Photo Flash: Inside TDF's Open Doors Graduation with Kathleen Marshall, Scott Landis & More

On Monday night over 400 guests including current and past New York City high school students, and the performing arts professional mentors who have participated in TDF's Open Doors, the theatre arts mentoring program that TDF founded in 1998 with playwright Wendy Wasserstein, attended this year's graduation at The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College (524 West 59th Street, NYC).

The program opened with a performance by the cast of Fuerza Bruta which included Open Doors alum, Simoné Elizabeth Bart, who, while a senior at Midwood High School was in a group mentored by director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall. The audience then heard about the program from the perspectives of a teacher, a mentor, an alum and current students. The ceremony also featured a short film about the reflective journals students have kept during their Open Doors experiences, featuring responses in their own voices.

TDF's Open Doors was the first arts education program to receive a special Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre when it received the special honor in 2012. This year, Open Doors had 27 mentors working with 24 groups of students from New York City high schools.

Open Doors operates on the belief of its co-founder, playwright Wendy Wasserstein, that "theatre going is the birthright of every New Yorker." In Open Doors, dedicated theatre and dance professionals each mentor eight underserved New York City high school students and bring their groups to six Broadway and/or Off Broadway performances over the course of an entire school year. These performances are followed by lively post-performance discussions. The students also keep a journal of their theatre experiences over the course of the year which are reviewed by and discussed with their mentors.