Federal grants were terminated for arts organizations across the country in the past week. Among them was the Marin Shakespeare Co.

The San Rafael nonprofit lost its $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts on Friday. The organization had planned to use the funds to produce a stage adaptation of a children’s book that revises the Cinderella tale.

Lesley Currier, the company’s co-founder and managing director, said the show will go on. She said the group will turn to fundraising.

“We’re more committed than ever,” she said.

Currier said the federal agency also canceled a $20,000 grant for the company’s Returned Citizens Theatre Troupe, which includes former prisoners in productions. The project was already completed and producers submitted their final report to the government.

“It’s interesting to us that the NEA chose to terminate that grant as well,” Currier said. “We’re not sure what that means.”

Other Bay Area arts organizations that recently lost their NEA funding include the American Conservatory Theater, the Berkeley Repertory Theater and SFJAZZ, the nonprofit that presents the San Francisco Jazz Festival.

The grant cancellations occurred soon after President Donald Trump proposed a federal budget that would eliminate the NEA. The agency, whose budget this year is $207 million, regularly awards grants to art projects across the country.

The Trump administration has been trying to shrink the federal government and cut what it considers to be wasteful spending.

For its Cinderella project, the Marin Shakespeare Co. planned to perform a play based on “Cinderella Liberator (Fairy Tale Revolution),” a 2019 children’s book by author and activist Rebecca Solnit, who grew up in Marin.

In the story, Cinderella does not seek Prince Charming, but instead discovers her unique talents, starts a business and befriends her stepsisters, Currier said.

“The tired fairy tale that the end-all and be-all of womanhood is to find your Prince Charming is a story that we don’t need to be telling our kids and grandkids,” she said. “We can change the ending of that story.”

Solnit said she loves fairy tales but considers some of them are outdated. She added that marriage is not the destiny for most women.

“Almost every great fairy tale is about somebody who is marginal or friendless or cast out,” Solnit said. “They’re finding their way to who they need to be.”

Solnit said the canceled NEA grant is “one piece of so many things that are being slashed, dismantled, defunded and sabotaged by the Trump administration.”

“We are going to see in the near future a deeply impoverished and chaotic country, and I think it’s important that we point the finger at the point of origin.”

The grant was originally awarded to help commission the stage adaptation with music by Lauren Gunderson.

“It’s super-theatrical and engaging, and we think it’s going to be terrific and have a long life in American theater,” Currier said. “Despite the Trump administration.”

The NEA notified the Marin Shakespeare Co. that its grant will be terminated May 31.

“The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the president,” the letter stated. “Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.”

The Marin Shakespeare Co. plans to appeal.

“We’ve been advised that we should appeal and we will do that, but we don’t have any real optimism that these decisions will be reversed,” Currier said.

A National Endowment for the Arts spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Currier’s main concern is that the federal agency could be eliminated, which will affect funding for arts organizations across the country.

“It also sends a terrible message that we as a nation don’t care about the arts,” she said.

Mary O’Mara, co-founder and director of MarinArts, said it’s time for arts organizations in the county to collaborate and share resources. Her nonprofit promotes arts events.

“We can only pivot so many times,” O’Mara said. “This is going to be a challenge for all of us and we’re going to have to work closely and look at being creative and strategic with the money that we do have.”