New WORLD Theater Given $100K Grant CHRONICLE STAFF May 19, 2000 New WORLD Theater (NWT) has been awarded a $100,000 National Theatre Artist Residency Program grant to support an artistic partnership with the founders of the groundbreaking performance ensemble Universes. Through the program, which was jointly developed by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Theatre Communications Group, director, writer and performer Steven Sapp and singer, writer and performer Mildred Ruiz will work with NWT on two new works exploring theater aesthetics. NWT will host Sapp and Ruiz through the research, development and production phases of the project. The pair are also expected to introduce NWT's leadership and audiences to hip hop, performance poetry and other spoken word artists who represent the merging new theater aesthetics. "I am excited to have Steven and Mildred involved in our artistic and literary research and planning," said NWT artistic director Roberta Uno. "They will be working directly with me and NWT literary staff to widen our knowledge of an evolving genre, and to help plan readings and showings of work by artists in community settings."