so proud of this platform, and we are thrilled to announce that it has been recognized for Innovation by both Fast Company and the Anthem Awards!
Created by The Webby Awards, The Anthem Awards honors the purpose & mission-driven work of people, companies and organizations worldwide. By amplifying the voices that spark global change, we’re defining a new benchmark for impactful work that inspires others to take action in their own communities. Music and the Brain All Access was recognized for Innovation in Education, Art, and Culture. Learn more here!
This year, Music and the Brain All Access was one of only ten programs honored by Fast Company for innovative educational design of 2021. See the full list here!
February 5, 2022
This year, Music and the Brain has reached an incredible milestone: 25 years of strengthening young minds through the language of music!
We celebrated the occasion in November with an incredible event at Theatre Row, where we heard speeches from some of our Music and the Brain teachers and performances from All Star Students. You can see some of the highlights here.
In honor of 25 years of impact, we also raised $25,000 in individual donations. Thanks to everyone who donated! If you’d like to help us give the gift of music to more students than ever before, you can make a donation here.
September 8, 2021
by Angie Martoccio for Rolling Stone
An award of $65,000 will be presented to an unproduced musical in honor of Adam Schlesinger, the songwriter and Fountains of Wayne co-founder who died from complications related to Covid-19 last year.
The award stems from a merger between the non-profit Building for the Arts and the American Playwriting Foundation, the latter of which is known for the annual Relentless Award presented to an unproduced play in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Both Hoffman’s and Schlesinger’s awards will be named the Relentless, with each prize given to a musical and a play.
Submissions for the award open this month, while the winner will be announced in early 2022. A sub-committee will go through all submissions and narrow it down to eight musicals. The winner will be selected by a panel of judges who collaborated with Schlesinger. The judges include Smashing Pumpkins’ James Iha, who founded the supergroup Tinted Windows with the late musician; Rachel Bloom, the creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; songwriter Sam Hollander; David Javerbaum, who co-wrote Broadway’s Cry-Baby with Schlesinger; and the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt.
Read the full article in Rolling Stone!
May 19, 2020
Music and the Brain is a neuroscience-based program of non-profit Building for the Arts that brings music literacy curriculum and weekly, whole-class keyboard instruction to schools with underserved students, helping them build cognitive and fine motor skills to succeed both academically and in life.
When schools across the country shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, music teachers who make up the nationwide Music and the Brain community reached out for help. Within mere days, Music and the Brain, under the leadership of its Director, Lisala Beatty, launched Music and the Brain @Home, a brand-new online learning platform that allows teachers to extend the proven in-school program to at-home learning.
Read the full press release here!