Harmony Theater is an organization focused on performing arts for people with disabilities based in southeastern PA. 

Harmony Theater

OAT is one of four professional summer stock theatres in out state Missouri.

Ozark Actors Theatre (OAT), is a hidden jewel in the rolling hills of the Ozarks. OAT is one of four professional summer stock theatres in out state Missouri. Located in Rolla, OAT is a non-profit organization. Founded in 1987 by Gail Andrews-Hintz, a Rolla native returning from New York, and F. Reed Brown; along with a founding Board of Trustees consisting of citizens from Rolla, Cuba, Waynesville and other communities in south central Missouri, the desire of these interested citizens was to bring quality live professional theatre to the Ozarks.

Ozark Actors Theatre

The Apollo Theater is a commissioner and presenter; catalyst for new artists, audiences, and creative workforce; and partner in the projection of the African American narrative and its role in the development of American and global culture.

The Apollo Theater envisions a new American cannon centered on contributions to the performing arts by artists of the African diaspora, in America and beyond.

Apollo Theater

We are a company of immigrants that are dedicated to passionate, imaginative storytelling and new forms of theater.

ABOUT ARLEKIN

Arlekin Players Theatre, founded by Artistic Director Igor Golyak in 2009, is an artist­-driven company created with and for immigrant actors from the former Soviet Union. For over a decade, we have told powerful stories and invented new forms of theater in both Russian and English, working to build vital connections and create shared human experience. We take special pride in exploring questions of self-identity and working on productions that play on the ideas of culture, identity, home, tradition, the idea of nationality, finding common themes that unite us all.

During our first ten years, Arlekin was invited numerous times to perform on the world-famous stage of the Moscow Art Theatre and at international festivals including the prestigious Mondial du Théâtre in Monaco. During our 10th Anniversary Season, we received a sweep of Boston’s Elliot Norton Awards, including Best Production, Best Designer, Best Actress and Best Director, with a ceremony watched on Zoom due to the sudden closures of COVID. During the pandemic, while mosts theaters worldwide were shuttered, we wasted no time in transforming our small theater into the Zero Gravity (zero-G) Virtual Theater Lab, developing a new genre and producing two international virtual theater productions, State vs Natasha Banina and chekhovOS /an experimental game/, which featured Obie winner Jessica Hecht as Ranevskaya and Mikhail Baryshnikov as Anton Chekhov. These productions went viral, catapulting Arlekin onto the international stage, receiving international attention (with audiences in over 40 countries) and receiving rave press, including two New York Times Critic's Picks. This work has positioned Arlekin and our founder, Igor Golyak, as innovators and international leaders in the virtual theater movement. 

We remain committed to connecting in new ways, creating meaningful, groundbreaking artistic productions, and continually reinventing what theater is for our community in Boston and for an increasing audience across the globe.  

Arlekin Players Theatre

Is Richmond's home for unexpected & evocative performance. Create. Collaborate. Cultivate. TheatreLABrva.org

TheatreLAB is Richmond's home for unexpected & evocative performance. Create. Collaborate. Cultivate. TheatreLABrva.org

TheatreLAB

Want to know more about  us? Check out our About Us page: http://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/about

We offer artists and arts organizations fiscal sponsorship, affordable insurance options, event ticketing sales services, and an international directory of rehearsal studio spaces for rent.

Fractured Atlas

MAP works to unleash the creative voices of kids living in Providence's Olneyville neighborhood through playmaking.

The Manton Avenue Project - Afterschool Playwriting in Olneyville

Helping Africa's most vulnerable children today, so they can help Africa tomorrow!

The African Children’s Choir is composed of African children, aged 7 to 10 years old. The children in the Choir represent the potential of the thousands of children in Africa who are trapped in the cycle of poverty. The African Children’s Choir program promotes the beauty, dignity and unlimited ability of the African child around the world, being a voice for the millions of suffering children who cannot speak for themselves. The program provides for the children’s well being and quality education, utilizing the transformative power of music.

The African Children's Choir

Develops and presents contemporary theater that explores relevant social/political themes rooted in the South Asian experience while providing a platform for the community to experience and grow personally and professionally through the arts.

EnActe Arts develops and presents contemporary theater, which explores relevant social and political themes rooted in the South Asian experience while providing a platform for the community to experience and grow personally and professionally through the arts.

Enacte Arts Inc.

Central VA's longest running community theater that is largely run by volunteers and supported by donations.

Four County Players is Central Virginia’s longest continuously operating community theater. A nonprofit organization, Four County Players relies on community volunteers for most of its operations.  Additionally, ticket sales only cover 65% of the cost of running the theater and providing high-quality productions to the area.  Dedicated members and generous donors make up that difference.

Four County Players

Theatre Of North Texas is a nonprofit organization focused on arts, culture, or humanities. It is based in Southlake, TX. It received its nonprofit status in 2015.

Theatre Of North Texas

Buntport Theater Company is a wee group of theater-making humans based in Denver.

We’ve worked together for over 2 decades, making new stuff.* We work collaboratively—without ‘official’ writers, directors, designers, janitors. We do all the stuff. Because we love it.

*Our ‘new stuff’ is often based on other people’s stuff. We are not delusional about our place in history. We are ever grateful to the hundreds and hundreds of people who inspire us/that we steal from.

Buntport Theater Company

The Official Page of Flat Rock Playhouse, The State Theatre of North Carolina.

In 1937, a group of struggling performers, led by Robroy Farquhar, organized themselves as the Vagabond Players. The Vagabonds worked in a variety of places over the course of three years, and in 1940 found themselves in the Blue Ridge region of Western North Carolina. The local and tourist community welcomed them with open arms when they presented their first summer season of plays in a 150-year-old grist mill they converted into The Old Mill Playhouse at Highland Lake. So successful was that summer, they returned in 1941. After WWII, the Vagabond Players reorganized, came back to the region and opened a playhouse in nearby Lake Summit. The Lake Summit Playhouse thrived during the post-war years and soon the Vagabond Players were looking for a larger and permanent home. In 1952, the troupe of performers, and a newly formed board of directors, made an offer to buy an 8-acre lot in the Village of Flat Rock. This new home made the Vagabonds “locals” and a rented big top gave birth to the Flat Rock Playhouse. As the beautiful Western Carolina region continued to grow, so did the Playhouse and in 1961, by Act of the North Carolina General Assembly, Flat Rock Playhouse was officially designated The State Theatre of North Carolina. What began as a few weeks of summer performances in 1940 is now a nine-month season of plays including Broadway musicals, comedy, drama, and theatre for young audiences. The Playhouse’s dual mission of producing the performing arts and providing education in the performing arts includes a professional series, a summer and fall college apprentice and intern program, year-round classes and workshops for students from kindergarten through adults. Flat Rock Playhouse now hosts over 98,000 patrons annually and is a significant contributor to the local economy and the Arts in North Carolina. See less


Flat Rock Playhouse

Inspiring children of all ages to reach their full potential.

We help children build confidence, character, and creativity through our unique music and theater productions while instilling the value of community outreach and philanthropy.

The heart of the PPF is about giving back to those in need, our community, and the world while also enriching the lives of our participants through music and theater.

Participants in our various productions learn confidence, creativity, empathy, and how to help others. All the while, becoming part of a loving and supportive environment; one that helps foster positive self-image and lifelong friendships.

Peter Pan Foundation

Metropolis Ensemble supports outstanding performers and composers through the creation of new work. We are building a thriving artist collective and a dynamic online platform, supported by a generous community of monthly donors. Out platform provides opportunities for our artists to do what they do best: make and share new music with music lovers everywhere. Please make a donation today and help us bring music to life. You can enter any amount to provide crucial unrestricted funding for Metropolis artists and initiatives. 

Metropolis Ensemble

Our programs help young performing artists bridge the gap from university training to careers in opera and musical theatre.

Music Theater Bavaria (DBA Musiktheater Bavaria) is a Florida-based nonprofit devoted to performing arts education for emerging professional opera and musical theatre performers between the ages of 19 and 30. Students from throughout the United States (singers, dancers, and pianists) are competitively selected for our summer study-abroad program in Germany, where they train intensively for one month with world-class international faculty and perform in public concerts in either our Opera Studio or our Musical Theater Studio.

Our programs offer our students practical career training beyond what is provided in even very fine university and conservatory music and theater degree programs, giving them an extra edge that can make a difference in successfully launching their professional careers, introducing them to international opportunities they may have never dreamed exist, and providing the maturing effect of studying side by side with other highly talented colleagues from throughout the U.S. who are serious about learning how to compete in a tough business where their talent alone does not guarantee a career.

Need-based scholarship funding is a very important part of our mission, as the per-student cost of our month-long program in Germany (including room and board) is about $6,000. Our ability to offer scholarships is wholly dependent on donations to our scholarship fund. Donations to Musiktheater Bavaria through every.org will directly and personally benefit young performing artists, helping us to ensure that top applicants from all economic backgrounds can access these transformative opportunities for career-building and personal growth. Each summer our scholarship fund starts anew from zero, as each year we have awarded all the funds we have raised. Your gift is a gift of access to a highly talented student who could not otherwise dream of enrolling in our program.

Music Theater Bavaria Inc

The International Beethoven Project, est. 2008 as a NFP, celebrates the extraordinary lives & creative music of unique composers.

​​The mission of the International Beethoven Project is threefold: 

1) to celebrate Beethoven's music and humanist legacy

2) to make classical music more engaging, exciting and meaningful for all people

3) to serve as an educational resource 

By showcasing Beethoven as the revolutionary musician he was, we believe we can inspire new generations of listeners, performers and arts administrators to appreciate and engage with this art form. To do this, IBP has used many different approaches, from producing numerous events to making films, recordings and educational media.

Launching the "International Beethoven Day" initiative in 2021, IBP seeks to engage even more people across the world in carrying Beethoven's legacy of humanism and music forward.

Upcoming projects include a sweeping multi-media traversal of Beethoven's epic 32 piano sonatas that will include, in addition to recordings and films of the originals, music by contemporary composers and musicians inspired by the sonatas, along with readings of Beethoven's letters by actors and musicians and visual works of art to accompany the whole.

This project will be presented globally as well as brought to schools around the world.

IBP is also currently organizing the first-ever web3/blockchain/metaverse/NFT conference focused on the classical music sector.

From annual celebrations of Beethoven's birthday every December since 2010 and through his 250th anniversary in 2020, to multi-disciplinary festivals that have brought all the arts and many musical genres together under one roof, we have sought engagement across generations and society. 

"An event of world-class importance" (Chicago Tribune), IBP's Beethoven Festival has served as a showcase for what was possible in the future of classical music.

The International Beethoven Project has also produced several critically-hailed recordings, including a now-legendary album with a first-ever recording of a work by Beethoven, the Trio Hess 47, a top 25 on the Classical Billboard charts in 2010.

In the last few years, IBP has produced several music films and documentaries on Bach and Beethoven and continues to work on future productions. IBP's goal is to leverage the wide-reaching impact of audiovisual media to create novel ways of appreciating classical music's great classics, as well as inspiring contemporary composers and musicians. 


Stay up to date by visiting our website or following on social media.

www.internationalbeethovenproject.com 


International Beethoven Project

An NYC-based organization dedicated to fostering and showcasing today's new voices shaping tomorrow's musicals.

Over two decades, Prospect Theater Company has premiered more than 35 musicals in New York City, in addition to new plays and numerous re-inventions of classic works.   Reflecting its investment in the future of the field, Prospect leads a variety of developmental initiatives: including an annual Musical Theater Lab for emerging writers, and the IGNITE Series of new musical theater in concert. In 2020, Prospect launched the VISION Series of original music-theater works captured on film, created for online streaming. 

In recognition of its enterprising and risk-taking new musical theater, the company has received an OBIE Award grant, and its role as a community anchor for emerging artists that strengthens the quality, diversity, and dynamism of American theater was honored by the American Theatre Wing.
 
Prospect is dedicated to a bright future for the American musical.  We develop and produce new works, envisioned and implemented by emerging artists working in diverse genres and styles but share an interest in re-inventing the art form of musical theater for the 21st Century.

Prospect creates educational and training opportunities, and sustains a supportive network within the field.  We provide a forum for artists and audiences to connect and learn from each other, and we foster the work of a vibrant community of both emerging and established artists.

Since its incorporation in June of 1998, Prospect Theater Company has supported an outstanding and diverse group of emerging artists in NYC’s off-Broadway scene.  
Recently, Prospect produced the Drama Desk Award-nominated EINSTEIN'S DREAMS (2019) by Joanne Sydney Lessner & Joshua Rosenblum, adapted from the novel by Alan Lightman, and The Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award-nominated THE HELLO GIRLS (2018), by company founding artists Peter Mills & Cara Reichel. Both shows ran Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters, and have original cast albums available from Broadway Records. 

Other notable productions include: Kerrigan & Lowdermilk's THE MAD ONES (2017); Milburn & Vigoda's LONG STORY SHORT (2015); Ryan Scott Oliver and Hunter Foster's JASPER IN DEADLAND (2014); the Drama Desk nominated TAMAR OF THE RIVER (2013) by Joshua H. Cohen and Marisa Michelson; Carner & Gregor's UNLOCK'D (2013); Gordon Greenberg's revisal of WORKING (Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Ensemble, 2012) including new songs by Lin Manuel Miranda; Elizabeth Lucas' re-imagining of Guettel's MYTHS & HYMNS (2012); and John Gregor's WITH GLEE (2010). 

Prospect Theater Company

SMAPA provides comprehensive, inclusive, developmental training in dance and related theater arts for children, teens, and adults.

Based in Montclair, NJ since 1997,  SMAPA is a Black-led nonprofit arts organization that offers dance classes in Ballet, Hip Hop, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Salsa, and Afro-Haitian for preschoolers, kids, teens, and adults. Through outreach programs in underserved public schools in Paterson, Newark, and East Orange, NJ, and scholarship programs in their studio, SMAPA brings dance to students who might otherwise lack access to training in the performing arts.

Sharron Millers Academy for The Performing Arts

Boulder Dance Coalition is a nonprofit organization focused on providing accessibly priced spaces for dance and movement groups.

The Boulder Dance Coalition (BDC) is a coalition of groups and individuals that are committed to promoting traditional participatory art forms – that is, art forms in which you can join in – such as dance, music, singing, and storytelling.

The majority of the groups deal with participatory dance.

We are a non-profit, tax-exempt, educational organization, incorporated in the state of Colorado in 1989. Our mission is to promote public participation in music, dance and other folk arts on the Front Range of Colorado, to encourage expansion of these activities in the larger community, to develop facilities for these activities, and to provide services for other organizations and individuals that share these goals.  

We also work to develop a sense of community among our group and individual members through interaction and shared activities.  Much of our dance building, The Avalon, has been remodeled and built out by volunteer labor by our dance members.

We currently have three major dance spaces of different sizes and two smaller, less formal spaces.

Boulder Dance Coalition

P.S. ARTS is dedicated to advancing equity and opportunity by providing arts education in public schools and communities.


P.S. ARTS is dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing arts education to underserved public schools and communities. P.S. ARTS is the only organization in Southern and Central California that provides yearlong arts education in dance, music, theater, and visual arts to every child in a school during the regular school day. Without our programs, children in these underfunded school districts would not have access to the arts. 

P.S. ARTS also coordinates with school administrators and parent groups to provide community outreach services designed to increase the community’s capacity to advocate for educational equity and to provide critical cultural experiences for the entire family. 

P.S. ARTS programs help level the educational playing field by teaching creative and cognitive skills to students struggling to overcome economic, ability, or literacy barriers that will better equip them to be competitive and successful people. Studies show the arts keep children motivated and engaged, and with the high school dropout rate in Los Angeles County as high as 50% in recent years, the children in our community need the arts!

P.S. ARTS

Founded in 1979, Imagination Stage is a holistic theatre arts organization for all children and youth.

Imagination Stage empowers all young people to discover their voice and identity through performing arts education and professional theatre.

Imagination Stage

Krysalis Foundation For The Arts & Media is a nonprofit organization focused on arts, culture, or humanities. It is based in Santa Monica, CA. It received its nonprofit status in 1996.

Krysalis Foundation For The Arts & Media

Vashon Events is a dedicated to building community and supporting artists-musicians on Vashon Island, WA. 

Our mission is to create, provide, and expand positive life experiences through music and art for all. We provide an information hub for Vashon Island including a business directory, information about events and classes happening on the island, and programs that support arts and local music. We believe that keeping Vashon Island vibrant means supporting our local businesses and artists.

Our programming provides critical and unique support for artists and musicians. We also produce concerts and other performing arts events at festivals, showcases, concerts in the park, and venues all over the island. We believe the arts should be accessible to everyone, therefore all our events are free or low-cost. At the same time, at every event we provide, we ensure that musicians and other performers are fairly compensated.

We support local musicians and artists by providing programs and services dedicated to helping them succeed in making their art. 

Music Instrument Library - Vashon Events’ musical instrument lending library provides free access to musical instruments for children and adults. We loan amplifiers, cords, tuners, and other accessories needed to make music.

Music Teacher Directory - Vashon Events’ Music Teacher Director provides a portal for information about local music teachers so students of all ages can learn to play music on a range of instruments.

Vashon Events

Theatre starring people with intellectual disabilities and autism. Actors gain confidence, social skills, friends.

Mission: Through collaborative performance and lifelong learning opportunities, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities gain the skills and confidence to engage with the world.

ArtStream fuels students' imagination, creativity, and focus. We offer over 850 classes and workshops each year for 1,617 participants, six Theatre Companies totaling 90 participants and four Cabaret Companies totaling 30-40 participants, all of whom create and perform original theater works.

WHY ARTSTREAM?
People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities - including Autism - frequently face isolation or marginalization, and are excluded from activities and spaces where community, friendships, and connections are made. Creative opportunities are even fewer and farther between. In ArtStream’s drama and performing arts classes, workshops, and theatre companies, participants learn skills that apply to all aspects of life, including how to be present, pay attention, listen to instructions, participate in the activities that the class is doing that day, and perhaps most important of all, build friendships. 

Performance is transformative for every actor. This is also true for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, including Autism. Whether in classes, workshops, or rehearsals, ArtStreamers play theatrical games that require them to listen, to engage, to communicate, and to collaborate with each other; and improvisational games that teach them how to make eye contact, think on their feet, make connections, synthesize information, and solve problems. ArtStream’s demanding and very entertaining process encourages ArtStreamers to discover their creativity and strengths, and perform with confidence! What’s more, at ArtStream, our participants create their own scenes, dances, and songs for their performances, whereas most other theaters and non-profits serve people with disabilities by enacting or adapting plays or scenes written by professional playwrights. This is the “ArtStream difference.” 

A 55-year-old, 15-year ArtStream veteran expressed it better than we could ourselves: “I don’t get nervous on stage because I feel such happiness. I like to perform 24 hours a day! I love this place! ArtStream is making me happy!” 

ArtStream’s collaborative programming gives people with interest, talent, drive, and creativity – but few opportunities – a unique chance to build skills they will carry with them throughout their lifetimes. Our retention rate is 90%, attesting to the effectiveness of our organization in carrying out our mission. 



ArtStream, Inc.

Teaching teens to relentlessly fight for positive social change through practical application of the performing arts since 1999.

A BRIEF HISTORY & MISSION
Developing Artists (DA) teaches undervalued teens to relentlessly fight for positive social change through practical application of the performing arts.  We help diverse students to proclaim themselves as artists and activists, to find their place and their connection in their community, and to bring about positive social change through participation in the arts. 

DA offers rigorous theater education to underserved high school students (aged 13-19) in the New York City metropolitan area and produces REBEL VERSES Youth Arts Festival. Our goal is to provide young people with professional performing arts training that will equip them with valuable artistic and life skills, and the confidence to take action in their lives. 
DA was founded in 1999 with a simple act of protest against youth discrimination. Following Artistic Director Jill DeArmon's experiences teaching performing arts in NYC public schools and established studios, she was astonished by the lack of freedom students were given to create and empower and felt they were censored rather than amplified and trusted. While teaching at one of these institutions, she was threatened to either stay and stick to the status quo or be fired. Jill told her class that she was leaving, because she could not accept ageism towards her students. Every student decided to follow her out and the first DA Ensemble was born. In collaboration with the ensemble, Jill offered classes where teens could be heard, with support to create original work that tackles important social issues. She committed to empowering students through art by giving them practical tools to express themselves and learn to collaborate.

THE NEED OR PROBLEM WE WORK TO ADDRESS 
We impact students by creating a forum to navigate life's increasing challenges (e.g. age discrimination, social injustices, gender inequality, institutional racism, economic disparity, sexism); to use their voice in dealing with these issues; and channel that energy into self-expression and self-confidence. DA has a track record of engaging positively with those who face significant barriers in their daily lives. 

Developing Artists serves students aged 13 to 19 from all five boroughs of New York. 35% of our students identify as Latinx, 40% as African American, 20% as Caucasian, and 5% as Asian/other. Most of our students face socio-economic challenges; many experience physical, sexual or emotional abuse. We are committed to invite and include all of these young artists so their voices can be heard, their lives healed and their lifetime trajectory changed. 

We can confidently say that participation in our programs has a life-changing long-term impact on the young people we serve – 95% of whom go onto college. We know that our students subsequently utilize their arts training in their careers in a variety of different ways – as professional artists, writers, producers, drama therapists, etc. In our recent past, we helped DA students get into notable high school and college performing arts programs, and some have gone on to study at prestigious institutions such as The Juilliard School, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, New School, Royal Conservatory of Scotland, Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts, Fordham University, Rutgers University, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, AMDA, Elon College and Yale Drama.

In the past, we charged for classes while providing full or partial scholarships for students in need (about 85% of students received a full or partial scholarship). In 2018, Developing Artists began making all classes 100% FREE so that we could abolish this financial barrier once and for all, and serve those students who were overlooked by so many other programs.

As emphasized in our mission, equity, access and inclusion are some of our primary objectives.  The last three years also helped solidify the identity of DA: Our ensemble engages with individuals on the frontline of important social issues then utilizing various performing arts, we bring to light these issues to a broader audience as we seek allies along the way to impact positive social change. Developing Artists was tapped to perform in numerous events including: We Rise: A Celebration of Resistance at the Delacorte Theatre (Public Forum in Collaboration with Resistance Revival Chorus), New York Women’s Foundations Celebrating Women Breakfast 2019, City Hall rally hosted by New York 4 Culture and Art to protest the proposed 6 millions dollar cut in cultural and arts funding. Developing Artists’ trajectory is leading us to connect and work with many social justice organizations for our future projects. 

Through the years, DA has directly served over 3,000 students and thousands of audience members. DA fostered a community of diverse artist citizens and maintains ongoing connections with our alumni network, some of which return as Teaching Artists. One alumnus, Julian Elijah Martinez, recently made his Broadway debut in NETWORK starring Bryan Cranston and was one of the stars of WU-TANG: AN AMERICAN SAGA on Hulu. Another alumna, Jessica Asch, Program Creator and Lead Clinician at Shine MSD, Inc, became a licensed arts and drama therapist whose work with at-risk youth has included developing and implementing a creative arts therapy program around collective healing in Parkland, Florida.

REBEL VERSES Youth Arts Festival
Founded in 2001, REBEL VERSES is a 2-week festival of performances by some of the best youth companies in NYC & beyond. This festival was born out of the dire need here in New York City for new voices in theater.  It is a journey into the unapologetic, unrelenting creativity of the next generation. Since the festival’s inception, REBEL VERSES has provided youth companies with the opportunity to collaborate and network with their peers and prominent artists, encouraging the development of new works in theater through this two-week event.  In 2017, Developing Artists began a partnership with the notable Vineyard Theatre to co-produce REBEL VERSES. The Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th) hosts RV at its 132-seat off-Broadway venue and provides technical, management, audience development and promotional support, resulting in increased visibility, participation and audiences for REBEL VERSES.

TESTIMONIAL
"I’ve been continually impressed with these students’ critical engagement with the most pressing issues of our day: social responsibility, economic access, representational inequity, voting rights, and much more. On top of their mastery of civic literacy, they are astonishingly talented artists, both as writers and performers.

These teens’ capacity for this level of discourse and creativity is clearly traceable to their training and experience through Developing Artists. Jill and Jinn’s personal and professional dedication to the holistic development and success of each student is total. Their high expectations elicit excellence, dedication, maturity, and long-lasting relationships across a wide diversity of backgrounds. They’ve formed a family commitment to one another that far exceeds any after-school arts program I know."

Kenneth J. Cerniglia, PhD
Former Literary Manager and Dramaturg, Disney Theatrical Productions Past President, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) 

Developing Artists Theater Company

Storycatchers Theatre serves justice-involved youth in Illinois through a healing centered performing arts methodology.

Storycatchers Theatre guides young people to transform their traumatic experiences into powerful musical theatre, developing the courage and vision to become leaders and mentors. By creating support for youth within the criminal justice system, Storycatchers prepares them to change their lives and emerge successfully from court involvement.

Storycatchers was founded in 1984 and originally conducted residencies in the Chicago Public School system to create and perform original musicals inspired by the stories of students. In 1990, the company began developing its immersive residential program model for justice-involved youth at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. It was at this time that the methodology expanded to incorporate the youth into the full process of writing and performing as a way to explore and begin to move beyond past trauma.

Storycatchers initiated a remarkable, longstanding partnership with the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ) in 2002 when the company moved into what was then the state’s only secure facility for girls in Warrenville. It was at the Illinois Youth Center (IYC)-Warrenville that Storycatchers established its nationally recognized, award-winning process of delivering creative youth development programs through a trauma lens. Storycatchers has been conducting residential programs in three separate facilities on a year-round basis since 2010. In 2014, in recognition of the need for trauma-informed post-release support, the company expanded into employment for young people returning home to Chicago with the Changing Voices performing arts jobs program. 

Storycatchers structures all programs to guide justice-involved youth to accomplish the following objectives:   
*Create meaningful, entertaining performances that educate the community about the challenges these young people face, and how individual and institutional resources might better meet their singular needs;
*Develop improved behavior management, communication, and leadership skills to navigate court involvement and reentry successfully, and become productive, engaged citizens.
In addition, Storycatchers designs its post-release jobs program to guide each youth participant to develop an action plan to follow upon program completion to next-step education and/or employment opportunities.

Storycatchers designs its programs to address the unique needs of justice-involved adolescents and emerging adults. These youth are disproportionately impoverished, poorly educated, exhibit high rates of exposure to trauma, and lack positive social networks. Their ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) scores range from 4-7, reducing life expectancy by an average of 20 years. They are also overwhelmingly people of color -- according to the IDJJ 2020 internal report, the population of incarcerated youth in Illinois averages 71% African-American, 9% Latinx/Hispanic, and 2% Biracial or Other. Most come from lower-income homes, frequently located in communities affected by decades of structural racism and low public investment. 

A wide range of challenging issues characterizes this demographic, including risk factors for psychiatric disorders and suicide, and high experience rates of verbal, physical, and sexual violence. Their emotional lives have been shaped by disproportional rates of complex trauma. Sources such as the National Child Traumatic Stress Institute and the Northwestern Juvenile Project state that over 92% of youth in the juvenile justice system have histories that include exposure to trauma. Even prior to detention, 74–90% of justice-involved youth have childhood histories that include high levels of maltreatment, victimization, and abuse. This pre-existing trauma is then compounded by the dehumanizing environments of secure facilities, which rob boys and girls of their still-evolving sense of dignity, autonomy, and selfhood. It is unrealistic to expect these young people to work and live productively unless they have access to meaningful support during incarceration and upon release. 

Storycatchers has achieved widespread recognition for its work with justice-involved youth, with profiles on National Public Radio, in the Chicago Tribune and other local media, and in academic studies and documentaries such as the award-winning 2009 film, GIRLS ON THE WALL. Nationally recognized figures such as Shirley Brice-Heath, Professor of Linguistics and English with the Stanford Center on Adolescence, and Ira Glass, host of WBEZ’s THIS AMERICAN LIFE, praise Storycatchers as an example of creative youth development programming that works. The company was honored by the White House in 2013 with a National Arts & Humanities Youth Program Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities. Storycatchers’ leadership and innovative programming is consistently acknowledged through fellowships, grants, and other forms of recognition, both locally and nationally.

There is considerable established evidence that performing arts programs are effective at preventing violence and improving behavior, particularly in youth. One of the most significant reports on this subject is Shirley Brice Heath’s “Living the Arts Through Language and Learning: A Report on Community-Based Youth Organizations,” a landmark 10-year study on the effectiveness of after-school community programs. Brice Heath found overwhelming evidence that youth arts programs were more successful than other programs at helping young people develop self-reflection, leadership abilities, and respect for themselves and others. She concluded that participation in the performing arts is particularly beneficial to at-risk youth because these programs demand that youth find a positive way to channel anger and aggression as a condition of participation in the collaborative process.

According to psychiatrist Judy Herman, a pioneer in the understanding and treatment of complex trauma, “Restoration of the breach between the traumatized person and the community depends, first, upon a public acknowledgment of the traumatic event and second, upon some form of community action.” Through Storycatchers, these young people share their experiences without attendant shame and receive public recognition for overcoming their challenges. 

In July 2020, Governor J. B. Pritzker unveiled a plan to transform Illinois’ juvenile justice system, moving detainees from prison-like facilities into more residential-style homes. Storycatchers was specifically named by the governor during his announcement of this policy as an organization that had “dedicated years, if not decades, to lighting the way for the change that we are making.” This transformation will take place over a four-year transition period, and Storycatchers anticipates taking an active role as a resource to young people at all stages of court involvement. The company’s program model is uniquely adaptable and scalable to secure facilities, group homes, and expanding post-release employment.

Storycatchers Theatre’s long-term vision is a statewide network of residential programs and multiple Changing Voices ensembles operating from different anchor sites. The Governor’s Plan for Transformation offers a promising template upon which to pursue that vision. 


Storycatchers Theatre

The NLF dba The Greatest Gift Catalog Ever focuses on raising awareness for nonprofits in Tarrant County, Texas.  

Giving through The Greatest Gift Catalog Ever (a program of The National Leadership Foundation) is the best way to give to benefit Tarrant County neighbors in need.
Gifts are matched dollar for dollar, and those dollars are leveraged by each orgnization in amazing ways.  Matching funds are directed to the nonprofits at a rate of 100%.

Each page in the catalog, or on the website, shows where the money goes, and how it is matched.  For example, for every $1000 donated, a neighbor with a long term disability such as cerebral palsy or demetia can be enrolled into a lifetime of attendant care services valued at over $26,000 a year or an estimated lifetime value of $650,000 per client!

Supporting local charities can be a wonderful gift idea as well.  We have a gift card program where the donor gives a set amount, and gifts that amount to a co-worker, family member, friend, neighbor, teacher, or client so that they can read all about the opportunities to give and then decide where that donation should be directed.   It's the gift that puts a smile on more than one face!
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The National Leadership Foundation

CCC is the creative cog in the Spartanburg community by providing major funding & support for local arts & cultural organizations.

Chapman Cultural Center is more than just a destination. As a Local Arts Agency, our organization provides major funding and support for many of Spartanburg’s arts and cultural organizations. Our educational programs serve more than 40,000 public and private school students throughout Spartanburg County (SC), with residencies by professional artists in the disciplines of music, dance, visual arts, literature, media, theatre, and crafts. We are the creative cog of Spartanburg's Arts & Cultural community. We let Spartanburg's professional arts organizations run the show while we provide the financial support to ensure they succeed. 

Chapman Cultural Center

A democratic ensemble of L.A. theatre artists dedicated to creating high-caliber, original work.

Theatre of NOTE is a democratic ensemble of L.A. theatre artists dedicated to creating high-caliber, original work that challenges both its ensemble and audiences.  We aspire to more accurately reflect LA's cultural make-up, to make our work resonate more deeply and honestly with our audiences, and better enable NOTE to tell more culturally diverse stories.

Theatre of NOTE is a non-profit democratic company that stagedives the arena of theatre arts. Founded in 1981, our ensemble-based organization is dedicated to providing a creative environment in which to collaborate and develop maverick theater.

NOTE produces an average of four mainstage shows a year, with a focus on premiere productions — shows that are brand new to the world, to the West Coast, to California, or to Los Angeles. NOTE also produces the annual Hollywood Performance Marathon, the NOTEworthy new play development workshops, and our educational outreach program, the Young Writers Project.

NOTE has consistently been commended by both Los Angeles and national press, including American Theatre Magazine, and has earned countless accolades, nominations, and honors from every award-granting theatrical organization in Southern California.

Stick your hand in L.A.’s NOTEorious black box theatre — you never know if you’ll get licked… or bitten.

Theatre Of Note

Paramount Theatre

The Rialto Theatre/Tucson, Arizona

The Watermill Center is an interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts and humanities on Long Island, NY.

The Watermill Center

1925 Theatre in the heart of Coos Bay, Oregon

The mission of the Egyptian Theatre Preservation Association is to renovate, preserve and operate the historic Egyptian Theatre as a performing arts and enterta…inment center and to improve the economic vitality and quality of life of the community by offering programs of cultural and educational value.

Egyptian Theatre Coos Bay

Windy City Playhouse

HUGE Improv Theater is an artist-led company dedicated to supporting the Twin Cities improv community through performance and education

HUGE Theater

Theatrical Outfit is an Atlanta-based professional theater company whose purpose is to provide our diverse audiences, actors and artists with a rich theater experience and produce works that stimulate thoughtful discussion. Intentional in our use of local talent to tell “stories that stir the soul,” we often draw from classic and contemporary literature that features themes that are both relevant and revelatory. We have hailed our Southern roots by presenting the works of such authors of the American South as Truman Capote, Horton Foote, Harper Lee, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O’Connor, John Kennedy Toole, Mark Twain, and Tennessee Williams. Though our emphasis on the work of Southern writers and composers tells the stories closest to home, our topic matter is universal as we give dramatic voice to spirituality, racial understanding and the multifaceted makings of the human condition.

Theatrical Outfit

Ultimate resource for Puget Sound performing artists and performing arts organizations.

Theatre Puget Sound has a two-fold mission: To promote the spiritual and economic necessity of theatre to the public, and to unify and strengthen the theatre community through programs, resources, and services.

Theatre Puget Sound

"Our mission is to inspire, educate & entertain children & families through the experience of quality theatre, both on & off the stage."

Our mission is to inspire, educate & entertain children & families through the experience of live theatre, both on & off the stage. SCT is a non-profit 501(c)3 charitable organization.

Savannah Children's Theatre

Igniting the next generation of changemakers.

Creative Action uses the creative arts to activate the academic, social and emotional development of young people.

Creative Action

We present plays and musicals that strive to create greater positive public awareness and acceptance through the performing arts.

Uptown Players

The Studio's mission is to create an environment that nurtures theatre artists and audiences who value humanity, their own and others, as their first priority while providing art and education to the greater community.

Stella Adler Studio of Acting

Stageworks Theatre's mission is to enrich our community through a variety of theatre and arts education.  We seek to entertain, inspire, challenge, and educate with positive values.

Stageworks Theatre TX

Theatre company that engages and entertains audiences with provocative and timeless productions that personally impact each individual.

Palm Beach Dramaworks is a professional not-for-profit theatre company that engages and entertains audiences with provocative and timeless productions that personally impact each individual.

Palm Beach Dramaworks

Telling great stories on stage with honesty and simplicity.

The Gift Theatre is dedicated to telling great stories on stage with honesty and simplicity.

The Gift Theatre Company

Www.mercurytheatrecompany.org https://twitter.com/mtc_cleve https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtYObSXqxCsAsJaqyQWCoYg

Mercury Theatre Company (MTC) exists to create extraordinary theatrical experiences, and to advance theatre as a means of educating, challenging and inspiring the Greater Cleveland community and its young people through family-friendly programing of rarely seen and premier works, innovative staging, and through its educational outreach and My First Musical program.   Vision  Mercury Theatre Company seeks to be a community trend-setter for excellence in theatre production and education. We strive to lead in the creation of wildly innovative works of musical theatre, and in theatre training and generating unique programs for using theatre as an inspiration for creative development.  We believe      Musical Theatre should be accessible to anyone regardless of age, race, education or financial background.     Musical Theatre should spark the imagination of everyone involved, whether participant or patron.     The mentoring of young people is a key responsibility of Mercury Theatre Company.     Musical Theatre must encourage the power of creative and critical thinking.     Our youth must be valued and provided with the tools to realize their artistic vision.     We do our best work when all are involved as collaborators in the pursuit of the artistic vision.     We must be attentive stewards of our resources.     We must embrace the fundamental attributes of our patrons and participants: with candid curiosity and imaginative risk taking.

Mercury Theatre Company

New Work. Early-career playwrights.  Off-Broadway.

We at The Realm believe in creating immediate, imaginative and theatrically vital productions that spring from the core of the text—its language, its ideas and its mysteries. We love contemporary playwrights. We love the canon of great dramatic literature from the past. We believe that, when explored and produced side by side, each provides a fresh perspective that enlivens our experience of both old and new plays. The Realm is dedicated to creating a community of like-minded artists to explore these ideas, develop new work and create productions of contemporary plays and classics at off-Broadway theaters in New York City.

The Playwrights Realm

Roseville Theatre Arts Academy

Theatre’s mission is to present outstanding theatre that inspires both audience and artist alike in an intimate salon setting.

Tickets online 24/7 at www.basbleu.org or during Box Office hours at 970-498-8949. Box Office and Gallery Bleu hours: Mon-Fri. 12:30-5:30 p.m.

Bas Bleu Theatre Company

The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is a renowned regional theatre in the USA. Visit us at www.TheOldGlobe.org.

The Old Globe believes that theatre matters. Our commitment is to make it matter to more people.

The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional regional theatres and has stood as San Diego’s flagship arts institution for over 85 years. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Audrey S. Geisel Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 15 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages, including an internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. 

More than 250,000 people attend Globe productions annually and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Numerous world premieres such as the 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, METEOR SHOWER, BRIGHT STAR, ALLEGIANCE, THE FULL MONTY, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, and the annual holiday musical DR. SEUSS’S HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country. 

The Old Globe's mission is to preserve, strengthen, and advance American theatre by: creating theatrical experiences of the highest professional standards; producing and presenting works of exceptional merit designed to reach current and future audiences; ensuring diversity and balance in programming; and providing an environment for the growth and education of theatre professionals, audiences and the community at large. 

The Globe recognizes that while it has made progress in advancing racial equity over the years, efforts have been inconsistent and have fallen short. The 2019 Strategic Plan articulates a pledge to deepen and expand existing efforts in building equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. Now, amid urgent calls for a real response to these issues in all sectors of society, and with input from BIPOC community members, artists, staff, and others, the Globe embarked on a series of reforms to intensify and accelerate change at all levels of our operation with the October 2020 launch of its Social Justice Roadmap.