The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced last month the first of seven selections for the NEA New Play Development Program, which includes a new work from Drama alum Lloyd Suh (2001). He will collaborate with the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis on his play Happy End to Everything, which will receive $20,000 to support its early development activities such as workshops and staged readings. Administered by Arena Stage in Washington, DC, this new initiative is intended to help the nation’s non-profit theaters bring more new plays to full production.

"Every year the NEA supports about 135 new theatrical premieres, but the NEA New Play Development Program, in partnership with Arena Stage, is something special. It creates a small but superb national network to develop new works from across the country," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia.

Happy End to Everything will use comedy, fantasy, science fiction, and the current fascination of American youth with manga (Japanese comics and cartoons) to create a parable about every child's discovery that his or her uniqueness is not a stigma, but the key to creativity and joy. The play was developed in partnership with Ma-Yi Theater Company here in New York City.

Suh is the author of American Hwangap, The Children of Vonderly, The Garden Variety, Masha No Home, and several shorter plays, including Happy Birthday William Abernathy, Not All Korean Girls Can Fly, and With A Hammer & A Nail. He serves as artistic director of Second Generation and co-director of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the largest resident company of Asian-American playwrights ever assembled.