Forty-four Off-Broadway theatre companies and New York schools, including Manhattan Theatre Club and Playwrights Horizons, have just won grants totaling $101,000 from the American Theatre Wing. The recipients will be formally announced at a noon luncheon given Dec. 11 at Sardi's theatrical restaurant in New York. The event marks the 40th annual Grants & Scholarships Awards Luncheon given by the Wing.

Isabelle Stevenson, president of ATW, announced the awards, which include two scholarships given by DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, alma mater of the late Bernard Jacobs of the Shubert Organization.

Here are this year's grant recipients:
Abingdon Theatre Company, The Acting Company, Actors' Work Program, AMAS Musical Theatre, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Atlantic Theatre Company, The Barrow Group, Blue Light Theatre Company, Circle In The Square Theatre School, City Center, DeWitt Clinton HS, The Director's Company, The Drama League of NY, En Garde Arts, Inc., Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, Foundry Theatre, INTAR, Irish Repertory, LaGuardia HS, La MaMa ETC, Lincoln Center Theatre, Manhattan Class Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Mint Theatre, Musical Theatre Works, New Dramatists, New Federal Theatre, The New Group, NY Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, Public Theatre/NY Shakespeare Festival, Puerto Rican Travelling Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Second Stage, Signature Theatre, Thalia Spanish Theatre, Theatre for a New Audience, Theatreworks USA, Vineyard Theatre, Women's Project & Productions, WPA Theatre, and York Theatre Company.

Also, four scholarships, made possible by the Wing, will be awarded by Fiorello LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts.

Committee members deciding the grants this year were Jay Harris, Ted Chapin, Jo Sullivan Loesser, Michael Price, Lloyd Richards, Doug Leeds, Bob Callely and Irene Singerman. The American Theatre Wing is best known for administering the annual Tony Award to Broadway productions but also has such programs as "Working In The Theatre" seminars and Introduction To Broadway.

-- By David Lefkowitz