Finished Product

We here at Center Theatre Group (CTG) have finally reached an end to our year long journey of our research exploring internship placements for graduate arts management students in local Los Angeles theatres. In reality, however, we feel our work is never done! We have learned so much and plan to launch an expanded internship program here at CTG that will include a new opportunity targeting graduate students based on this research-the CTG Scholars Program.

Please visit our webpage here to download our white paper and feel free to post any feedback here on the blog!

A special thanks to Theatre Communications Group and MetLife for giving us the opportunity to "think."

Leslie K. Johnson
Director of Education and Community Partnerships

Patricia Garza
Senior Manager for Education and Community Partnerships

Fourth Round Recipients Announced

MetLife Foundation and Theatre Communications Group (TCG) recently announced the fourth round of recipients for the MetLife/TCG A-ha! Program: Think It, Do It, which supports the creative thinking and action of TCG member theatres with the goal of impacting the larger theatre community. Five theatres were awarded grants, totaling $225,000, to either research and develop new ideas or experiment and implement innovative concepts.

This year’s recipients include two previous Think It recipients who are now putting their ideas and research into action with Do It grants.

The 2011 MetLife/TCG A-ha! Program recipients are:

THINK IT

Perseverance Theatre, Douglas, Alaska
Perseverance Theatre will explore the feasibility of using their new multi-city operations as a catalyst to build statewide programming for Alaskan theatre artists who would work and train with the company.

DO IT

CalArts Center for New Performance, Valencia, California
The Center for New Performance at CalArts will convene a TEDx conference in Los Angeles, bringing together creative minds from disciplines across the contemporary performance landscape to expand understanding of the live arts.

Curious Theatre Company, Denver, Colorado
Curious Theatre Company, capitalizing on the momentum of their 2010 MetLife/TCG A-ha! Think It grant addressing the desire to re-center artists within organizations, will create an innovative post-specialist staffing structure by developing and integrating artists with staff in a new organizational paradigm.Salvage Vanguard Theater, Austin, Texas
Salvage Vanguard Theater will continue to cultivate the Scenic Co-op (shared 'set' resources cooperative) based on discoveries made during their 2010 MetLife/TCG A-ha! Think It grant project.

The Wooster Group, New York, New York
The Wooster Group will create an ongoing online talk show series in which artists across disciplines have discussions with other artists and the public, to foster a more thorough discourse of vital topics that include current trends in the arts; as well as more expansive cultural and political issues.

You can read more about the program and previous recipients here.

Ramping Up...

Oh boy, things are about to get crazy.

Starting in September, and running until March, we are attempting to release 1 video per week.

Why? Why would we plan something like this? Because we enjoy creating mountains of work for ourselves? Because we feel like it's our best bet at creating some online momentum and cultivating a viewership? Because we're just excited about the project as a whole? The answer is probably some combination of all these things.

Our first 6-part series has already been shot and is being edited right now. We're shooting a puppetry series next week. Plus we've got a few other odds and ends in various stages of production.

We're basically trying to bank as much content as we can right now, so that once our steady stream of launches begins we can maintain it. Let's see how we do.

Kevin

PS: Licensing music is expensive! Things I've learned working on this project...