Grantee Database

Riki BENEDICTO

Country / Region:
• Philippines

• 2026
• Theater
• Philippines to United States

To investigate process-led and collaborative practices among independent, conceptual, and experimental theater-makers. Benedicto will immerse himself in artist-run spaces and collectives whose work expands authorship, reimagines performance-making, and develops new work. Through rehearsals, classes, and conversations with directors, performers, designers, and artistic leaders, he will observe how ideas, collaborative methods, and emerging concepts take form within an evolving creative relationship. Following the fellowship, Benedicto plans to contribute to a more connected and critically engaged network across the regions where he is actively working.

Dr. Gargi BHARADWAJ

• 2026
• Theater
• India to United States

To study the work of independent women theater makers in New York engaged in solo theater productions. Baradwaj will identify and engage with women solo performers, including those from the Indian diasporic community, to understand performance practices that facilitate experimental and intuitive play as well as the economics of solo work, its affective and labor dimensions, and the shifting networks through which this form circulates. In addition to these conversations, Baradwaj will observe performances, visit venues, and conduct archival research into curatorial practices and models of patronage. As a performance scholar whose work is informed by cultural policy, she hopes to articulate an alternate cross-cultural genealogy of women solo performers whose work responds to today’s ecological, financial, political and democratic crises.

Bond Street Theatre

Country / Region:
• United States

• 2026
• Theater
• United States to Myanmar

To research and identify effective theatre-based practices for addressing conflict-related trauma through an exchange of U.S. and Myanmar artistic methods. New York’s Bond Street Theatre (BST), in partnership with Yangon’s Thukhuma Khayeethe Theatre (TKT), will lead a 40-day initiative grounded in an exchange of artistic and therapeutic methods by the two companies and cross-cultural research comparing mental health issues, practices, and available resources. The site of activities is significant and timely, considering the 2021 military coup’s ongoing impact on psychological distress, social fragmentation, and erosion of trust. BST and TKT will convene their respective Artistic Directors and actor-educators to lead the activities and invite participation from U.S. and Burmese mental health practitioners. Their collaboration aims to identify the most effective theater-based practices in addressing conflict-related trauma and support efforts to integrate these practices into community life.

• 2011
• Theater
• United States to Brunei

Ihot Sinlay CIHEK

• 2026
• Theater
• Taiwan to United States

To examine the dramaturgy of identity in New York’s theater ecosystem. Ihot Sinlay Cihek proposes a fellowship focused on dismantling and reimagining the dramaturgy of equitable collaboration between indigenous and settler artists within a globalized creative environment. Over the six-month fellowship, she will conduct institutional research, visit vanguard experimental venues, and engage in dialogues with playwrights, directors, and dramaturgs whose work actively navigates complex racial and ethnic politics. Ihot Sinlay Cihek hopes the fellowship will help her develop a transnational comparative framework for future decolonial theatre-making while at the same time seeding a vital, reciprocal knowledge transfer between Taiwan’s Indigenous performing arts community and New York’s vanguard theatre scene, establishing new global models for creative alliance.

Abhishek GOSWAMI

• 2026
• Theater
• India to United States

To explore how pedagogical drama informs educators’ professional development and creative learning in schools. Goswami will engage with institutions and practitioners in New York who employ drama as a transformative pedagogical tool, including Lincoln Center Education, New York University’s Program in Educational Theatre, and The New Victory Theater, as well as community-based art educators working in diverse cultural and socio-economic contexts. Through exchanges with these institutions and communities, Goswami will study how drama processes, including role play, image theatre, and ensemble building, can help teachers develop creative confidence, critical thinking, and emotional literacy. He further hopes to share insights from his own work and experience in India, where theater has been used to empower teachers and youth in multilingual, multicultural environments.

Cheng-Han Wu

• 2026
• Theater
• Taiwan to Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand

To research new play development systems and build connections with theatres in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Through interviews, institutional visits, and onsite observations across the three countries, Wu will examine how storytelling practices differ between East and West, and across Asian cultures; what dramaturgical structures define Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines; and how Taiwanese dramaturgy fits within Asia’s wider narrative landscape. Wu will meet playwrights, dramaturgs, directors, and programmers of theater festivals over the course of his fellowship. He hopes the experience will open pathways for future cross-cultural collaborations and creative ventures and directly inform his dramaturgical practice.

• 2022
• Theater
• Taiwan to United States

To visit new play development centers in New York City and interview literary managers, resident dramaturgs, and playwrights-in-residence.

Yayasan Studio Klampisan Banyuwangi

• 2026
• Theater
• Indonesia to Thailand

To exchange practices in socially engaged art and performances with theater companies and professionals in Thailand. Studio Klampisan will organize a two-month series of exchange activities and dialogues seeking to compare their intermedial dramaturgy and community-oriented work methodologies with counterparts in Thailand, a country that also shares a complex history of democratization and similar pre-colonial cultural roots. They will conduct immersive ecosystem mapping in Bangkok, study the socially engaged art of the late artist-activist Thanom Chapakdee, and execute field visits and interviews from which they hope to learn how independent artists sustain their work and refine their own methodological framework. Studio Klampisan expects that the exchange will strengthen their organizational capacity, expand opportunities for regional dialogue and relationships, and promote others’ understanding of East Javanese perspectives.

WANG Yisheng

• 2026
• Theater
• Taiwan to United States

To immerse himself in New York City’s vibrant theatre and museum culture and deepen his understanding of current trends in projection design for the performing arts. Wang proposes a fellowship that will expose him to local practices and trends in performing arts projection design. He aims to attend performances on Broadway and find opportunities to closely observe theater productions from behind the scenes. Wang hopes that the immersive experience is one from which he will learn new techniques, be taken out of his comfort zone, and return to Taiwan inspired.

TAN Yubing

• 2026
• Theater
• Indonesia to Malaysia

To research the evolution of Chinese puppetry over time and across various cities in Indonesia and in Penang, Malaysia. Over the course of her fellowship, Tan will visit key institutions, collections, and temples that offer valuable perspectives on the preservation and evolution of Chinese puppetry in Indonesia and Malaysia. Tan will explore how tradition and modernity intersect with this art form. In addition to these visits, she will meet with puppet masters, troupes, and artists collectives in the two countries. Tan hopes to understand how puppetry migrates and transforms under different cultural and political contexts and aims to find new ways to tell stories.

Amanda Andrei

• 2024
• Theater
• United States to Philippines

To study Filipino plays that deal with online and internet culture, observing how these plays might translate from Filipino to Anglophone audiences and how a diasporic heritage language learner critiques a multilingual play.

Elizabeth Bielby

• 2024
• Theater
• United States to China

To travel to Chengdu and Zigong, China for six weeks to observe, exchange, and collaborate with traditional chuanju ("Sichuan opera") artists around ongoing physical and vocal training practices of physical performers in China and the U.S.

Bridge for the Arts and Education

Country / Region:
• Japan

• 2024
• Theater
• Malaysia to Japan

To conduct a workshop series facilitated by five artists from Malaysia and Japan involving open rehearsals and artist's talks to explore the link between Asian performance and the theme of death and rebirth through philosophy, movement, and sound.

• 2021
• Theater
• Japan to Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand

A music workshop and open forum for artists from Asia coming to Japan to participate in a production of the Mahabharata that will be held as part of the official cultural events for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

• 2020
• Theater
• Japan to Asia

A 6-month Organization/Project Grant to support a joint film project around Hiroshi Koike’s Mahabharata Series with participating artists from nine countries across Asia

• 2019
• Theater
• Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand to Indonesia

to support cross-cultural workshops in Jogjakarta for performing artists from Japan and Southeast Asia to create a collaborative interpretation of the Mahabharata