Bryce Pinkham and Lucas Caleb Rooney Open Youth Theater Center in Madagascar

Broadway actors Bryce Pinkham, who recently resumed his Tony-nominated role in the Tony award-winning musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, and Lucas Caleb Rooney, who recently starred in Classic Stage Company's production of Doctor Faustus, have secured a home for their non-profit organization, Zara Aina, in Madagascar.

Pinkham and Rooney co-founded Zara Aina in order to help empower at-risk kids in Madagascar through theatrical story-telling techniques and performance and to provide them with much needed medical and educational assistance.

The new space, to be called Zara Aina @ the ViMa Center for Kids, is being funded by the local Malagasy real estate company Vision Madagascar (ViMa) Group, which will pay the rent on the space for the first full year of use.

Located in Ankorodrano, a neighborhood of contrasts that includes both extremely underprivileged areas and first-class world buildings, the Center will offer classroom spaces, aperformance theatre, offices and a kitchen facility. The children, who are part of the Zara Aina theater company, will also receive medical visits at the Center.

"We are overjoyed to find this semi-permanent space as we search for land to build a fully equipped center to serve more children," notes Rooney.

The Center will also provide acting, English and art classes to three classes of up to 45 children, over a rolling three-year curriculum period. Classes will be lead, primarily, by a five person-Malagasy staff.

"This partnership with ViMa marks an important milestone in Zara Aina's mission to create a self sustaining local center for children in Antananarivo. ViMa founder Zouzar Bouka is a visionary and philanthropist, we are proud to be partnering with him and ViMa," says Pinkham.

Pinkham and Rooney launched Zara Aina back in 2012 and the next year took 12 American artists to the country to help build a traveling theater show with a group of 14 at-risk Malagasy kids. The show was based on a well-known Malagasy folk tale and incorporated some of the same "clowning" techniques that Rooney and Pinkham teach at NYU and other American universities.

Zara Aina is a 501c3 non-profit organization, based in NYC, and devoted to helping at-risk children expand their capacity for achievement through theatrical performance and storytelling. It works with partners to develop sustainable programs that empower and change lives. www.zaraiaina.org

Vision Madagascar (ViMa) was founded in 2000 by Zouzar Bouka. With some of Madagascar's most iconic structures to its credit, including the 2007 South African Embassy and the 2010 Antananarivo City Hall, ViMa's latest venture is the 79?acre Majunga Free Trade Hub with 650,000 sq feet undercover: "a one?stop logistics hub for our resources sector on the west coast." Ventures including ViMa Oil & Gas (VOG), ViMa Mining and ViMa Woods (operating to FSC standards) position it as a major contributor to the development of a country in which private enterprise contributes fully to improving Malagasy quality of life. ViMa 's association with brands like sporting promoter ASO, Regus business centres, Imax, the World Trade Center and Symbion Power are making it a truly global player.

Bryce Pinkham, Zara Aina Executive Director, is an American stage and television actor. He most recently starred with Elisabeth Moss and Jason Biggs in the Broadway revival of The Heidi Chronicles as Peter Patrone, for which he was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award as well as the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance in 2015. In 2014 he was seen as Monty Navarro, the title role, in the Broadway production of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical as well as a Grammy Award. He also appeared in Ghost the Musical as Carl Bruner and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson's Black Fox (his Broadway debut) as well as Shakespeare in the Park's Love's Labor's Lost. He also has a number of other Off Broadway and regional theater credits. His Television credits include appearances on The Good Wife, Person of Interest, and the PBS mini series "God in America." In 2012-13 Bryce was awarded the prestigious Annenberg Fellowship given to "a limited number of exceptionally talented young dancers, musicians, actors and visual artists as they complete their training and begin their professional life." Pinkham is a graduate of Yale Drama School and spent time as a part-time faculty member of NYU's Meisner Studio.

Lucas Caleb Rooney, Zara Aina Artistic Director, is an actor and teacher from New York City. He teaches clowning at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, The Juilliard Schools and other programs. As an actor, Lucas has been on Broadway in Bartlett Sher's GOLDEN BOY opposite Tony Shaloub, Mike Nicols' production of THE COUNTRY GIRL with Frances McDormand and Morgan Freeman, and Jack O'Brien's Tony winning revival of HENRY IV. Last year, he appeared in the world premiere of Caryl Churchill's LOVE AND INFORMATION and as Barnadine in MEASURE FOR MEASURE with the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park and starred opposite Jeffery Demunn in DEATH OF A SALESMAN at The Old Globe Theatre. Lucas won a Drama Desk Award for his work in Michael Wilson's production of Horton Foote's ORPHANS HOME CYCLE. His clown show CREATION had a critically acclaimed run Off-Broadway. He most recently played Robin in Classic Stage Company's production of DOCTOR FAUTUS with Chris Noth. In addition to his many theatre credits, Lucas has appeared in numerous television and film roles, including BOARDWALK EMPIRE, THE KNICK, THE FOLLOWING, GOOD WIFE, and of course the obligatory LAW AND ORDER. He recently finished shooting a role in THE DROP with Tom Hardy and the late, great James Gandofini. He can also be seen in Rob Reiner's MAGIC OF BELLE ISLE with Morgan Freeman and starred opposite Amy Pohler and Will Arnett in ON BROADWAY.

Pinkham met Rooney in the company of a nine-hour cycle of plays by Horton Foote called The Orphans' Home Cycle for which the entire ensemble earned a Lucille Lortel Award in 2010. Since that time, he and Lucas have shared duties teaching Clown and Physical Comedy at NYU's Meisner Studio and The Studio New York.

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