NEA Grant Withdrawn for “The Staircase”

On Friday, May 2, South Coast Repertory received notification of the withdrawal of our National Endowment for the Arts grant award for The Staircase by Noa Gardner. This news came in the middle of celebrations for Opening Night of that production. We received notification of our award of $20,000 on November 7, 2024, about six months ago. We intend to appeal the decision to withdraw that award this week within the seven-day turnaround window required by the National Endowment for the Arts.

South Coast Repertory is Orange County’s only Tony Award-winning theatre company and we serve more than 60,000 Orange County residents each year. We provide broad access to world-class plays and musicals, both new and established—all performed live. Every play is produced here through the tremendous work of local skilled trade workers, including 129 full and part-time theater technicians and artisans, 104 union actors, stage managers and musicians, 65 designers and their assistants and 30 directors and playwrights across our season.

The Staircase, for which NEA funding was withdrawn on Friday, is a story about a Native Hawaiian family. It celebrates the Native Hawaiian culture, and through ancestral myths, legends and music, explores the relationship between their homeland and the mainland United States. It is a universal story of familial love and obligations that in its specific authenticity, describes a deeply human experience. This play was commissioned, developed and produced by South Coast Repertory over several years. Promised matching funds from the National Endowment for the Arts allowed our organization to secure the resources necessary to produce this work. The vast majority of artists, artisans and technicians working on our production are local to Orange County and Southern California, creating hundreds of jobs for our local workforce. More importantly, this production—and all of our work—seeks to serve all of Orange County, giving our audiences the rare opportunity to come together in community for a shared transformative experience.

Now is the time to support the theatre you love.