New Line Theatre Honored with Grant from Grateful Dead's Rex Foundation

New Line Theatre, "the bad boy of musical theatre," now in its 22nd season of adult, alternative musical theatre, has been named by the Rex Foundation in San Francisco as one of eight national grant recipients.

The Grateful Dead was always known for generosity and the performance of many benefits. In the fall of 1983, the Rex Foundation was established as a non-profit charitable organization by members of the Grateful Dead and friends to further this tradition. Named for Rex Jackson, a Grateful Dead roadie and later road manager until his untimely death in 1976, the Rex Foundation enabled the Grateful Dead to go beyond responding to multiple requests for contributions, and proactively provide extensive community support to creative endeavors in the arts, sciences, and education. The first benefit concerts for the Rex Foundation were held in the spring of 1984 at the Marin Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium. Since then the Rex Foundation has granted $8.7 million to more than 1,000 recipients.

The Rex Foundation aims to help secure a healthy environment, promote individuality in the arts, provide support to critical and necessary social services, assist others less fortunate than ourselves, protect the rights of indigenous people and ensure their cultural survival, build a stronger community, and educate children and adults everywhere.

The Rex Foundation Board has identified eight organizations across the country as recipients of grants from the proceeds of their upcoming Dec. 1st benefit, in honor of Grateful Dead manager Jon McIntyre, who died earlier this year. The Foundation endeavors to identify grassroots programs that are located not only in the Bay Area/ West Coast region, but also in the Hudson Valley of New York and St. Louis area, where Jon spent considerable time. They seek out programs doing work in areas of great interest to Jon, including the environment, the arts, especially the theater, protection of women from domestic violence and human rights abuse, and literacy.

The other organizations named as grant recipients include Arm-of-the-Sea Productions, Cascadia Wildlands, Crossing Borders Project, Klamath Riverkeeper, StoveTeam International, Tangible Hope, and The Litquake Foundation. More information about the Rex Foundation can be found on their website at rexfoundation.org.

New Line Theatre is a professional company dedicated to involving the people of the St. Louis region in the exploration and creation of daring, provocative, socially and politically relevant works of musical theatre. New Line Theatre was created in 1991 at the vanguard of a new wave of nonprofit musical theatre just starting to take hold across the country. The company has given birth to several world premiere musicals over the years and has brought back to life many shows that did not do well in their original New York productions. Altogether, New Line has produced 68 musicals and 5 concerts of theatre songs since 1991. New Line Theatre was recently given its own entry in the latest edition of the prestigious Cambridge Guide to American Theatre.

New Line's current season continues with the Pulitzer Prize winning rock musical Next to Normal, Feb. 28-March 23, 2013; and the regional premiere of the new adult musical comedy Bukowsical, May 30-June 22, 2013. New Line also receives funding from the Regional Arts Commission, the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation, and the Missouri Arts Council. For more about New Line, go to www.newlinetheatre.com/contact.html.

For other information, visit New Line Theatre's full-service website at www.newlinetheatre.com.

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