Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, today announced the launch of the McNally Fellowship at the Hermitage, made possible with generous support from the Terrence McNally Foundation. This new grant is intended to support the residency of an early-career playwright. In collaboration with the McNally Foundation, the Hermitage has selected Zeniba Now as the inaugural honoree.
Zeniba Now, an award-winning writer, musical storyteller, performer, and vocalist from Los Angeles, was selected for the Hermitage’s acclaimed residency program by the organization’s National Curatorial Council, a fourteen-member body that includes two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, Doris Duke Award-winning artistic director Nataki Garrett, and acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Rajiv Joseph, among other luminaries in their respective fields. She was recently named a “Woman to Watch” by the Broadway Women’s Fund.
As part of Zeniba’s residency, the Hermitage will present “Zeniba Now: The Heartsong and Other Experiments” on the Hermitage Beach – Friday, October 18 at 5:30pm. The program will feature original works performed by this singularly talented artist and performer. Crossing mediums and weaving genres, Zeniba Now is introducing audiences to her unique approach to musical storytelling. Along with her work, Zeniba will offer insight into her creative process. The program will also feature remarks from Tony and Olivier Award-winning Broadway producer Tom Kirdahy (Hadestown, Gypsy, Little Shop of Horrors) and Tony Award-winning Hermitage Artistic Director Andy Sandberg.
“The Hermitage is deeply grateful to the Terrence McNally Foundation for their generous support and passionate belief in the work we are doing,” says Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “It has been a joy to collaborate with our friend Tom Kirdahy on a number of special programs, and he’s been such a champion of the Hermitage and its mission. We are honored to celebrate Terrence’s remarkable legacy by providing the gift of space and time to inspiring new voices in the theater, and we’re excited to name Zeniba Now as the first recipient of this honor.”
Tom Kirdahy, a Tony and Olivier Award-winning Broadway producer and the late Terrence McNally’s husband, is the president of Tom Kirdahy Productions and a principal trustee of the McNally Foundation. Among his recent producing credits are the forthcoming revival of Gypsy starring Audra McDonald, the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown, the hit Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors, and Stephen Sondheim’s posthumous musical Here We Are, which starred Tony Award winner and recent Hermitage Fellow Rachel Bay Jones. Kirdahy has also participated in a number of Hermitage programs himself over the past four seasons.
“We are incredibly proud to support the work the Hermitage is doing,” added Kirdahy. “The Hermitage is a world-class arts incubator – not only for playwrights and theater artists, but for so many extraordinary talents of all different backgrounds and disciplines. The gift they are giving to these innovative and imaginative writers, performers, and artists is invaluable. We are excited for Zeniba Now to continue her creative journey with this Hermitage residency in Terrence’s name.”
The Terrence McNally Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to supporting bold new voices in the American theater by providing support to early-career playwrights and the institutions that support them. The McNally Foundation’s mission to champion new playwrights aligns with the mission of the Hermitage Artist Retreat: to inspire and foster the most influential and consequential art and artists of our time. Created by legendary playwright/librettist Terrence McNally and supported through the ongoing royalties of his work, the Foundation is also committed to supporting LGBTQ+ causes, as McNally did throughout his life. Following Terrence’s passing, Tom Kirdahy stated that the Foundation would continue the legendary playwright’s “singular legacy of mentorship and activism.”
Zeniba Now is a creator of commercial and independent art and performance. As a writer of musicals, her work includes the musical shorts “Beloved” and “To Be on Hold Forever / Stay on the Line.” Full-length musicals include The Loophole, Take the Lead, and a new musical in development with Disney Theatrical Productions. Audiences can see Zeniba Now in her shows “iQuit: Millennial Retirement Gala” and “Sincerely, Z” on TikTok and YouTube. Her music can be heard on several streaming services, including her new meditative release, “Wholly Chill.” Zeniba Now is the winner of The Jonathan Larson Grant, The Richard Rodgers Award, The Vivace Award, The Thom Thomas Award, and now the inaugural Fellow of the McNally Residency at the Hermitage.
Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and LGBTQ+ trailblazer, described by TheNew York Times as “the bard of the American Theater.” One of the few playwrights of his generation to successfully pass from the avant-garde to mainstream acclaim, McNally redefined American playwriting for six decades and was the recipient of five Tony Awards (two for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class, two for the books to his musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, and the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement). He received the 2011 Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (he was Vice President of the Guild from 1981 to 2001), the 2015 Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award, a 1996 induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and, in 2018, an induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His other accolades include an Emmy Award (Andre’s Mother), two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Obie Awards, and three Hull-Warriner Awards. Terrence was an alumnus of Columbia University and received numerous honorary degrees, including from NYU and Juilliard, where he helped create the playwriting program in 1993. His legacy lives on in his plays, musicals, and operas that continue to be performed all over the world, as well as in his papers, which are kept and open to the public at the Harry Ransom Center in the University of Texas at Austin.