From the Directors
REACHING ARIZONA'S CHILDREN
Letter from Managing Director Kevin Moore
This year marked a first for Arizona Theatre Company when
we were chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts to take
part in a prestigious nationwide program called Shakespeare
in American Communities. While we have received many grants
in the past from the NEA, this particular program allowed
us the opportunity to reach children in all four corners of
the state we call home. Not only were we able to reach kids
in areas as far north as Window Rock and as far south as Nogales,
we were also able to bring these students to our venues in
both Phoenix and Tucson to experience what was probably their
very first professional theatrical production. Lives were
changed.
Just ask 11th grade English teacher Joan Hasenohrl at Salt
River High School in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
“My first reaction was how am I going to get my students
involved in a Shakespeare play? Twelfth Night seemed
to me to be the most remote subject matter and I was sincerely
worried that my students would not relate to it in the least,”
says Ms. Hasenohrl. “I was wrong. We discussed it in
class for weeks. Arizona Theatre Company made it possible
for these kids to step outside of themselves and see how theatre
truly did relate to their lives. We’re so grateful that
ATC made this available to us.”
In a recent public appearance, Tony Award-winning actress
and star of ATC’s Souvenir, Arizona native
Judy Kaye made it more personal. “In my days growing
up in the Phoenix public school system, the arts were made
readily available and my greatest mentors were teachers who
encouraged me to perform. Today, these options just aren’t
there, so it’s up to companies like Arizona Theatre
Company to expose kids to the wide range of opportunities
there are to make a career doing something you love.”
It’s important, what we do. I know that you, our closest
friends and family, understand the importance of the professional
work we produce on our stages in Tucson and Phoenix. But what
you may not know about is the work we do for the children
of our state. Our student matinees routinely reach the under-served,
attending their first live performances. Our Summer on Stage
program in Tucson is nationally-recognized as a unique program
designed to expose high school kids to a life in professional
theatre, both onstage and backstage. ATC’s Wasserstein
Project brings kids to professional theatre, opera, music
and dance performances. It helps them to understand the relationship
between life and the arts.
These programs are what make ATC a part of the community
in which we live. Not only do we produce our work right here
in Arizona, but we foster the lives of young people from all
over our state.
And these programs are also the reason we need your contributions.
Our ticket sales alone cannot cover the expenses of buses
to bring kids in from Santa Cruz County or transportation
and lodging for our artists to visit students on the native
American communities. Revenue from tickets alone can’t
cover the costs of mounting a fully professional production
so students can attend for only $10 or less.
We have great plans for the future of our education efforts,
expanding even further to reach even more eager young people.
But, we can’t do it without your donation. Please give
generously, knowing that when you give, you’re sharing
your love and passion for the arts and the power to change
young lives.
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