In 1986, The Shakespeare Center, then operating as Shakespeare Festival/LA, presented the first Summer Festival, with performances of Twelfth Night in Pershing Square. The audience included friends, a few earnest theatergoers, and the homeless residents of the Square.
The homeless took great pride in the production, and each night they became more and more involved in its promotion and management, showing the audience where to sit, handing out programs, answering questions and thanking everyone for coming.
One night, our gracious hosts presented our founder Ben Donenberg with four large trash bags filled with aluminum cans. Wanting to contribute, they explained that the actors could take the cans to a recycling center and get a nickel a piece.
Deeply touched, Artistic Director Ben Donenberg declined their offer, but instead created the Food for Thought admission policy in response, requesting that audience members donate food for the needy to gain admission instead of buying a ticket.
In 1993, SCLA expanded to offer outreach programs such as Will Power to Youth and employment and enrichment program that combines hands-on artistic experience with paid job training, specifically created to provide an arts immersion for at-risk youth.
In January 2000, SCLA purchased and moved into it’s permanent downtown headquarters, which is strategically located within a two block radius of three Title One high schools serving approximately 20% of the City of Los Angeles’s youth living at the poverty threshold.
TheaterWorks Hartford (TWH) presents contemporary American Theater to an audience of 36,000 in the heart of Connecticut’s capital city. We take pride in our agility, taking the past…
Each year it produces a selection of the Bard’s plays, along with other productions, in its summer festival in Conway. Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, which has been featured in the New York…
The Detroit Public Theatre produces world-class plays and programs with world-class writers, directors, actors, and designers in the heart of Midtown Detroit’s thriving cultural district.
The Barn Theatre School for Advanced Theatre Training promotes the concept that theatre artists, performers, designers, technicians, stage managers, directors, and art managers should have…
Since 1964, The Fireside Dinner Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin has been the premiere entertainment destination in the Midwest for superb musicals featuring Broadway performers, fine…
Founded in 1988 by graduates of Northwestern University, Lookingglass Theatre Company is a nationwide leader in the creation and presentation of new, cutting-edge theatrical works and in…
BROADWAY COMES TO BABYLON!
Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles
Equity Theater