Roundabout's Entire Theatrical Workforce Development Program Cohort Lands Jobs

Roundabout Theatre Company and Education at Roundabout have announced a 100% job placement rate for the first cohort of the Theatrical Workforce Development Program (TWDP), the theatre industry's first workforce development program to train and place young adults in professional technical theatre careers.

This new initiative aims to break down the barriers that prevent young adults from joining the industry and empower a diverse new generation of theatre professionals. Roundabout's new program marks the first collaboration between a theatrical employer and the union that represents backstage workers to train and place young adults in professional careers as Stagehands, Electricians, Sound Engineers, Carpenters, Hairstylists, Makeup Artists, and Wardrobe Workers.

The first cohort of the TWDP includes: Saa'r Comedie (The Public Theater, Props), Cathy Dawes (Abrons Arts Center, Light and Sound), Samuel Grady (Daedalus Design, Scenery Production and Fabrication), Erika Juarez (Parsons-Meares, Costume), Ajalon Glover (Atlantic Theater Company, Sound and Deck), Moesha Perez(Atlantic Theater Company, Wardrobe and Deck), Cassidy Piraino (Playwrights Horizons, Sound and Carpentry), Isaac Grivett (Arnold Levine Millinery, Hat/Mask/Prop Construction), Natalie Soto (The Curvy Widow, Off-Broadway production, Production Management by Production Core, Sound; An Enchanted Evening, Off-Broadway production, Audio), Rashell Marcelino (Roundabout Theatre Company, Roundabout Underground, Deck), Aaliyah Stewart (St. Ann's Warehouse, Deck Carpenter) andEmery Reyes (St. Ann's Warehouse, Wardrobe and Deck).

The Theatrical Workforce Development Program includes three years of training, job placement and one-on-one mentorship with top industry professionals to ensure a smooth and successful transition to professional theatre work. Each year, the program will provide a group of up to 20 fellows with a living wage, relevant skills and industry knowledge, work experience, access to world-class venues, and resources and support services to navigate this environment.

Roundabout employs more than 400 technical theatre professionals annually and its education programs reach more than 30,000 people each year. For over twenty years, Roundabout has trained teachers, teaching artists, and high school students in technical theatre skills. In addition to lead partners The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and The Door, additional partners include: The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, Abron Arts Center, SOBs, John Kristiansen NY, Theatre Development Fund (TDF), the Apollo Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Irondale Theatre Company, St. Ann's Warehouse, Barbizon Lighting Company, USITT, White Plains Performing Arts Center, Abington Theatre Company, Paper Mill Playhouse, A.R.T./NY, Dixon Place, Tinc Productions, Classical Theatre of Harlem, PRG, and The Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute.

COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAM:

Recruitment

The Theatrical Workforce Development Program accepts applications from young adults from New York City who have completed their high school degree or HSE within the past five years. This includes alumni from the existing Roundabout partner schools and on-site after school programs.

The second cohort of 19 fellows are currently enrolled in their first year of training, with the hopes of retaining up to 50 young adults in financially-sustaining careers by the end of the three-year pilot period.

Training

In the first year, fellows receive 38 weeks of training at Roundabout Theatre Company in the education spaces and theatre venues. This first phase includes 29 hours a week of instructional skill and theory overview, hands-on training in all departmental disciplines including observing theatre professionals on the job at Roundabout and the Apollo Theater, and a 2-3-month summer internship at a participating theatre or studio. Throughout the training program, fellows will receive a living wage, reimbursed travel, one-on-one mentorship with an IATSE professional, access to additional IATSE industry professionals and retention support services.

The second year includes placement in an entry-level job at a not-for-profit theatre, production, or shop in their chosen trade. Fellows will continue to receive one-on-one mentorship with IATSE professionals, Roundabout-led wrap-around career programming, IATSE trainings, and retention support services from The Door. At the end of this phase, in the third year of the program, fellows will continue to be supported while they pursue contract work from their new professional networks and our cultivated network of theatres and performance, sports, cruise line, and conference venues.

Roundabout's Theatre Workforce Development Program is made possible through the visionary generosity of Denise R. Sobel and the Tikkun Olam Foundation, Inc., and The Kaplen Foundation.

Major funding to establish the Made in New York Stagecraft Bootcamp is provided by the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and NYC Small Business Services. Other major funding is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The Pinkerton Foundation, and the Theater Subdistrict Council, LDC.

This program and other Education at Roundabout initiatives are also supported by JobsFirstNYC's Young Adult Sectoral Employment Project, The New York Community Trust, the State of New York through the New York State Council on the Arts, the Solon E. Summerfield Foundation, the Altman Foundation, and NYC's Human Resources Administration and Center for Economic Opportunity's joint support through the Work Progress Program.

Education at Roundabout turns Roundabout's theaters into classrooms and classrooms into theaters, for more than 30,000 people each year throughout all five boroughs of New York City and around the country. For over 20 years, Roundabout has developed education programs that provide students with access to the arts, encourage social and emotional learning, cultivate skills they will need to succeed in college and careers, and give their teachers the tools to help students flourish. Education at Roundabout has expanded to include diverse programming ranging from student matinees, to classroom residencies and school-wide partnerships in the NYC public schools, to professional development workshops for teachers, to audience engagement programming for our subscribers, to an apprenticeship and internship program, and our after-school program, Student Production Workshop. For more information, visit roundabouttheatre.org/education, and youtube.com.

Roundabout Theatre Company is committed to producing the highest quality theatre with the finest artists, sharing stories that endure, and providing accessibility to all audiences. A not-for-profit company, Roundabout fulfills its mission each season through the production of classic plays and musicals; development and production of new works by established and emerging writers; educational initiatives that enrich the lives of children and adults; and a subscription model and audience outreach programs that cultivate and engage all audiences.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a variety of plays, musicals, and new works on its five stages, each of which is specifically designed to enhance the needs of Roundabout's mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design, is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. The Stephen Sondheim Theatre offers a state of the art LEED certified Broadway theatre in which to stage major large-scale musical revivals. Together these distinctive homes serve to enhance Roundabout's work on each of its stages.

Roundabout's season in 2017-2018 includes John Lithgow: Stories by Heart, by John Lithgow, directed by Daniel Sullivan; and Tom Stoppard's Travesties, directed by Patrick Marber.

Roundabout's new off-Broadway season dedicated to new work at the Harold & Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre in 2017-2018 includes The Last Match, by Anna Ziegler, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch; Amy and the Orphans, by Lindsey Ferrentino, directed by Scott Ellis; Skintight, by Joshua Harmon, directed by Daniel Aukin.

Roundabout Underground's 2017-2018 season includes Bobbie Clearly, by Alex Lubischer.

In 2018-2019 season, Roundabout will produce a new Broadway production of Kiss Me, Kate, directed by Scott Ellis and starring Kelli O'Hara.