Story by Duante Beddingfield: Detroit Free Press

It was a Friday night — May 2, to be exact — and the first weekend of Detroit Public Theatre’s (DPT) “Soft Target,” a world premiere drama about the aftermath of a grade school shooting and an urgent message about America’s obsession with guns over the safety of its children.

The theater’s producing artistic directors were particularly proud of this presentation, one for which they had secured a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Everything was set for the performers to begin at 8 p.m. And then, at 7:42 p.m., DPT co-founder and producing artistic director Sarah Winkler received an email.

“Pursuant to the Offer letter,” it read, “the tentative funding recommendation for the following application is Withdrawn by the Agency and the National Endowment for the Arts will no longer offer award funding for the project.”

With the show already written, rehearsed, and running — with dozens of actors and crew members actively working and being paid — the entire grant was being rescinded.

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