Binger Center for New Theatre

Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre is an artist-driven initiative that devotes major resources to the commissioning, development, and production of new plays and musicals. The Binger Center has supported the work of more than 70 commissioned artists and underwritten the premieres and subsequent productions of more than 30 new plays and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres across the country.

Established in 2008, the Binger Center was permanently endowed in 2012 by a gift from the Robina Foundation with additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Time Warner Foundation, Inc., the Lucille Lortel Foundation and individual donors. The Binger Center is named in honor of James H. Binger (1916-2004), the noted businessman, theatre impresario, and philanthropist who created the Robina Foundation. Additional funding is from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Time Warner Foundation, Inc., the Lucille Lortel Foundation, the Sir Peter Shaffer Charitable Foundation, The Roy Cockrum Foundation, and individual donors.

Selected Binger Center Programs

Commissions

Supported by funding from the Binger Center, Yale Rep commissions artists—including playwrights, directors, composers, choreographers, designers, performers, and ensembles—to create to work for the stage. These artists can be at any point in their creative lives: from early and mid-career to established. In the 2022–23 season, Yale Rep’s commission fees started at $30,000 per project.

READINGS AND WORKSHOPS

Each development process is tailor-made to the artist’s need and can include small, private readings or large-scale, multi-day workshops. The Binger Center compensates artists for all developmental activities with fees for rehearsals, housing, and travel. This compensation is paid to commissioned artists in addition to commission fees and/or royalties.

ResidencIes

The Binger Center brings artists to New Haven for residencies. Like all development activities, each residency is created in response to the artist’s unique process and can include independent, unstructured work time; dramaturgical support from Yale Rep’s staff; and access to Yale University’s vast resources. The Binger Center provides travel, housing, and per diem to artists for residencies.

Production Fund

The Binger Center’s production fund provides financial support for productions of new work commissioned by and/or first produced by Yale Rep, offering opportunities for the work to be seen by audiences across the country. The production fund has underwritten productions of new work at theaters in New York City (including Atlantic Theater Company, LCT3, New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for a New Audience, Soho Rep), Pittsburgh, PA (City Theatre), Cambridge, MA (American Repertory Theater), Richmond, VA (Firehouse Theatre), Washington, DC (Woolly Mammoth), Greenville, SC (Warehouse Theatre), La Jolla, CA (La Jolla Playhouse), and Los Angeles (Geffen Playhouse).