As tragic as playwright Donald Fowler’s death was in May 2020, he continues to live through the friends and aficionados who wanted his inspiration to live on. Thanks to the establishment of the Donald Fowler Theater Arts Memorial Fund at the Dallas Foundation, grants have been created to “provide support in the form of seed grants to artists living in the Dallas Metroplex, furthering their completion of new works of theater, including plays and musicals.”
The first grant was awarded in 2021 to Holly Doubet, whose “38 Minutes” subsequently received a workshop at Sammons Center for the Arts in December 2021.
Now Fowler Fund representative Nicholas “Nick” Even has announced that Adam C. Wright and his musical “Another Night at the Crescent” have been named to receive “the amount of $5,000 to assist with early costs of individual theatrical creation and revision.”
Upon being notified of the award, Adam said, “It is an honor to be selected for this year’s Donald Fowler Arts Fund grant. I worked with Donald for over 20 years, most recently on the score and parts preparation for his musical ‘Creep’ at Watertower Theater. Knowing the level of his creativity, compositions and work ethic, it is inspiring to know that he is still encouraging and supporting me as he always did before. I hope to make him proud and am excited to get to work this summer on my first set of rewrites for ‘Another Night at the Crescent.’”
Before assuming that Adam’s work is about Uptown’s Crescent Court, rethink that idea. Inspired by the jazz of the 1930s and 1940s, Adam’s “Another Night at the Crescent” takes place inside the Crescent Moon, a Manhattan nightclub where “a mysterious chanteuse and her backup trio weave a spell of romance for eight lonely souls.”
Donald would have loved the story line and, hopefully, so will those who get to see Adam’s musical in the future.
For those interested in applying for the 2023 grant, they will be accepted starting in January 2023, with the next grant recipient announced in the spring of 2023.