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The Refocus Project The Refocus Project

The Refocus Project

The Refocus Project

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After three years of programming that spotlighted plays from Black, Latinx, and AAPI playwrights, The Refocus Project will use 2023–24 to assess the initiative’s impact and effectiveness and plan for its future. During this time, we will continue to develop projects that we featured in Refocus, including the first-ever Broadway revival of Samm-Art Williams's Home, directed by Kenny Leon, beginning at the newly renamed Todd Haimes Theatre on May 17, 2024.

The Refocus Project aims to transform the American theatre canon.

The works deemed to be “classic” plays have long been defined too narrowly and by too few. If we’re to have an equitable theatre, we must look to the past and shine a spotlight on the plays and playwrights that were left behind by history, not because of their merits but because of their identities.   

As a theatre company with a legacy of producing revivals, we realize we need to tell a more complete story and ensure we are an active part of the solution, not an ongoing part of the problem. 

Roundabout launched The Refocus Project in 2021, spotlighting 20th century plays from the Black American community, in association with Black Theatre United. The second year featured Latinx playwrights, in partnership with Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT). Year Three will celebrate plays by AAPI playwrights from the 20th and 21st centuries. 

 

Please contact refocus@roundabouttheatre.org for further information on the available resources around these plays.


Leadership support for The Refocus Project is generously provided by the Ford Foundation.

Additional funding provided by Eugene and Joann Bissell and the Lillian Lincoln Foundation, R. Martin Chavez and by Bank of America.


The Refocus Project is made possible by the Champions for Inclusive Theatre and Roundabout’s Forward Fund. We acknowledge the generous friends who support our many efforts to increase representation and inclusion in all aspects of theatre: Elizabeth Armstrong, Bank of America, Eugene and Joann Bissell and the Lillian Lincoln Foundation, Kevin Brown, Barbara and Peter Bye, Ginger McKnight Chavers, the Ford Foundation, Jill and Barry Lafer, Gina Maria Leonetti, Iva Mills, Beryl Snyder, and Denise Littlefield Sobel.