DTC's Project Discovery Receives Award from First Lady Michelle Obama

Today Dallas Theater Center's Project Discovery program received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from First Lady Michelle Obama. The award recognizes exemplary after-school and out-of-school time programs from across the country and is the highest national honor awarded to such programs. Project Discovery is one of 12 programs to receive the award this year.

"Through these programs, young people are discovering their creative voices, developing a stronger sense of who they are as individuals, and gaining a deeper understanding of the world around them," wrote Mrs. Obama in the program for the award ceremony. "And, as young people navigate today's challenges, the programs we are honoring offer safe harbors that cultivate enthusiasm for learning, support academic achievement, and promote college readiness."

For 27 years, DTC has partnered with area schools to engage students in its productions through a multi-layered, season-long approach. Through Project Discovery, students attend regular evening performances, alongside adult patrons, of each main stage production during the school year. The program introduces students who have little or no experience with theater to the art of theater-making - from playwriting to sword-fighting - and gives them the confidence and experience to perform before their peers and be at home in the theater. Since 1986, Project Discovery has helped over 265,000 students and teachers experience and study the finest in live, professional theater. This on-your-feet pre-show program and post-show discussion with peers and adults is a catalyst for students to explore their role within their community. This program is provided at no cost to participating schools.

DTC Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty says engaging with the work is what theater is all about. "Sometimes, a work celebrates and embraces values you have, and sometimes, it challenges and confronts them. Art is about experiencing other points of view and owning and sharing your response to that," said Moriarty. "To have a program that authentically provides that experience to young people is really the greatest success of Project Discovery."

Project Discovery makes theater more accessible to students, regardless of their ability to pay and increases engagement of students in experiences that explore issues using theater as a catalyst. Roughly half of Project Discovery participants will see a professional theater production for the first time while in the program and more than 90% of participants indicate an increased level of confidence in attending theater and sharing opinions about their experience.

Schools interested in becoming a part of Project Discovery can visit DallasTheaterCenter.org for more details on the program and how to apply. Those interested in making a donation to the program can also do so online at DallasTheaterCenter.org or by calling (214) 252-3914.

ABOUT Dallas Theater Center: One of the leading regional theaters in the country, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 120,000 North Texas residents annually. Founded in 1959, DTC is now a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its Mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas and at its original home, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and Managing Director Heather M. Kitchen, DTC produces a seven-play subscription series of classics, musicals and new plays and an annual production of A Christmas Carol; extensive education programs, including Project Discovery, SummerStage and partnerships with Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts; and community outreach efforts including leading the DFW Foote Festival and recent collaborations with the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Public Library, Dallas Holocaust Museum, North Texas Food Bank, Dallas Opera, and Dallas Black Dance Theater. Throughout its history, DTC has produced many new works, including The Texas Trilogy by Preston Jones in 1978, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, adapted by Adrian Hall, in 1986, and recent premieres of FLY by Rajiv Joseph, Bill Sherman and Kirstin Childs; Fly by Night by Kim Rosenstock, Michael Mitnick and Will Connolly; Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson; The Trinity River Plays by ReGina Taylor; the revised It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams; Give It Up! (now titled Lysistrata Jones and recently on Broadway) by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn; Sarah, Plain and Tall by Julia Jordan, Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin; and The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson.

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