September 2, 2010

TCG OBSERVERSHIP PROGRAM

For nearly four decades, this initiative has enabled theatre professionals to broaden their horizons by observing work and meeting colleagues in other parts of the country. Grants of up to $2,000 each are awarded to member theatres for artistic leaders, management leaders and other resident artistic and administrative personnel to travel for purposes that will increase their knowledge of the field and aid in professional and institutional growth.

TCG Observership Grant Recipients

  • Actors Guild of Lexington (Lexington, KY) managing director Steven Koehler to visit three National New Play Network member theatres: Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO), InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia, PA) and Florida Stage (Manalapan, FL); and to observe administrative areas of new play development, with a focus on marketing and fundraising.
  • Actor's Theatre of Charlotte (Charlotte, NC) executive artistic director Dan Shoemaker to study the strategies of mid-sized theatres that have proven successful in attracting and developing audiences for new works; and to meet with directors and staff at the Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis, IN) and Stages Repertory Theatre (Houston, TX).
  • Honolulu Theatre for Youth (Honolulu, HI) managing director Louise King Lanzilotti to visit the Children's Theatre Company (Minneapolis, MN), Dallas Children's Theatre (Dallas, TX) and Stages Theatre Company (Hopkins, MN) to observe productions and education programming and for these theatres to serve as models for Honolulu Theatre for Youth to attain a permanent space and expand its education department.
  • New Dramatists (New York, NY) general manager Karen Noyes to investigate the professional practices of two regional non-profit theatres: Milwaukee Repertory Theater (Milwaukee, WI) and La Jolla Playhouse (La Jolla, CA); and to visit with institutional leaders and their administrative staff to talk about their successes in long-range planning and fundraising.
  • New Ground Theatre (Bettendorf, IA) artistic director Chris Jansen to visit three youth theatres: The Coterie Theatre (Kansas City, MO), First Stage Children's Theater (Milwaukee, WI) and Stages Theatre Company (Hopkins, MN); and observe their pre-professional youth training programs and study their curriculums, to help New Ground Theatre prepare to assume artistic control of Davenport Junior Theatre.
  • Shotgun Players (Berkeley, CA) managing director/literary manager Elizabeth Lisle to visit Cornerstone Theater Company (Los Angeles, CA); Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Chicago, IL), the Lookingglass Theatre Company (Chicago, IL), Manhattan Theatre Club (New York, NY), the Public Theater (New York, NY) and HERE Arts Center (New York, NY); and observe their successful new play development programs in order to create and implement similar procedures as Shotgun Players develops its own new play initiative.