New Generations Program
Objective#2: Future Audiences
Future Audiences: Round 7 Recipients
Brava Theater Center (San Francisco, CA) will expand and improve their audience development work for multicultural lesbian and Spanish speaking audiences by launching a broad-based media campaign (particularly with viral marketing and radio), engaging not-for-profit organizations and networking with social, cultural and affinity groups that serve these constituencies.
Center for Puppetry Arts (Atlanta, GA) will expand their Latino audience development initiatives; specifically the production of bilingual marketing materials and presentation of bilingual puppetry performances.
The Children’s Theatre Company (Minneapolis, MN) will expand their teen liaison program. In spring 2007, the theatre’s staff will recruit approximately twenty teens from local high schools to paid positions in the 2007-2008 season. According to their interests and talents, teens will be assigned to work in the artistic production, education, or marketing department.
Free Street (Chicago, IL) will expand their audience development plan for Chicago’s Polish community and the residents of neighborhoods on the south and west sides of the city through the production of six new works performed at various street and traditional venues and created by ensembles of youth, emerging artists and theatre professionals.
The Neo-Futurists (Chicago, IL) will enhance marketing to their under 30 audience by extending their marketing coordinator’s responsibilities and resources and enhancing the design and functionality of their website. They will also hire a graphic designer to take on the creation of all printed materials and develop more in-depth audience development research projects that emphasize touring and teaching opportunities.
Oregon Children’s Theatre (Portland, OR) will expand their audience development plan for children, teens and young adult parents through internet-based engagement. They will develop interactive educational video content for each production, document and share online features about their script development processes and promote ticket buying through email communications.
Out Of Hand Theater (Atlanta, GA) will strengthen their events programming for younger adults through enhanced marketing efforts, and purchasing audience tracking software and technical equipment and increasing design budgets. They will also seek a media sponsor for The Game, a game where teams race each other around the city following clues, some of which are contained in theatrical spaces.
Pasadena Playhouse (Pasadena, CA) will enhance their outreach program for at-risk teenagers from the greater Los Angeles area by training additional volunteers, cultivating additional organizational partners, solidifying plans for the addition of a literacy component and expanding the theatre’s ability to arrange interaction between group participants and Playhouse artists.
Passage Theatre Company (Trenton, NJ) will expand their audience development plan for middle and high school students, members of the Trenton community and surrounding areas of Mercer County by producing new theatre works as part of the Anti-Violence Arts Initiative (AVAI) which engages children and families in theatre production, both as artists and audience.
Perseverance Theatre (Douglas, AK) will expand their audience development plan to reach Alaska Native audiences statewide by extending the responsibilities of their director of outreach and developing Exodus from Ugiuvaq, an original, documentary-style examination of the forced exodus of the King Island people from their home in the Bering Sea in the 1960’s. They will also remount Raven Odyssey for an extensive tour to every cultural region of the state.
Future Audiences: Round 6 Recipients
Black Spectrum Theatre Company (Jamaica, NY) has created and produced two original plays about avoiding gang life and teen sexuality through their Youth Theatre Company in summer 2006, using their mobile theatre stage to reach underserved youth in targeted New York City communities, and hired a part-time outreach coordinator.
Classical Theatre of Harlem (New York, NY) hired an outreach coordinator to reinstitute, expand and manage their grassroots Harlem audience program. They have also hired a part-time box office manager and installed a computerized system in their box office that will allow them to capture walk-up patron information at the point of sale.
Deaf West Theatre (North Hollywood, CA) is expanding their audience development plan for young and deaf audiences by conducting sensitivity training, organizing marketing and outreach events that target the deaf community, holding talk-backs and developing a Discovery Journal, all in conjunction with several productions including a new musical based on the children's classic Sleeping Beauty.
Freehold Theatre (Seattle, WA) is expanding their Engaged Theatre tour to culturally underserved communities, adding additional performances and workshops. They have also integrated a musical component into the piece being created using improvisation and writing through their Prison Residency at the Women's Correctional Center of Washington.
Georgia Shakespeare (Atlanta, GA) is expanding its marketing and outreach efforts to target a younger, more urban and ethnically diverse audience through its Shake at the Lake program, which includes five free performances in the park, and Celebrate Shakespeare, a free event for families.
HERE Arts Center (New York, NY) is expanding their customized show-specific marketing and adding more proactive person-to-person audience development through their HERE:Tailored-to-Fit program, which uses targeted marketing rather than institutional branding to encourage young audiences to engage with their resident and visiting artists' work.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR) is expanding its audience development work with African-American and Hispanic professionals in Portland, OR; Oakland, San Francisco and Sacramento, CA and Seattle, WA. They are also meeting with leaders from diverse communities to develop host committees for OSF events in these cities and promote travel to OSF. Events have highlighted the OSF theater experience, involving actors from OSF and participants in OSF’s Open Door program.
The People's Light and Theatre Company (Malvern, PA) is presenting productions, forums and workshops that center on Tazewell Thompson's new play inspired by the local stories of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad Project includes newly cultivated audience members in the development of the script and in the events and activities surrounding the production.
San Diego Repertory Theatre (San Diego, CA) is expanding their Ambassadors to the Future project, building increased partnerships with audiences from their bi-national community. They are also developing a deeper interaction with downtown, Latino and African-American communities through collaboration with an active Ambassadors Council of community leaders, developed in association with trustees and guided by the marketing director and a new audience development associate.
Seattle Children's Theatre (Seattle, WA) is expanding program activities, personnel support and production values for their Deaf Youth Drama Program (DYDP). They are also expanding staff resources for local and outreach residencies and partnering with Seattle Central Community College's interpreter training program to bring both deaf and hearing students into DYDP programs.
7 Stages (Atlanta, GA) hired a director of audience development and increased promotion of the Rush Hour Wednesday program, which models itself on after-work happy hours to overcome geographic and traffic barriers to reaching young professionals. They are also engaging in more nuanced uses of electronic technology, such as adding blogging functionality and archival records to their website.
Theater by the Blind (New York, NY) is increasing the number of performances presented yearly and adding more touring and workshops and expanding their productions to two per year, with runs increasing from four to six weeks. They are also providing workshops for vision-impaired students, providing role models for what blind people can achieve.