FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 25, 2019 CONTACTS Gus Schulenburg | gschulenburg@tcg.org | 212-609-5941
TCG Awards $15,000 for Audience (R)Evolution Exploration Grant Recipients
New York, NY –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 three 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.
“Our research shows consistent growth in attendance when it comes to programming for young and multigenerational audiences," said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG, "and it is crucially important to engage new generations of theatre-goers. Thanks to our partnership with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, these grants will empower peer-driven exchange of knowledge. along with innovative models that work.”
This first cycle of the Audience (R)Evolution Exploration Grants awarded $15,000 in total funds to the following theatres:
Lexington Children's Theatre, Lexington, KY:
Access to patrons, regardless of ability to pay, speaks directly to the heart of Lexington Children’s Theatre’s (LCT) mission. As such, LCT will examine the sliding scale model of ticketing in order to provide greater access to programming across its community. The theatre currently employs a “Pay What You Can” model for a single performance for each production and would like to reimagine this model by consulting with other theatres and nonprofit organizations both within its community and beyond.
Target Margin Theater, Brooklyn, NY:
To increase equity and accessibility, and understand the challenges of multigenerational community engagement, Target Margin Theater is partnering with the social service agency The Center for Family Life (CFL) to support a series of “Listening Sessions” with local youth and parents in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Activities will take place at both of their spaces and all participants will receive an honorarium, travel reimbursement, and be provided food and onsite childcare (if necessary).
The TEAM (Theatre of the Emerging American Moment), Brooklyn, NY:
The TEAM will travel to Cumberland Gap, TN, in March, 2019 to participate in "Crossing Roots: A Rural-Urban Theater Workshop" hosted by Cardinal Cross in partnership with Arts in the Gap. The workshop will engage local multigenerational participants in devised theater-making in exercises exploring memory and identity as embodied traits we carry and perform, and in intercultural creative exchange as a tool for transforming communities. The TEAM will lead a “Devising Within a Democracy” workshop, and will participate in workshops at sites around Appalachia. Cardinal Cross was founded by Amy Brooks and Hilarie Rose Spangler, and was developed in 2017 under the name "Crossroads Lab" within Appalshop's award-winning theater wing, Roadside. The TEAM will learn from Cardinal Cross and partner artists' history of multigenerational audience engagement, and also will experiment with devising new theatrical material with communities around the country.
“Audience (R)Evolution is a great example of how Theatre Communications Group strengthens and advances the theater sector,” said Maurine Knighton, program director for the arts at DDCF. “Exchange, experimentation, and reflection are essential to theatres aiming to develop meaningful engagement with audiences and communities, and we are proud to support TCG in helping theatres do just that.”
Round 2 Cohort Grant production of The Tempest by Dallas Theater Center's Public Works Dallas program, photo by Kim Leeson
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 $2,000,000 in grants to 40 projects in 21 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: Chad Bauman, managing director, Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Freedome Bradley-Ballentine, director of arts engagement at The Old Globe; Nikki Toombs, director of education, Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company.
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.
For over 55 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for U.S. theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture, and promote the professional not-for-profit theatre. TCG’s constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to over 700 Member Theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research, and communications; awards grants, 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 publisher of dramatic literature, with 16 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play 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.