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About

The CA$H Theatre Grant Program — short for Creative Assistance for the Small (Organization) and Hungry (Artist) — provides vital financial support to individual theatre artists and small theatre companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Founded in 1999, these grants support a range of creative projects artists and companies need, from capacity-building projects to fully-produced public performances.

Read about the most recent CA$H Theatre Grant recipients, projects funded in Spring 2024.

Selection Process

CA$H Theatre is an entirely artist-driven granting program. Each cycle, a panel of five artists and administrators is assembled to review the applications and make all granting decisions. To become a grant panelist, check out our panelist guidelines and fill out the grant panelist registration form.

Dancers and Dance Projects

Theatre Bay Area no longer administers applications for dancers or dance projects. CA$H grants for dancers and dance projects are administered by Dancers Group. Learn about CA$H Dance Grant.

TBA Thanks Our Generous Supporters

CA$H Theatre is grateful to have the generous support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Gerbode Foundation.

EDI Accountability

To hold ourselves accountable in dismantling white supremacy culture and other biases in TBA, we are collecting demographic data on grant applicants and awardees. While there's more work to do, we're proud to say that 95.5% of CA$H Theatre Grants in our 2022 fiscal year went to BIPOC theatre-makers — view the full EDI Accountability report.

How to Apply

CA$H Theatre is now one of six Bay Area grant programs using the Common App for the Arts. With the same questions across our applications, it's now easier to apply for more grants.

Deadline

Applications are now closed. Applications for CA$H Creates and CA$H Performs will reopen in Spring 2025.

Eligibility

CA$H Theatre Grants are available to individual theatre artists, collaborative teams, and small, professionally-oriented theatre companies with operating budgets no greater than $100,000.

Types of CA$H Theatre Grants

There are three funds available: CA$H Creates, CA$H Performs, and CA$H Sustains. Theatre companies and individual theatre artists are eligible to apply for CA$H Creates and CA$H Performs, while CA$H Sustains is specifically for theatre companies.

CA$H Creates

Applications open Spring and Fall

CA$H Creates is a $2,500 grant that supports the development of artistic projects or capacity-building projects not directly tied to a fully-produced performance of a piece.

CA$H Performs

Applications open Spring and Fall

CA$H Performs is a $5,000 grant that supports fully-produced performances of artistic projects that are open to the public, or projects that support the creation of multiple works by multiple artists.

CA$H Sustains

Applications open Fall only

CA$H Sustains is a $5,000 grant that supports the general operating costs of a Bay Area theatre company. Sustains applications will only be open once per year, during the fall granting cycle.

Questions?

Email Melissa@TheatreBayArea.org.

Success Stories

Sarah Matsui

Sarah Matsui

Spring 2021 CA$H Creates Recipient

Photo by Claire Burke

With TBA's support, I was able to finish writing Part III of Hello, Boar, which I performed at Monday Night Marsh at The Marsh in San Francisco... I also had the chance to read new work at APAture Festival by Kearny Street Workshop at Bindlestiff Studio... The new piece I read from also won the 2021 Sewanee Review Nonfiction Contest... Thank you to TBA for putting together this incredible support, and thank you to the 2021 panelists for your vote of confidence in my work.

Alan Quismorio

Alan Quismorio

Fall 2021 CA$H Performs Recipient

CA$H Grant made it possible for The Chikahan Company to develop and produce a culturally specific show in San Francisco. The grant provided for by Theater Bay Area made our fledgling company realize one of our goals to introduce Filipinx American arts and culture back into the American Theater here in San Francisco Bay Area.

Past Recipients

Spring 2024 CA$H Performs Grants
Ramon Abad; Analog Theatre; Jud Ferrer; Left Coast Theatre Company; Oakland Public Theater; Fred C. Riley III; Torange Yeghiazarian

Spring 2024 CA$H Creates Grants
The Chikahan Company; Nicole Jost; Radhika Rao

Fall 2023 CA$H Performs Grants
Aureen Almario; Dan Hoyle, Lisa Ramirez, Michael Moran, and Aldo Billingslea; Bryan Pangilinan; Sixth Line Studios; Perla Violetta

Fall 2023 CA$H Creates Grants
Elizabeth Carter; Doyle Ott and Julia Norton; Conrad Panganiban; Xinyuan Pu; Lisa Marie Rollins; Natacha Ruck; Sanjit Sengupta

Fall 2023 CA$H Sustains Grants
Formerly Incarcerated People’s Performance Project; La Lengua Teatro en Español; Pinecones and Portals Hiking Theater Company

Spring 2023 CA$H Performs Grants
Crescent Moon Theater Productions; La Lengua Teatro en Español; Metzmecatl: Moon Rope Theater; Oakland Public Theater; Plethos Productions; Queer Cat Productions

Spring 2023 CA$H Creates Grants
The Chikahan Company; Mike Chin; Nicole Jost; Julius Rea; Lisa Sniderman

Fall 2022 CA$H Performs Grants
Dazié Grego-Sykes; Violeta Luna; Tan Sang; Kathryn Seabron; Hector Zavala

Fall 2022 CA$H Creates Grants
Amal Bisharat; Toni Cannon; Daniel Duque-Estrada; Ai Ebashi; Juliana Frick & James Sundquist; Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko

Fall 2022 CA$H Sustains Grants
Formerly Incarcerated People’s Performance Project; Play Cafe; Stage Werx Theatre

Spring 2022 CA$H Performs Grants
Native Writers’ Theater; More Más Marami Arts; Theatre Cultura; Windy City Productions; Yiddish Theatre Ensemble; Gabrielle Lochard; La Lengua Teatro en Español; The Chikahan Company

Spring 2022 CA$H Creates Grants
Torange Yeghiazarian; Silk Worm; Landmark Musical Theatre; Ray Oppenheimer and Michelle Talgarow

Fall 2021 CA$H Performs Grants
AlterTheater; Left Coast Theatre Company; India Davis

Fall 2021 CA$H Creates Grants
Melissa Koh & Jeremy Liu; Lynea Diaz-Hagan; Tony Ortega & The Latinx Mafia; Sango Tajima & Susanna Martin; Leticia Duarte; Denmo Ibrahim; Norman Gee

Spring 2021 CA$H Performs Grants
Granny Cart Gangstas; Kunoichi Productions; Ely Sonny Orquiza; Fuse Theatre; Nkeiruka Oruche; Conrad A. Panganiban, Krystle Piamonte, and Alan S. Quismorio; Poltergeist Theatre Project; Adam L Sussman; Justin Taylor

Spring 2021 CA$H Creates Grants
Hannah Dworkin and Min Kahng; Malcolm Grissom; Sarah Matsui; Bryan Pangilinan; Lauren Spencer

Fall 2020 CA$H Performs Grants
BoomShake Music; Eye Zen Presents; Latinx Mafia; Metzmacatl, Moon Rope Theater; Beatrice Thomas; Dazié Rustin Grego; Sabrina Wenske; Skyler Cooper

Fall 2020 CA$H Creates Grants
The Forum Collective; Queer Cat Productions; Uplift Physical Theatre; Rebecca Pingree; Eteya Trinidad; Bob Shryock; Tierra Allen

Spring 2020 CA$H Performs Grants
Bay Area Theatre Cypher; Crescent Moon Theater Productions; Those Women Productions; Be Steadwell; Erin Merritt; Virginia M. Blanco

Spring 2020 CA$H Creates Grants
Gamal Chasten; Katja Rivera; Keiko Shimosato Carreiro

Fall 2019 CA$H Performs Grants
Fuse Theatre; Project Poltergeist; Ritual Art Troupe; Solo Opera; Sweet Can Productions; Teatro Nahual; Marc Abrigo; Aureen B. Almario; Chibueze Crouch; Mark Kenward

Fall 2019 CA$H Creates Grants
Footloose Presents; Emma Attwood; Denmo Ibrahim; Amy Grace Lam; Doll Piccotto; Lisa Marie Rollins; Elissa Stebbins

Spring 2019 CA$H Performs Grants
AlterTheater Ensemble; Eye Zen Presents; San Francisco Recovery Theatre; Those Women Productions; Syr Beker; At Ebashi; Alexis Macnab; Baruch Porras Hernandez; Bridgette Portman; Kevin Seaman

Spring 2019 CA$H Creates Grants
Wry Crips Disabled Women's Theatre; Megan Cohen; Marieke Gaboury; Linda Maria Girón; Nina Wise

Spring 2018 CA$H Performs Grants
Fuse Theatre Inc.; Inferno Theatre; Theatre Lunatico; Theater of Others; Lynea Diaz-Hagan; Siobhan Doherty; Barry Eitel; Antoine Hunter; Ana Nelson; Brian Thorstenson

Spring 2018 CA$H Creates Grants
Actors Ensemble; Idiot String; Julie Drucker; Zahra Noorbakhsh; Caitlyn Tella

Fall 2017 CA$H Performs Grants
AlterTheater Ensemble; Arabian Shakespeare Festival; Just Theater; The Lower Bottom Playaz; San Francisco Neo-Futurists; Those Women Productions; Krista DeNio; Jovelyn D. Richards; Dan Wolf

Fall 2017 CA$H Creates Grants
Patricia Cotter; Chibueze Crouch; Bora C Koknar; Charlie Levin; Jon Wai-Keung Lowe; Jubilith Moore

Spring 2017
Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience; Eugenie Chan Theater Projects; Ferocious Lotus; Fuse Theatre; Repulsive Women; Theatre Lunatico; Vallejo Shakespeare in the Park; James Ard; Kieran Beccia; Richard Ciccarone; Beth McLaughlin; Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko; Salim Razawi; Kevin Seaman

Fall 2016
13th Floor; AlterTheater Ensemble; Crescent Moon Theater Productions; FaultLine Theater; Left Coast Theatre Company; Play Café, Inc.; Theater MadCap; TheatreFIRST; Safiya Fredericks; Lisa Hori-Garcia; Min Kahng; Bridgette Portman; Andrew Saito

Spring 2016
Bindlestiff Studio; Klanghaus; Leela; The Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc.; Diane M. Barnes; Sophie Becker, Kristen Rulifson, Hien Huynh; Andrea L. Hart

Fall 2015
Black Box Baroque; Just Theater; Naked Empire Bouffon Company; Ubuntu Theater Project; Rotimi Agbabiaka; Christopher Chen

Spring 2015
Eye Zen Presents; The Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc.; Red Ladder Theatre Company; Delina P. Brooks; Christine Crook; Min Kahng; Lisa Marie Rollins

Fall 2014
AlterTheater Ensemble; DivaFest; Echo Brown; Peter L. Stein; Conrad Bishop & Elizabeth Fuller; Megan Trout; Michael Gene Sullivan; Ana-Catrina Buchser

Spring 2014
Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience; Idiot String: Joan Howard and Rebecca Longworth; FoolsFURY Theater; Corey Fischer; Sara Kraft; Kevin Rolston; David Szlasa; Eli Wirtschafter, Marica Petrey and Hannah Michahelles

Fall 2013
AlterTheater Ensemble; Just Theatre; BrickaBrack; The Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc; Michael Gene Sullivan; Eugenie Chan; Steve Boyle

Spring 2013
DIVAfest; Erling Wold's Fabrications; Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company; Symmetry Theatre Company; Erin Bregman; Lisa Scola Prosek