TCG Awards Audience (R)Evolution Exploration Grants

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for U.S. theatre, is pleased to announce the recipients of Audience (R)Evolution Exploration Grants. Funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF), the nationally recognized program will award up to $5,000 to six teams of TCG Member Theatre staff and/or community stakeholders to observe effective audience engagement and/or community development programs or consult with professionals who can advise on strategies to deepen relationships with communities served by the theatre.

Grant activities will focus on peer-to-peer and field-wide learning as they relate to theatre for youth and multigenerational audiences. The program also encourages applicants to consider the benefits of cross-cultural, cross-sector and/or cross-discipline ways of theatre-making. These grants are intended to serve as a catalyst for deeper field-wide relationships between Applicant Theatres and those being observed.

"This latest round of Exploration Grants shows the potential power of engaging intergenerational audiences to bridge and build communities," said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG, "Thanks to our partnership with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, these grants will empower peer-driven exchange of knowledge and innovative models that work."

This second cycle of the Audience (R)Evolution Exploration Grants awarded approximately $28,600 in total funds to the following theatres:

Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, Boulder, CO:

Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (BETC) will create an intergenerational theatre program for youth ages 14-18 (high school students) and seniors ages 55+ to be offered in Boulder-area schools and senior facilities beginning in the summer of 2020. Over multiple class meetings, senior and youth playwrights will write original short plays inspired by each other's life experiences; the plays will then be performed. BETC will begin with a pilot program pairing one high school with one senior center, then expand the program across two counties and multiple school districts as they refine their program model and gather evidence of the program's successes and impacts. This grant will allow BETC to observe the "Mind the Gap" intergenerational theatre program at New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW). BETC will observe NYTW's program once mid-session and once during the final production process. They'll consult with NYTW staff and teaching artists to learn what makes their program effective. On the second trip, a BETC staff member will attend a multi-day training on arts and creative aging led by experts at the Creative Center at University Settlement, learning theoretical and didactic approaches to implementing and sustaining high-quality arts programming for older adults.

Hartford Stage, Hartford, CT:

Aside from the occasional touring production, there is a dearth of quality children's theatre in the state of Connecticut. As a producing theatre, Hartford Stage (HS) would like to address this deficiency by creating theatre for its local families and communities. The question is whether HS should reform its existing artistic season or if it has the infrastructure to create an additional series of programing. They'll begin to answer aesthetic, logistical, and budgetary questions like these by looking to two contrasting theatres, Alliance Theatre and Children's Theatre Company. These theatres have a commitment to exceptional, high-quality work, and will provide HS with potential models of programming. Members of the artistic and education departments at HS will take concrete steps in evolving the theatre's dedication to young and intergenerational audiences by expanding its artistic season. At the moment, HS has one theatre and one MainStage season which runs from September to June. With exception to their winter remount of A Christmas Carol, their youth performances and community-oriented programming (Breakdancing Shakespeare, Teen Musical) are scheduled for the summer.

Oregon Children's Theatre, Portland, OR:

Oregon Children's Theatre (OCT) will explore activities and programs that will strengthen relationships with three culturally specific organizations in order to advance their shared community engagement and audience-development goals OCT will work with these partners to achieve the following mutual goals: 1) Identify collaborative theatre projects that reach a multi-generational audience; 2) Implement strategies to bring underrepresented voices into the play development process; 3) Build relationships with community organizations serving underrepresented youth and elders; and, 4) Pilot a professional development program to build a diverse roster of teaching artists working with youth. OCT has identified three culturally-specific arts and arts education organizations in Portland with which to collaborate: PassinArt Theatre Company, Vanport Mosaic, and MediaRites' Theatre Diaspora. The project includes travel to visit Seattle Children's Theatre to share ideas and learnings with a company having a comparable mission and facing the same challenges.

Playmakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill, NC:

Playmakers Repertory Company will explore how successful family programing can deepen their mission to tell stories from and for a multiplicity of perspectives. Playmakers will explore an expansion of programming possibilities with theatres that have a proven track record of youth programming. The funds will send producing artistic director Vivienne Benesch, producing associate Alejandro Rodriguez, and company artistic associate Kathryn Hunter-Williams,to consult with three theatres:

• The Children's Theatre of Charlotte whose mission statement reads "We create exceptional theatre experiences, inspiring generations to explore the wonder of their world." Charlotte is located three hours from Chapel Hill, and they have an excellent track record of presenting work for young audiences in the southeast.
• Adventure Theatre (Washington, DC): "Adventure Theatre MTC is the pre-eminent Theater Academy for youth in the DC region with an integrated and nationally renowned high quality professional theater for family audiences."
• Synchronicity Theatre (Atlanta, GA), which produces "smart, gutsy and bold theatre to spark community connections and uplift the voices of women and girls."

Playmakers now reaches nearly 8,000 patrons through a season of plays for adults and families; community outreach; and educational programming.

Shakespeare Dallas, Dallas, TX:

Shakespeare Dallas's (SD) education team will travel to Boulder, Colorado to observe and learn from Colorado Shakespeare Festival's (CSF) staff. CSF's outreach and education team have developed a significant program in public schools that combines Shakespeare and violence prevention. The program has been developed over several years with support from University of Colorado researchers, and combines an on-campus one-hour performance of a Shakespeare play and workshops that are conducted in classrooms by the actors. The Shakespeare and Violence Prevention program has proven to change the way students perceive bullying and engage in diffusing bullying and other threatening behavior. SD team members will attend performances and workshops taught by CSF actors in Denver public schools, interview artists and staff members. SD will then bring CSF's director of outreach to Dallas to train actors in workshop development for SD. The goal is to learn best practices in a statewide tour, as well as the efficacy of violence prevention programs, and replicate the program in Texas. SD will meet with the research team from University of Colorado that has developed metrics and measurement tools and continue developing specific tools for an SD Texas state tour.

Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA:

WTF's COMMUNITY WORKS (CW) program has transformed the way Berkshires residents of all ages access their theatre, through year-round workshops and an annual community-engaged world premiere production. They will codify their commitment to radical inclusion by engaging WTF's leadership, CW cast (local residents ranging in ages from six to 92, and professionals), and the administrative and creative team in a cultural-competency training program. First, associate artistic director Laura Savia and CW associate Hayley Sherwood will shadow Berkshire-based Shirley Edgerton, a CW alum and Pittsfield Public Schools Cultural Proficiency Coach, in her work. The second phase will be a cultural-competency training for WTF's CW staff led by Shirley, highlighting the strategies used for diverse age groups. Third, the applicant team will create a curriculum and facilitate trainings in rehearsal for our 2019 production. They will equip all participants in COMMUNITY WORKS with tools and strategies to be advocates for equity, diversity, and inclusion in and out of the program. Finally, Laura Savia, equipped with the knowledge of this regionally-focused work, will attend artEquity's facilitator training, to further this work and connect it with the national discourse on cultural competency in our industry.

According to DDCF program director for the arts Maurine Knighton, "Peer learning helps deepen the field's collective intelligence, exchange rich bodies of knowledge, and seed effective practices. We look forward to hearing about how these awards help the recipients extend their impact."

To date, the Audience (R)Evolution program has supported two national and two regional learning convenings; an online Research & Resources Hub that includes newly updated case studies and research commissioned by AMS Planning & Research; a podcast series of American Theatre; and the publication of Audience (R)evolution: Dispatches from the Field, a collection of essays edited by Caridad Svich, with a foreword by Bill Rauch and Alison Carey from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, on how theatre practitioners think about and engage with audiences as well as define and explore sites for performance. In addition, the program has distributed over $2,400,000 in grants to 55 projects in 22 states across the country. Audience (R)Evolution supports risk-taking, reflection, experimentation, and collective action toward implementing new strategies that will help theatres sustain and grow attendance and demand. Learn more here.

The Audience (R)Evolution Exploration Grants panel included: Katie Christie, director of community partnerships, Roundabout Theatre Company; Benjamin Hanna, associate artistic director at Indiana Repertory Theatre; Jesus Reyes, community partnerships director, Center Theatre Group.

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's mission is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and child well-being, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties. The Arts Program of DDCF focuses its support on contemporary dance, jazz and theatre artists, and the organizations that nurture, present and produce them. For more information, please visit ddcf.org.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) exists to strengthen, nurture, and promote professional theatre in the U.S. and globally. Since its founding in 1961, TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to over 700 Member Theatres and affiliate organizations and nearly 10,000 Individual Members. Through its Core Values of Activism, Artistry, Diversity, and Global Citizenship, TCG advances a better world for theatre and a better world because of theatre. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through research, communications, and events, including the annual TCG National Conference, one of the largest nationwide gatherings of theatre people; awards grants and scholarships, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and through the Global Theater Initiative, TCG's partnership with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute. TCG is North America's largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 17 Pulitzer Prizes for Drama on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning American Theatre magazine and ARTSEARCH, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its Member Theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field, and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre.www.tcg.org.