The American theater is on the verge of collapse. The Humana Festival of New American Plays, a vital launching pad for such great playwrights as Lynn Nottage and Will Eno over the past four decades, was canceled this year. This season the Williamstown Theater Festival, one of our most important summer festivals, will consist of only one fully produced work, alongside an anemic offering of staged readings. The Lookingglass, a major anchor of Chicago’s theater scene, is halting production for the year. Nonprofit theaters are where many recent hits — including “A Strange Loop” and “Hamilton,” both of which won Pulitzer Prizes — started out.

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Persons: Lynn Nottage, Will Eno, Edward Albee, August Wilson, Tony Kushner, Annie Baker, Simon, Garfunkel’s, “, “ Hamilton, ”, — Organizations: Public, New, Williamstown Theater, Oregon Shakespeare, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Nonprofit Locations: Oregon, New York