News in brief.

NATIONWIDE: Who said playwrights don't get any perks? On the day of a performance, at 30 theatres around the country, unsold tickets will he offered free to student and professional writers who are members of the Dramatists Guild of America. The initiative, Playwrights Welcome, is spearheaded by Dramatists Guild president Doug Wright, playwright Marsha Norma, and Samuel French executive director Bruce Lazarus. Among the participating theatres are the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Goodman Theatre in Chicago, LaJolla Playhouse in California, and Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City. Samuel French has also begun to allow Dramatists Guild members to read plays for free on its online app, Abbott. Theatres can sign up to be a participant in Playwrights Welcome at samuelfirnch.com/playwrights-welcome.

ARLINGTON, VA.: Broadway producer Jenna Segal has teamed with Signature Theatre to create the Heidi Thomas Initiative Grant. The award, supported by the Jenna and Paul Segal Foundation, will sponsor a world premiere by a female playwright with a female director for the next five seasons at the theatre through SigWorks: The Heidi Thomas Writer's Initiative. The first premiere is scheduled for the 2017-18 season. The grant is named for screenwriter and playwright Heidi Thomas, who created the BBC series "Call the Midwife" and adapted the book for the 2015 revival of Gigi on Broadway.

NEW YORK CITY: The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment has announced a new five-part initiative to promote gender equity in theatre, film, and television. As part of the initiative, the office will establish the MOME Women's Fund for Film and Theatre to dispense $5 million worth of grants for female theatre producers, playwrights, and filmmakers over a period of five years. The initiative will also provide professional development, offering sponsor sessions for directors to hone their story-pitching skills and to connect them with financiers for projects.

BALTIMORE: Talk about teamwork. Center Stage has launched a new project called Wright Now Play Later, by which audiences, playwrights, and performers will co-create, then produce a trio of new plays, all within a three-day period. The project, an offshoot of Center Stage's Wright-Right -Now commissioning series, began in October and will take place the second week of each month through January 2017. The first month's playwrights were Larissa FastHorse, Nathan Alan Davis, and Hank Boland. Each Monday, Center Stage announces participating playwrights for that month, who then take public prompts via social media and write a short play in 24 hours; each Wednesday, the public will vote for their favorite; each Thursday, actors will rehearse and perform the winning plays in public spaces in Baltimore at 1 p.m.; performances will be live-streamed. The next weeks are Dec. 12 and Jan. 9. Visit centerstage.org/AboutUs/Dramaturgy.aspx.

ST. PAUL, MINN.: Bedlam Theatre's venue in St. Paul shut its doors on Nov. 2. The theatre, founded in 1993, is known for edgy and experimental content. In 2014, it opened the St. Paul facility; it had previously performed in Minneapolis. Due to unforeseen costs, the new space over-ran the original budget by $600,000. Add to that debt, maintenance costs, and an expensive mortgage, and Bedlam was forced to close the building. As of press time, the fate of Bedlam Theatre is still unclear.