CHUANG Stage to Receive FY 2024 Challenge America Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

Boston, MA - CHUANG Stage is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Challenge America award of $10,000. This grant will support Found in Translation, a multilingual new play series by Asian American playwrights for Boston's Chinatown. In total, the NEA will award 257 Challenge America awards totaling $2,570,000 that were announced as part of its first round of fiscal year 2024 grants.

“The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to CHUANG Stage, which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community,” said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives.”

Found in Translation is a theatrical collaboration produced by CHUANG Stage, in partnership with the social collective Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston (AATAB), and Boston Chinatown art center Pao Arts Center, on a series of multilingual new plays toward a sense of celebration and belonging in Boston Chinatown via the transformative power of theatre.

Found in Translation brings forth a collection of new contemporary plays written by Asian American playwrights, realized by a local creative design team. By embracing the script-in-hand stage reading format, the series highlights the plays’ best potential and invites audiences to explore their bold narratives. Each theatrical activation will be paired with community events that amplify the themes of each play and the goals of the playwrights involved.

“Found in Translation is the program that is most dear to our hearts—it explores intersections between public spaces, Asian American residents, and exciting new work.” Said CHUANG Stage Executive Director, Alison Yueming Qu. “By rooting the new play process in Boston Chinatown in a public art format, we dedicate the series to combat racism, xenophobia, and gentrification in Chinatown by amplifying AAPI community strength.”

Since 2021, the Found in Translation series has activated community spaces via four staged readings by playwrights of the Asian Diaspora, all of which are bilingual theatre works that focus on gathering and uplifting their specific cultural communities, and welcomed over 700 physical audiences and engaged over 50 local artists.

For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.