This grant will enable L.A. Theatre Works (LATW), a distinguished 30-year company that specializes in radio plays, to record for broadcast on public radio four Sloan-commissioned plays, including the Ensemble Studio Theater mainstage plays The Secret Order and Moving Bodies. Two of the broadcasts will be recorded at either Lincoln Center in New York or the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, before live audiences. The broadcasts will be part of a special monthly series of science-themed plays and include not only interviews with subject experts, actors, and directors, but also short features on the scientific subjects in the plays. This long-running weekly program, called The Play's the Thing, is promoted by a combination of on-air, web, and marketing outreach efforts. Both the series and the show are featured on websites of LATW and partner stations with links that enable people to purchase plays from LATW's audio collection in hard copy or digital form. The monthly audience for these works is 600,000. In addition, LATW will distribute one of the four Sloan-commissioned plays worldwide to its partners in WorldPlay, an association of the leading English language radio broadcasters, including BBC World Service, CBC (Canada), ABC (Australia), Radio New Zealand, Radio Hong Kong, and Radio Telefis Eireann (Ireland). Each year, an annual festival of seven plays, one from each broadcaster, airs in each country and generates large audiences. Project Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg, Producing Director.

The Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) is well-known for producing new plays, with 24 world and 12 American premieres in the past decade. The Foundation's collaboration with MTC continues to generate new plays about science and technology and helps spread the message that science and technology offer playwrights interesting characters and wonderful themes and stories that have gone largely untold. With this grant, MTC will expand its Sloan program by commissioning four playwrights a year to write plays that deal with science and technology themes and/or characters. MTC will also increase the number of developmental readings and workshops conducted for new Sloan commissions while continuing to assist playwrights commissioned in previous rounds. The grant budget includes a small travel stipend for the Sloan project manager at MTC to visit other regional theaters across the country to evaluate relevant plays for potential production. Also included are honoraria for the scientific advisory board that plays a key role in improving the science content of commissioned works and acting as a resource for playwrights. With this grant, two dozen produced playwrights will have written science and technology plays under the Sloan/MTC program, ensuring a steady supply of new work that will receive readings, workshops, productions, and publication across the country. Project Director: Barry Grove, Executive Producer.

For production of an opera about Nicola Tesla, along with scientific discussion and ancillary activities. Project Director: Karen Hopkins, President.