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Children’s Theatre of Charlotte

Children’s Theatre of Charlotte (CTC) was established in 1948 by the Junior League of Charlotte. Its first plays were produced in local school auditoriums with young people and Junior League volunteers as cast members. In 1971, the Theatre moved into a city-owned former VFW club, located at 1017 East Morehead Street. Dedicated volunteers transformed this facility into a working theatre by building a stage, light booth and elevated seating, as well as production spaces, offices and classrooms. In this new home, Children’s Theatre grew into a professional performance company and a beloved Charlotte institution.

After hiring its first Executive Director in 1979, the Theatre took steps to strengthen its administrative and financial base. With stronger management and a committed Board, CTC focused on increasing the professional quality of its performances. The Theatre also began offering educational programming. Today, CTC places equal importance on the production of professional theatre and the offering of educational initiatives, making it a national leader among theatres for youth.
In the spring of 1989, the Tarradiddle Players became the Resident Touring Company of Children’s Theatre of Charlotte. In existence since 1972, the Tarradiddle Players bring live theatre for young people to audiences across the Southeast and beyond, as well as performing on Children’s Theatre stages.

Over the course of the next several years, the organization continued to expand and grow, serving young people and families throughout the region. In 1997, however, it became apparent that this facility no longer provided adequate space or means to facilitate the professional programming Children's Theatre of Charlotte was capable of producing.

In 2005, after eight years of careful planning, Children’s Theatre moved into a new facility in downtown Charlotte called ImaginOn: The Joe & Joan Martin Center. Built primarily with voter-approved bonds, ImaginOn is home to Children's Theatre of Charlotte and a branch of the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC).

Children’s Theatre’s transition into this facility not only represents the first time in its history to have spaces designed specifically for theatre but also the first time all scene and costume shop amenities have been located on site. Having the entire staff under one roof – from teaching artists and actors to carpenters and stitchers – has generated incredible synergy. Equipped with exceptional theatre and education spaces, CTC’s team of energized artist educators are committed to annually producing professional live theatre and educational experiences for more than 330,000 young people and families each year.



Childsplay

“One of the underlying core values of Childsplay is the notion of ensemble. There is a resident group of theatre artists (our Associate Artists) who, in collaboration with the Artistic Director, are responsible for planning and creating the artistic products that illustrate Childsplay’s mission. But these artists do not create in isolation. Everyone who works at Childsplay -- other artists, technicians, educators, administrators and trustees -- is a part of this resident ensemble. This mindset guides the way our work is created, the way it is marketed and the way it is delivered. Ideally, all of these individuals are housed under one roof, allowing for the free and open exchange of ideas and opinions.” Childsplay’s Strategic Plan 2012.

• Childsplay, founded in 1977 by Artistic Director David Saar, is a non-profit professional theatre company of adult actors, teaching and performing for young audiences and families.
• Childsplay’s mission is to create theatre so strikingly original in form, content or both that it instills in young people an enduring awe, love and respect for the medium, thus preserving imagination and wonder, those hallmarks of childhood that are the keys to the future.
• In the beginning, touring was the sole means by which the Company reached its chosen audience. Since that time, it has reached more than 3.5 million young people and their families through school tour performances, fully mounted productions in formal theatres, artist residencies and workshops, an extensive curriculum of performing arts classes and the development of new works through the Whiteman New Plays Program.
• This season, Childsplay expects to give 700 performances for more than 200,000 young people on public stages and in schools throughout the state.
• In September, Childsplay launched its first national tour. The two-person cast of Tomás and the Library Lady set out with a stage manager in a brand-new van on a multi-state tour that covers 17 states in 16 weeks. This spring, they embark on the final 6-week leg of the tour.
• Pivotal to the success of Childsplay’s programing is the company's commitment to new works and innovative approaches to traditional works - constantly challenging the notion of what theatre for young people can and should be. The resident artists have, among themselves and with other leading artists in the field, forged a working style that brings powerful results. Using this dynamic ensemble approach, Childsplay has brought plays on such important and difficult subject matter as the Holocaust, AIDS, the Vietnam War, and adult illiteracy to students across the Southwest.
• Childsplay is well respected on the national level and has received accolades from: The American Alliance of Theatre Education, The Kennedy Center’s NEW VISIONS/NEW VOICES program, the National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, and American Theatre Magazine. In 2001, Childsplay was honored with the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Arts Education and was hailed as a “national treasure” by The Arizona Republic.
• Childsplay is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for American theatre; ASSITEJ, the international organization for theatre for young audiences; and the Tempe Chamber of Commerce.

People’s Light & Theatre

Now in our 33rd season, the People’s Light & Theatre Company is a non-profit, professional theatre founded in 1974 by Danny Fruchter, Meg Fruchter, Ken Marini, and Dick Keeler. These artists were committed to two ideals: long-term collaboration among artists with diverse aesthetics and active participation in the life of the immediate community. Today, these principles remain central to People’s Light through our mission and programming. Our artistic ensemble engages in significant community collaboration and continues to make connections with new audiences through our nationally recognized arts education program, Project Discovery. This program serves 35,000 young people each year through in-school residencies, student matinees that bring students from 20 high schools to the theatre twice each year for free, special projects tailored to specific youth communities, and a year-round Theatre School for both young people and adults. We house guest artists in a restored 18th-century farmhouse that includes a banquet room that can be rented for special events, as well as a bistro, Places! Total community served is nearly 100,000 annually. Our $4.9 million annual budget employs 70 full and permanent part-time artists and staff members and almost 200 additional guest artists.

People’s Light has always made its home in Chester County. In 1979 the Theatre moved to our current seven-acre site in Malvern, which includes two black box theatres with 375 and 180 seats, respectively. We produce eight or nine plays per season, mixing world premieres, contemporary plays, and fresh approaches to classic texts for our Main Stage Series and Family Discovery Series. We’ve produced more than 300 plays, of which over 100 were world/regional premieres. World premiere productions include Russell Davis’ Sally’s Gone, She Left Her Name and The Thoughts & Travels of Nicki, Lillian Groag’s Midons—or the Object of Desire, Willy Holtzman’s Hearts: The Forward Observer and Something You Did, playwright-in-residence Lou Lippa’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Mourning Show, The Dreaming of Aloysius, and Sacco and Vanzetti: A Vaudeville, Pamela Parker’s A Higher Place in Heaven, Kathryn Petersen’s Arthur’s Stone, Merlin’s Fire and the comic pantos Jack & the Beanstalk, Robin Hood, and Treasure Island, James Still’s He Held Me Grand and Iron Kisses, and Y York’s The Forgiving Harvest.

Notable past productions include Lou Lippa’s two-part, six-hour adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, Karen Sunde’s Achilles: A Kabuki Play (both world premieres), and The Gospel at Colonus by Bob Telson and Lee Breuer. David Hare’s adaptation of Brecht’s The Life of Galileo had its American premiere on our stage, as did Grimm Tales, Beauty and the Beast, and More Grimm Tales from London’s Young Vic. Our productions have toured as close to home as Philadelphia (Holes at the Kimmel Center in 2005) and as far away as Mexico, Budapest, and Cyprus.

People’s Light has been the recipient of major grants from many national and local foundations and corporations, including The National Endowment for the Arts; AT&T:OnStage; NEA Shakespeare for a New Generation; The Open Society Institute; The Shubert Foundation; The Surdna Foundation; TCG New Generations and The Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund; The Fund for New American Plays; Target Corporation; Wachovia Bank; The Pew Charitable Trusts; The William Penn Foundation; The Connelly Foundation; The ARAMARK Charitable Fund at the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program; Sunoco, Inc.; The Independence Foundation; ING; and PECO, an Exelon Company (see more listings under annual fund at the back of this program). Nationally, People’s Light holds a reputation for excellence and innovation. In the five-county Philadelphia region, People’s Light is valued as a cultural center that responds to its community.


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