“Witness Uganda”: I Want To See This
“Witness Uganda,” a musical by Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews, has won the 2014 Richard Rodgers Production Award for Musical Theater, the American Academy of Arts and Letters announced on Monday. The award, which is administered by the academy, is meant to help composers and playwrights have their musicals produced in New York by providing financial support for productions and staged readings by nonprofit theaters. In the case of “Witness Uganda,†a work about a young man who goes to Uganda to help build a village school after his church in New York begins to investigate his sexuality, the award will help underwrite a production that opens on Feb. 12 at the American Repertory Theater, in Cambridge, Mass. Diane Paulus is directing the production, which is scheduled to run through March 16. Former winners of the award include “Nine,†by Maury Yeston; “Rent,†by Jonathan Larson; “Juan Darién,†by Elliot Goldenthal and Julie Taymor; and “Grey Gardens,†by Scott Frankel, Michael Korie and Doug Wright.
