TDF Open Doors Graduation Held Next Monday

Over 400 guests including current and past New York City high school students, and the performing arts professional mentors who have participated in TDF's Open Doors, the theatre arts mentoring program that TDF founded in 1998 with playwright Wendy Wasserstein, will attend this year's graduation at 5:30pm on Monday, June 6 at The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College (524 West 59th Street, NYC).

The program will open with a performance by the cast of Fuerza Bruta which includes Open Doors alum, Simoné Elizabeth Bart, who, while a senior at Midwood High School was in a group mentored by director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall. The audience will then hear about the program from the perspectives of a teacher, a mentor, an alum and current students. The ceremony will also feature a short film about the reflective journals students have kept during their Open Doors experiences, featuring responses in their own voices. All graduating students will receive three $50 TKTS gift certificates to help ensure their future theatre going.

TDF's Open Doors was the first arts education program to receive a special Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre when it received the special honor in 2012. This year, Open Doors had 27 mentors working with 24 groups of students from New York City high schools.

Open Doors operates on the belief of its co-founder, playwright Wendy Wasserstein, that "theatre going is the birthright of every New Yorker." In Open Doors, dedicated theatre and dance professionals each mentor eight underserved New York City high school students and bring their groups to six Broadway and/or Off Broadway performances over the course of an entire school year. These performances are followed by lively post-performance discussions. The students also keep a journal of their theatre experiences over the course of the year which are reviewed by and discussed with their mentors.

"Open Doors sounds so simple in concept. Take a theatre artist who volunteers as a mentor, add eight high school students who attend six Broadway shows then toss in a few pizzas to eat over 90 minutes as they delve into what they experienced, what connections they made to their lives," said Daniel Renner TDF Education Director. "But the recipe is far more complex and the results far reaching. Mentors who are reinvigorated by the students perceptions and probing questions...students who discover a larger world through live theatre and dance as well as a new found confidence to pursue their dreams."

The 2015-16 TDF Open Doors Mentors and the schools where their students are from:

MENTORS:

Adam Bock, playwright - Brooklyn HS for the Arts

Mark Brokaw, director - DeWitt Clinton HS, The Bronx

Kathleen Chalfant, actress - Telecommunications HS, Brooklyn

Rachel Chanoff, producer/performing arts programmer

and Keith Randolph Smith, actor - Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts, NJ

Dawn Chiang, lighting designer - KAPPA International, Manhattan

Kirsten Childs, composer/lyricist/playwright - Fannie Lou Hamer HS, The Bronx
Alexander Dinelaris, playwright/director - Community School for Social Justice, The Bronx
Joe DiPietro, playwright/lyricist - High School for Economics and Finance, Manhattan

Alan Eisenberg, former Executive Director of Actors' Equity - Repertory HS, Manhattan

Scott Ellis, director - All Hallows High School, The Bronx

Peter Friedman and Caitlin O'Connell, actors - Pan Am International HS, Queens

Anne Hamburger, producer - McKinney HS, Brooklyn

Natasha Katz, lighting designer, Frank Sinatra HS, Queens

James Lapine, writer/director - HS of Leadership and Pubilc Service, Manhattan

Kenny Leon, director - Renaissance HS, The Bronx

Robert Longbottom, director/choreographer - Gaynor McCown ELS, Staten Island
Aubrey Lynch, dancer/choreographer- Talent Unlimited HS, Manhattan

Kathleen Marshall, director/choreographer

and Scott Landis, producer- Maspeth HS, Queens

Derek McLane, set designer- Edward R. Murrow HS, Brooklyn
Marc Platt, producer- West Bronx Academy, The Bronx

Dick Scanlon, playwright/director/actor - Queens HS for Science and Math, Queens

Leigh Silverman, director - Millennium HS, Manhattan

Rebecca Stenn, dancer - Flushing International HS, Queens
David Zippel, composer/lyricist - Young Women's Leadership School, Manhattan

These talented mentors understand the importance of live performance in the cultural education of today's youth and engage their groups in lively, in-depth post-performance discussions. Open Doors has proven that, through this personal and dynamic interaction, it fosters a deep appreciation of theatre and an understanding of its relevance in the students' lives.