2022/23 Program Report

OUR FOUR FRAMEWORKS CTG’s Education & Community Partnerships initiatives fall under four categories:

EDUCATOR AND SCHOOL PROGRAMS Our Educator and School Programs are committed to partnering with and supporting educators as a critical strategy to improving the quality and scope of theatre education in Los Angeles County. Offering direct support to educators, as instructional leaders, change agents, artists, and arts-lovers, exponentially grows the number of students impacted.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS Our Community Partnerships strand provides free, bilingual, theatre-related community programs for Boyle Heights residents in partnership with local theatre artists. Located in East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights is home to CTG’s Costume & Prop Shop, providing a home for hands-on theatre-based workshops and classes. CTG also produces free professional play-readings in libraries and other community spaces, which have been presented in English, Spanish, Tagalog, and American Sign Language.

THE ACADEMY FOR THEATRE LEADERSHIP The Academy for Theatre Leadership is a suite of structured, hands-on workforce readiness programs rooted in anti-racist practices. This programming is designed to complement craft and artistry training by providing on-the-job opportunities, as well as instruction in companion skills such as financial literacy, project management, and ethical leadership.

ARTISTIC TRAINING Artistic Training refers to programming that engages people of all skill and experience levels in the joyful practice of theatre, from design to acting to writing. As we look ahead to new leadership at CTG, we see opportunities to connect artists with community members, and provide opportunities for Angelenos of all ages to learn the craft of theatre.

THE PATH AHEAD

Like so many of the students, educators and community members we support, our team has demonstrated incredible resilience over the past three years as we’ve continued to program in ever-changing circumstances. That flexibility and responsiveness is now more important than ever.

This year, we were fully funded thanks to extraordinary fundraising opportunities; in the year ahead, it’s paramount that we continue to have the resources to re-build and re-envision under new leadership.

Center Theatre Group’s new Artistic Director, Snehal Desai, has expressed a deep desire to engage in more community work, something this team is poised to support and co-create alongside him. In fact, the upcoming year is the tenth anniversary of Community Partnerships in Boyle Heights at CTG. What better way to

celebrate than to dive in to a new era of artistic collaboration and community engagement at CTG? We’re also looking ahead to opportunities to increase the number of Student Matinees in the upcoming season, and thinking deeply about how to support workforce development in a time when the American theatre is still navigating the difficult realities of postpandemic business.

With new leadership, additional opportunities, and financial hardship for the organization, this team’s resilience and flexibility are incredible assets that will help us make our upcoming year the most inspiring and impactful one yet. We hope additional funding will allow us to grow into this year of change, giving us the space to innovate under Snehal’s leadership and meet the opportunities we have for our community.

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OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES We are actively antiracist, and work to dismantle barriers to participating in theatre for people from all backgrounds and communities.

We are highly collaborative, both with our own team, and with the students, educators, and community members we work alongside.

Community feedback and data are essential to our work.

We are strategic and data-driven. Our programs are architected with care, constructed after thorough needs assessment and utilizing best practices for theatre education and community partnerships. We believe in program evolution and honest evaluation.

We compensate artists, students and educators for their work and expertise, and never charge for our programs.

We are Angelenos and our programs engage with Los Angeles County communities, primarily near our theatres downtown and in Culver City, and in Boyle Heights, where our Costume Shop is located.

We reflect diversity: we have the demographics of Los Angeles County in mind and strive to work with students, educators, artists, and others who represent our communities.

We have fun. This work is joyful, playful, and courageous. We share a love for theatre and believe in the power of fun.

WHAT WE DON’T DO To uplift our Guiding Principles, we strive to eliminate the following practices and language from our work.

We don’t: DEVELOP OR MANAGE PROGRAMS WITHOUT STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT. The strongest programs, initiatives, and bold ideas are developed collaboratively. We recognize that we cannot do our work without meaningful, intentional community engagement. Examples of our methodology include regular and mindful conversations with stakeholder groups, thoughtful research and feedback-gathering, and by hiring members of the communities with which we work. Stakeholders are always compensated for their time and expertise. Thoughtful engagement leads to programs that are more relevant, successful, and impactful. We believe collaboration is not only bold and visionary, but also supports the work of dismantling white supremacist and patriarchal perceptions around leadership.

“SERVE” PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS OR COMMUNITIES, AND ENGAGE IN “OUTREACH.” Once considered standard language in arts education and the nonprofit field, the idea of “serving” is now recognized as problematic. It implies a transactional, or even colonial, relationship. It is also often used to imply that we are working with a significantly larger number of people than we really are: for example, an in-school residency with one classroom of 30 students does not mean we are “serving” a school population of 2,000, and a series of classes at one library does not mean we are “serving” a community home to 60,000 individuals. This re-framing means our overall department numbers may be lower and may show more fluctuation from year to year. Similarly, we recognize that “outreach” is a loaded term that fails to recognize the mutual benefits that come from our partnerships with people and organizations.

Instead, we partner, engage, and work with individuals, schools, educators, and community organizations, and share accurate numbers about the reach of our programs.

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INNOVATION IN THE DIGITAL SPACE The Education and Community Partnerships department has made significant progress in enhancing our digital presence this past fiscal year.

We identified opportunities to improve the quality and consistency of our content, as well as the user experience, by focusing on three key areas: the E&CP presence on the Center Theatre Group website including the development of our Digital Library, email marketing, and social media marketing.

Digital Library

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CTG Community Instagram

DIGITAL LIBRARY After an exciting season of returning to in-person programming, we’re taking a closer look at our digital resources. We decided to slow our production of digital resources to assess what’s been created thus far, and we realized that a comprehensive digital library of our materials is what users need. By focusing on creating ease and organization, users will be able to access a variety of resources in an instant from anywhere in the world.

We’re eager to curate custom learning modules and courses with resources from a variety of programs and even from different program suites. By melding the worlds of Community Partnerships, The Academy for Theatre Leadership, and Educator and School programs, we’ll create rich, self-guided learning experiences that fit easily into our users’ lives and schedules.

EMAIL MARKETING While in years past, we’ve relied on our Marketing and Communications Department to build our monthly newsletters, this year our Digital Learning Manager, Courtney Clark, 12

gained access to CTG’s digital marketing platform, WordFly. Having an Education and Community Partnerships staff member utilizing WordFly proved advantageous, as they had a clearer understanding of the promotional needs of our programming and were able to increase our email communications from singular, monthly newsletters to additional dedicated e-blasts for specific events and programs. Some analytic highlights include: Growing the subscribers list by 13.9% for a total of 10,263 subscribers, compared to a 9.1% increase over FY22.

Deploying a total of 36 email campaigns, resulting in 343,025 delivered emails with a 14.87% engagement rate. These emails had 171,532 unique opens and a total of 282,840 opens overall. This is an increase from the 13 emails that deployed during FY22 that had an average 12.84% engagement rate.

We also focused on shifting the tone of our monthly newsletter to be personable and fun. We achieved this by including opening copy that was casual,

conversational, and friendly. Written and signed off by E&CP team members (or sometimes the full team), this shift replicated the warm and inviting way we connect with our community members in physical space.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING We have two social media platforms that we utilize to promote Education and Community Partnerships: Facebook and Instagram, with an emphasis on the latter. Both platforms were developed primarily to promote our Community Partnerships work; however, we have begun shifting the content to be a more holistic representation of the Education and Community Partnerships department. This shift in content has included a strategic effort to improve consistency, quality, and brand alignment which has resulted in a 24.8% increase in our Instagram following over the last six months for a total of 1234 followers. We utilized the latest features, such as the Collaborator function that allows us to cross-post with the Center Theatre Group Instagram account, to reach 135,126 accounts since July 2022. Below are

the most liked graphic and video based posts of FY23, both of which were collaborative posts with @CTGLA:

Top performing graphic-based post: ‘Clyde’s’ Student Matinee (260 likes) Top performaing video-based post: Writers Workshop Recap (125 likes, 3430 views) We’re looking forward to continuing our social media collaboration with our Marketing and Communications Department to expand our presence on the @CTGLA main account and the reach of our growing @CTGcommunity account.

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STATS While we know that numbers never tell the whole story, we are proud of our reach over the past year! In FY23, Education & Community Partnerships engaged…

4,365 students 436 educators 823 additional participants … through live programming, including Student Matinees, workshops, readings, internships, career fairs, in-school residencies, and leadership programs.

While we transitioned back to hosting primarily in-person programming this year, we still engaged our community virtually through programming like our livestream of Student Matinees for ‘Clyde’s’ and ‘Twilight Los Angeles, 1992’, which brought the performances to an additional 2,081 people.

THAT’S 7,705 TOTAL. This work takes a village, including 16 Teaching Artists, 7 full-time arts administrators, 35 community partners and 156 artist/experts (all of whom were

compensated for their time and expertise).

It’s also taken the support of our entire CTG community. In our CTG After Hours series, staff participated in our community workshops on Friday evenings after work, enjoying experiences in Improv, Mask and Movement, Shadow Puppetry, and several other workshops we hosted with incredible guest artists. Our CTG Staff is intensely creative and talented, and we were so excited to engage some of those gifts in this series. Within the Education and Community Partnerships team, we were able to engage our Teaching Artists, not only in their traditional program leadership, but also in their own artistry. We built our Educator Workshop series around their strengths and talents, creating the series by asking them what they would like to teach, stepping back and letting each of their unique skillsets and experience lead the content and shape of the week.

We love uplifting the talent and knowledge in our own CTG community in addition to the incredible guest artists we continue to bring in.

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ABOUT THE TEAM CTG’s Education & Community Partnerships department is comprised of full-time arts administrators and part-time teaching artists.Get to know our full-time staff!

AURORA ILOG Program Manager Programs include: Internship, Apprenticeship, CTG Leadership Circle

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Aurora (she/her/hers) manages execution and evaluation of programs focused on career readiness training and professional development, and cultivates CTG's relationship with the local and national higher education community. Before she started her work at Center Theatre Group, Aurora served as the Community Program Coordinator for the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory. Her passion for the arts and arts accessibility serves as her foundation and motivation as she embarks in her work at Center Theatre Group.

Aurora received her Bachelor of Arts in Music Business, whilst interning and working at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Pasadena Symphony and POPS. Aurora participated in Round 2 & 3 of CTG's Accountability Team and is one of the staff representatives on CTG's AREDI Board Committee.

COURTNEY CLARK Digital Learning Manager

TRACI KWON Arts Education Initiatives Director Programs include: Student Matinee Program, Storytelling Residency, Educator Programs and the Front and Center Theatre Collaborative

Courtney (they/them) focuses on how the Education & Community Partnerships department and our programs can intersect with and utilize social media, digital platforms, and technology. Prior to Center Theatre Group, they were the Deputy Director of Communications and Educational Programs at LA STAGE Alliance and the Marketing Chair for Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles. They also served as an inaugural councilmember on the LA County Arts Ed Collective's Youth Advisory Council in 2019. Courtney graduated Summa Cum Laude and with departmental honors from the University of La Verne with their degree in Arts Education and Theatre Arts.

Traci (she/her) provides direction and leadership for Center Theatre Group’s efforts around professional development programs for educators and oversees strategic partnerships with selected schools and districts to improve and expand student learning in theatre. Traci brings 20 years of experience in arts education, previously serving as the Associate Director of School Programs for The Music Center: Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in studio art from the University of California, Irvine. Traci is a proud graduate of the Los Angeles Unified School District and credits her secondgrade teacher for instilling in her a love of the arts and creativity.

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MEIGHAN LA ROCCA Education & Community Partnerships Coordinator

JESUS REYES Community Partnerships Director Programs include: Library Play Readings, Community Workshops, and Community Stories

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Meighan (she/her) provides administrative support to the Education and Community Partnerships department, designing and maintaining systems to help the full team engage in exceptional theatre education programming.

Before coming to Center Theatre Group, Meighan worked in the Young Conservatory at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and with Production and Marketing at About...Productions in Pasadena. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Loyola Marymount University with her BA in Theatre Arts and minor in psychology.

Jesus (he/him) oversees Center Theatre Group’s community programs, which provide opportunities for people of all ages to experience theatre and the arts as a part of their daily lives and explore and share their talents, creativity, stories, and aspirations. He works to increase access to art and broaden the company’s work throughout Boyle Heights. Jesus studied theatre at San Jose State University and was a Los Angeles County Arts Commissioner from 2009–2014, representing the First District. He is the recipient of a Theatre Communications Group Future Leaders fellowship and a British Council Cultural Leadership International grant, and the Latino Arts Network Maestro Award. Jesus is a resident of Boyle Heights and is fortunate to have amazing friends and a wonderful family that put up with all his theatre duties.

NICO ROSARIO Creative Workforce Initiatives Director Programs include: Internship, Apprenticeship, Observerships, Career Development, Career Fairs, Workforce Development Partnerships, CTG Leadership Circle

Nico (she/ella) oversees and sets strategy for all work in our Academy for Theatre Leadership strand, focused on pathways to the creative workforce. Her program portfolio includes alumni engagement, higher education partnerships, and special projects intended to break down barriers to pursuing rewarding work in theatre. A seasoned arts educator with a strong focus on workforce readiness, Nico was previously an Associate Director for the Career Pathways Connections program at LA Promise Fund, as well as the founder/co-chair of their DEI Committee. She has also worked in higher education admissions for Otis College’s MFA programs, managed federal art education grants at Studio in a School, and was once a (very bad) driver for the Sundance Institute’s Filmmakers Lab. Nico received her Master of Education in Arts and Cultural Settings from King’s College London and her MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is currently using her spare time to juggle two long-form writing projects: a novel centered on underground dance culture and the art world, and a screenplay about straight-edge culture and militant veganism in ‘90s-era Salt Lake City.

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CAMILLE SCHENKKAN Deputy Managing Director (Interim E&CP Leadership)

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Camille Schenkkan (she/her) is the Deputy Managing Director for Center Theatre Group. Before moving into that position, she led workforce development and emerging artist programming at CTG starting in 2012.

She is proud to teach in the Master of Arts Administration Program at Goucher College and the Cal State LA Theatre Department. In past years, she was an Issue Expert for the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network and Co-Chaired the National Emerging Leader Council for Americans for the Arts.

She holds a Masters in Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University and a dual BA in Theatre/English from Scripps College. She spent 14 years in artistic leadership for Circle X Theatre Co. in Los Angeles and continues to serve as a board member.

Her professional practice is rooted in equity, diversity & inclusion and anti-racist learning and action, and she tries to model visible parenting for artists and arts managers. Her first book, Navigating a Career in Technical Entertainment (co-authored with Jessica Champagne Hansen), was published by Routledge/Focal Press in 2022, with a sequel coming in 2025.

MEET THE TEACHING ARTISTS Our Center Theatre Group Teaching Artists are practicing professional artists with the skills, curiosities and sensibilities of educators, who can effectively engage a wide range of people in learning experiences in, through, and about the arts. They teach and integrate their art forms, perspectives, and skills into our full range of theatre education and engagement programs.

While working in collaboration with the Education and Community Partnerships team, our Teaching Artists provide expertise and contribute direct services to the creative design, content development, and implementation of Center Theatre Group programs.

Our Teaching Artists directly engage the students and community members of Los Angeles. The Teaching Artists’ diverse range of expertise allows our programming to be expansive, innovative, and meaningful within the LA theatre and theatre education landscapes.

Get to know our Teaching Artists

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ZACH BONES

CHRISTINE BREIHAN

RAMY EL-ETREBY

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs and The Academy for Theatre Leadership

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs and The Academy for Theatre Leadership

ESTELA GARCIA*

AJA HOUSTON

DEREK JACKSON

FY23 Programs: Community Partnerships

FY23 Programs: Community Partnerships

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs

*Resident Teaching Artist 23

JOHNATHON L. JACKSON

JER ADRIANNE LELLIOTT

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs

FY23 Programs: Artistic Training Programs

DEBRA PIVER

TIANA RANDALL-QUANT

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs

CARENE MEKERTICHYAN

MARA PALMA

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs

TARA RICASA

MONIQUE SYPKENS

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs

FY23 Programs: Educator and School Programs

EDUCATOR AND SCHOOL PROGRAMS For over fifty years, CTG’s Educator and School Programs have engaged thousands of local students and educators annually. We believe that the arts are an essential part of every student’s complete education and are committed to partnering with and supporting educators as a critical strategy to improving the quality and scope of theatre education in Los Angeles County.

We support educators and schools through a variety of programs and resources designed to bring theatre into the classroom, bring students to the theatre, and improve the quality of arts 26

education for all students. We believe offering direct support to educators, as instructional leaders, change agents, artists, and artslovers, exponentially grows the number of students impacted. We design programs in collaboration with educators and teaching artists and remain flexible year-to-year to respond to identified and evolving needs. All programs prioritize Title 1/low-income school sites and are free for educators and students alike.

Current programs include our robust Student Matinee Program, open to all schools and community organizations

serving young people, and our participation in the Front & Center Theatre Collaborative alongside other arts nonprofits who work closely with Culver City Unified School District. Our Storytelling Residency encourages students to tap into their creativity to tell their unique stories and our standalone Educator Workshop provides opportunities for local teachers to develop new skills and share best practices.

and provide training and skill building workshops. With the passage of Proposition 28: The Arts and Music in Schools Funding Guarantee and Accountability Act, we can lean further into educator professional development given the potential increase of 10,000 new arts educators who need to be trained statewide. More support for all these programs could easily allow us to increase the depth and breadth of support for theatre education across Los Angeles County.

All programs are easily scalable, particularly our Student Matinee Program, where the demand is particularly high, and our Storytelling Residency, where interest from schools and educators is growing. We continue to imagine programming around the key areas of interest identified by educators: to see theatre in person, have access to theatre professionals, 27

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS Community Partnerships is the branch of Center Theatre Group’s Education and Community Partnerships Department that provides free, bilingual theatre-related community programs for Boyle Heights residents in partnership with local theatre artists. Program elements include short play commissions, community play readings, and theatre-based community workshops and events.

In FY23, we returned to in-person programs, continued to work with East Los Angeles College’s (ELAC) Theatre Arts Department, and added programs to engage local artists and CTG staff.

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As we move towards our 10-year anniversary of community programs throughout Boyle Heights, we look back at all the wonderful moments shared between staff and community members and embrace the challenge to re-ignite people’s appreciation and love of theatre.

Theatre-based community programs can sometimes be the first and only opportunity for community members to connect with theatre. The next decade will be about growing the number of opportunities for L.A. residents to have access to theatre in their community.

With 72 L.A. city branch libraries and

Photo by Cristi Burgos

86 L.A. County branch libraries, community programs can be rolled out and tailored to individual sites and community needs. The proliferation of theatre can ensure that more people have access to theatre through artists, readings, workshops, and to CTG staff.

For the non-theatregoer, meeting someone from CTG is the first step towards making a personal connection with theatre that eventually leads to an appreciation of theatre that can eventually lead that person into a theater to enjoy a production.

methodically over the course of the season in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines from the county. Programs were held outdoors during the first half of the season due to participants’ slow return to indoor gatherings and transitioned indoors in the spring. From then on, it was as if we’d never stopped.

Community programs rolled out 63

THE ACADEMY FOR THEATRE LEADERSHIP The Academy for Theatre Leadership is a suite of structured, hands-on workforce readiness programs rooted in anti-racist, equitable, and inclusive practices. This programming is designed to complement training in craft and artistry by providing on-the-job opportunities, as well as instruction in companion skills such as financial literacy, project management, and ethical leadership. These programs have been nationally recognized for their excellence and commitment to historically underrepresented groups, and CTG is at the forefront of a national movement redefining paid professional training and changing the way theatre is 86

taught within higher education institutions.

All programs within the Academy have a strong focus on workforce readiness.

CTG defines workforce readiness as follows: While elements like craft, theatre history, technical skills, and artistry are crucial components of a theatre education, we have identified a separate important skillset: workforce readiness. Workforce readiness is a student’s ability to step directly from college into a career in theatre and includes skills as diverse as understanding how and where to find jobs,

financial literacy, knowledge of union structure, and entrepreneurship/selfmarketing training.

theatres, including audience development and engaging the next generation of theatregoers.

As our professional landscape shifts, with theatres across the nation being forced to reduce programming, productions, and staffing—and some theatres shuttering altogether—our approach to workforce training will continue to evolve to better support individuals entering the theatrical workforce. Looking ahead, we are shifting programming to provide more large-scale opportunities for students and early-career individuals to receive practical training in key arts administration skills, including convenings that build on our Career Fair work. Simultaneously, we are finding ways to more deeply engage workforce participants in helping CTG address the existential issues facing regional

We are especially devoted to empowering individuals whose opportunities have been limited within theatre and live entertainment workforces and as part of this scope of programming, we actively seek to partner with a range of local unions, non-profit organizations, and government agencies who are invested in the recruitment and advancement of these populations. A primary goal for

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next year is to implement ways for our Apprenticeship program to partner with IATSE Local 33 to create a pathway for Union membership through hours worked on our stages.

Our paid professional training has also evolved through the adoption of CTG’s Commitments to Change, partly inspired by “We See You, White American Theatre,” which we feel contributes toward not only a shared understanding of best practices around these models, but also a collective vision for how we train and support the next generation of theatre leadership. As we pivot to meet the demands of the field, we are steadfast in our commitment to realworld learning, transferable skill-building, accountability, sustainability, and joyful practice.

Our official education partnership with East Los Angeles College has allowed for more continued engagement with local theatre students and provides direct support and exchange through jointly sponsored initiatives and events.

ELAC faculty and staff have also been invaluable to our team as invited guests, teaching artists, consultants, and recruiters for our programs, and we are grateful for their ongoing contributions to the Academy’s success.

ARTISTIC TRAINING What is CTG’s unique approach to theatre training for artists of all ages and experience levels?

In a city with a million acting academies and theatre classes, how can we leverage our artist relationships to create playful, joyful, high-quality artistic training that is mission-driven and could only happen here at CTG? Artistic training refers to programming that engages people of all skill and experience levels in the joyful practice of theatre, from design to acting to writing. Over the past fifteen years, Education & Community Partnerships 142

has developed many successful models for artistic training, including Theatre Crash Course programs for educators and students; workshops in playwriting, acting, design, direction, and other aspects of theatre for learners of all ages; and special "master classes" with artists working on CTG stages.

Most notably, for ten years, CTG's participation in the national August Wilson Monologue Competition engaged thousands of high school students in intensive study of Wilson’s work and the craft of acting. In 2021, when Wilson’s estate requested that all national partners cease the program, we paused major programming in the Artistic Training space.

This year, we continued our successful Observership Program and maintained workshop programming for both internal

staff and external community members.

As we look ahead to new artistic leadership at CTG, we are excited to dive into the question of what CTG’s “special sauce” or signature programming might be in this area. As in all of our work, our approach to artistic training must center local BIPOC artists in our pedagogy, our partnerships, and our participants.

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LOOKING AHEAD: NEW PAGES This year, thanks to our incredible Institutional Advancement team and the generosity of so many Gala attendees, the Education and Community Partnerships department celebrated full funding for direct and indirect costs. This underscores the importance of this work not only for CTG but for our broader community of artists, audiences, funders, students and educators.

However, much of the extraordinary recovery funding that contributed to that milestone is no longer available in FY24. That reality, coupled with major opportunities around Student Matinees and artistic projects, means we need to continue looking for new funding

sources and advocates for this work. Focusing funding opportunities on our four frameworks (Educator & School Programs, Community Partnerships, The Academy for Theatre Leadership and Community Partnerships) provides flexibility while allowing donors to contribute toward the type of work they’re passionate about.

We are thrilled to deepen our relationship with the Artistic team, led by incoming Artistic Director Snehal Desai, in the coming year. The extraordinary E&CP administrative staff and Teaching Artists are ready for change and new ways of collaborating, and look forward to being an integral part of the new CTG.

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