TRANSPORT GROUP invests in stories UNTOLD
We are thrilled to announce the installment of The Joanna and Steven Sanders New Works Program. In this permanent endeavor, The Joanna & Steven Sanders New Works Program will foster new plays and musicals in preparation for full production. The program supports playwrights, librettists, and composers through every step of the process from first draft to final dress, letting each work dictate its tailored course of development through commissions, readings, writers’ retreats, demos, and fully staged workshops, among other elements of the development process. Transport Group is committed to carry all commissions through to production in upcoming seasons after robust development via The Joanna & Steven Sanders New Works Program.
“With The Sanders’ generous gift, Transport Group will be able to keep its eye on the future by reliably providing the means for these artists to fully experiment in creating new work that will add to the American theatre canon.”
– Jack Cummings III, Artistic Director
Building on a foundation
The Joanna and Steven Sanders New Works Program solidifies Transport Group’s ability to support artists during development and with an eye toward full productions. Prior to the institution of this program, Transport Group has a long history of new works; from the ambitious, 46-actor, 30-author The Audience (2005), to a commission of one of the most celebrated modern composers: Michael John LaChiusa’s Queen of the Mist (2011), to an exploration of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay through the perspective of six young artists with a soaring score from Carmel Dean in her NYC debut, Renascence (2018). Transport Group also has an acclaimed track record of adapting existing scripts; a compendium of William Inge one-acts with Requiem for William, (2003) to a 10-veteran-actress adaption of I Remember Mama (2014) to a searing, timely deconstruction of the docu-drama The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (2019). With the generous support of The Sanders’, Transport Group will bolster our artistic development, ensuring we’re able to produce one-of-a-kind theatrical experiences for our audiences season after season.
Explore Past WORLD PREMIERES and ADAPTATIONS
ABOUT JOANNA & STEVEN SANDERS
Joanna and Steven Sanders are proud to give Transport Group artists the foundation to realize wholly new world premieres by supporting the entire creative process from the playwrights to the librettists to the composers. Bold new works of American theatre require holistic creative development where the artists that shape a new theatrical piece are free to dream big together and collaborate across the disparate disciplines of performing arts. Transport Group has always and will continue to focus on the creation of new works that expand the American theatrical canon.
Joanna and Steven Sanders have a shared passion for theatre. To them, there are few moments more inspiring than when playwrights, librettists, composers, musicians, choreographers, and actors work in unison to breath life into a unique live performance in front of an audience. Joanna Sanders is a New York-based actress, singer, and producer. She wrote, produced, and starred in Femmes Fatales, Midnight Storybook, and Sooner or Later cabaret shows at The Triad and Laurie Beechman Theatres. She was an Associate Producer for Transport Group’s world premiere of Renascence with book by Dick Scanlan and Music by Carmel Dean. Ms. Sanders serves on the Board of Directors and is a Member of the Executive Committee of Transport Group. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a BA in French & Francophone Studies in 2006. Steven Sanders founded transparent personal protective equipment pioneer BendShape Mask and sensing innovator Tactual Labs Co. (“Tactual”). Mr. Sanders serves as BendShape’s and Tactual’s CEO. He is an inventor on 32 US patents spanning capacitive, optical, RF sensing hardware and software as well as applied materials products. He is a frequent publisher of academic research in human interaction technologies and a founder of the TUX HCI speaker series. From 2009-16, he helped to found and served as a Senior Research Analyst & Principal at Sanders Capital, a value-oriented institutional asset manager with over $50B in assets under management as a senior semiconductor and software analyst. From 2006-09, Mr. Sanders worked as a principal banker and strategist for Merrill Lynch Global Wealth management and Bank of America.
