“Theatre changes hearts, that secret place where we all truly live…”
Terrence McNally, 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement Acceptance Speech
The Terrence McNally Foundation
is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization committed to supporting bold new voices in the American theatre by providing financial and institutional support to early-career playwrights. Created by Terrence and supported through the royalties of his work, the Foundation is also committed to supporting LGBTQ+ causes, as McNally did throughout his life.
“The sun will not fall down from the sky if there are no more Traviatas. The world can and will go on without us but I have to think that we have made this world a better place. That we have left it richer, wiser than had we not chosen the way of art.”
Maria Callas, Master Class by Terrence McNally
Our Programs
Terrence McNally New Works Incubator
The Terrence McNally New Works Incubator at Rattlestick Theater supports early-career playwrights through mentorship, resources, and a collaborative artistic community. Selected by a panel of distinguished American playwrights (past playwrights have included Sheila Callaghan, Halley Feiffer, Madeleine George, Stephen Karam, Mike Lew, donja r. love, Rehana Mirza, Lynn Nottage, and Paula Vogel), McNally fellows each receive a cash stipend, personalized guidance from a veteran playwright mentor, and access to the broader networks at Rattlestick and Tom Kirdahy Productions. During a three-week incubation period, playwrights refine their scripts outside product-driven constraints while regularly meeting with their mentors and literary teams to discuss process and progress. The program culminates in a 29-hour developmental workshop—complete with dramaturgical support, a director, and actors—leading to an industry presentation. By nurturing daring new voices in American theater, the Incubator embraces McNally’s enduring commitment to artistic exploration, community-building, and the elevation of groundbreaking storytelling.
For more information, including how to apply, please visit Rattlestick Theater.
PTC’s Terrence McNally Award
Philadelphia Theatre Company’s longstanding relationship with Terrence McNally—evidenced by the four McNally world premieres it produced (Master Class, Unusual Acts of Devotion, Golden Age, and Some Men)—reflects his deep commitment to Philadelphia’s thriving cultural scene and its community of artists. Building on that legacy, and his dedication to supporting early-career playwrights, McNally and PTC (under former Artistic Directors Sara Garonzik and Paige Price) established the Terrence McNally Award, which provided one Philadelphia-based emerging playwright with financial resources and a public reading of their work at PTC. Past recipients include James Ijames, Bill Cain, A. Zell Williams, Martín Zimmerman, Donja R. Love, and Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters, showcasing the city’s rich diversity of new voices. Now under Artistic Directors Taibi Magar and Tyler Dobrowsky, in partnership with the Terrence McNally Foundation, the award continues as a two-year program (e.g., 2024–2025, then 2026–2027), offering $10,000, dramaturgical support, and a public reading for the winning playwright.
For more information, including how to apply, please visit Philadelphia Theatre Co.
Terrence McNally Recovery Commissions
The Terrence McNally Recovery Commission awards a $10,000 commission to one early-career playwright who identifies as being in recovery from a substance use condition. Echoing the notion of sponsorship, a participating theater simultaneously awards a $10,000 commission to an established playwright to independently develop a new play alongside the TMRC Fellow and be a resource to the fellow for one year as an artistic mentor and fellow artist in recovery. The commission culminates in a “Works-in-Progress” showing at the participating theater, where the community is invited to see a selection of scenes from both plays and participate in an on-stage discussion with the selected mentor and fellow. Terrence was very public about his sobriety, recounting Angela Lansbury’s intervention in the documentary Every Act of Life and noting that he hoped sharing his story might help others struggling with substance abuse.
The Terrence McNally Recovery Commission’s inaugural recipients are Jake Brasch and Obie award-winner Craig Lucas.
Terrence McNally Residency at The Hermitage
The Hermitage is a leading national arts incubator and multidisciplinary artist retreat located on Manasota Key, Florida. For more than two decades, the Hermitage has invited accomplished artists across multiple disciplines for residencies on its beachfront campus, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Each year, the Hermitage awards a week-long residency in Terrence’s name to an early-career playwright who has demonstrated extraordinary promise. Hermitage artists are invited to interact with the local community, reaching thousands of Gulf Coast residents and visitors each year with unique and inspiring programs. Hermitage Fellows have included 17 Pulitzer Prize winners, Poets Laureate, Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellows, and multiple Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar winners and nominees. Works created at this beachside retreat by a diverse and accomplished group of Hermitage alumni have gone on to renowned theaters, concert halls, and galleries throughout the world.
Learn more about the Hermitage’s inaugural McNally resident, Zeniba Now.
Want to learn more about Terrence McNally?
His archives are free and open to the public at the Harry Ransom Center in the University of Texas at Austin. Learn more and explore their digital collections here.
Terrence McNally
was an American playwright, librettist, and LGBTQ+ trailblazer, described by the New 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, Terrence 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.
Share in the legacy.
Interested in supporting Terrence McNally Foundation programs? As a 501(c)(3) organization, your contribution is tax-deductible to the full extent permitted by law.
Checks can be made out to “Terrence McNally Foundation” and mailed to 29 East Ninth Street, Suite 2, New York, NY 10003
To donate by credit card, please visit this link.
