The Prince Fellowship Partners with The Theatre Leadership Project to Create New Producing Fellowship

The T. Fellowship at Columbia has recently been renamed The Prince Fellowship, to honor the legacy of the T. Fellowship founder, and legendary director and producer, Harold Prince. Each year, The Prince Fellowship provides one early career producer with the network, financial resources, and mentorship necessary for a career as a creative producer. The fellowship is also partnering with The Theatre Leadership Project to create an additional fellowship opportunity for young aspiring producers. 

The Prince Fellowship is an unparalleled program that includes a stipend of $10,000, a $20,000 budget for the development of a new theatrical production, and access to courses in Columbia's MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program. Ben Holtzman, one of the most recent Prince fellows, produced Gun & Powder by alumna Angelica Chéri ’13 and directed by alumnus and Adjunct Assistant Professor Robert O’Hara ’96 at Signature Theatre.

Upon founding the fellowship in 2005, Prince said, "For a number of years now, I have had interviews with extraordinary young people who want careers as creative producers. They want to nurture new work, encourage new artists, and take chances, and they recognize that the current climate on Broadway makes that almost impossible. Costs have escalated, and producing is generally the work of either a consortium of wealthy individuals, or corporations. So, before it's too late, my colleagues and I have shaped a program with the help of Columbia University, to once again put young creative producing in the mainstream. I've always believed the best of Broadway is the best there is."

Continuing upon Prince’s mission to uplift young creative producers, a group of theatre producers have joined forces to launch The Theatre Leadership Project (TTLP), a nonprofit aimed at providing resources to programs that seek to diversify commercial theatre leadership. The Theatre Leadership Project will partner with the Prince Fellowship and the Black Theatre coalition to train and mentor a new generation of Black theater industry leaders. For the next three years, TTLP will partner with the Prince Fellowship to fund an additional fellow for a three-year program. For this pilot program TTLP will focus on Black applicants, stating “It is our belief that by focusing on one of the most marginalized groups of people, we will ultimately create space for professionals of all races and ethnicities.”

The TTLP creative producing fellowship will launch in the fall. Fellows will spend their first year in the Prince Fellowship, with access to a wealth of resources at Columbia School of the Arts. Their second year will be spent working in a producer’s office. During their third year in the program, TTLP will work with the fellows to find job opportunities. The fellowship project’s advisory council includes The View‘s Whoopi Goldberg; producer John Gore; Apollo Theater executive producer Kamilah Forbes; Obie-winning director Whitney White; SpotCo COO Aaliytha Stevens; Broadway producer Brian Moreland; Robert Fried, CPA, Partner at Withum Smith & Brown; entertainment attorney Stefan Schick; and talent agent Oliver Sultan. 

More information about the Prince fellowship can be found at princefellowship.com.