Steppenwolf Accepting Applications for African-American Fellowship

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is currently accepting applications for its 2008-2010 African-American Fellowship, a two-year professional development program for early and mid-career African-American arts administrators. The application deadline is March 15, 2008.  Visit www.steppenwolf.org for more information and to download an application.

Through Steppenwolf's African-American Fellowship, participants are given the tools to become strong, new voices in the field of arts management through professional experience, independent and collective learning projects, mentorship and classroom curricula.  Built upon its nationally-recognized Professional Leadership Program, Steppenwolf received numerous applications from across the country for the Fellowship's inaugural 2007- 2009 year.

During the first year of the Fellowship, participants will cycle through the Apprenticeship and Internship programs.  During their second year, they will join the Steppenwolf staff as associate level employees, working closely with their mentors.  During their tenure, Fellows will receive professional mentorship from Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey, Executive Director David Hawkanson and members of the Board of Trustees. They will also receive monetary compensation and assistance with housing.

Steppenwolf's 2007 - 2009 Fellows, A. Zell Williams and Michael Vinson, are currently cycling through the apprenticeship program in the Theatre Management and Artistic departments. 

The African American Fellowship is generously funded through a grant from Chicago's Joyce Foundation, as well as support from John W. Rogers, Jr. and Sharon Fairley Rogers and Ariel Mutual Funds

Since 1984, Steppenwolf Theatre Company has been committed to the professional training of early-career arts administration and production professionals through apprenticeships and internships. Each year, the Professional Leadership Program attracts over 200 candidates for 36 positions in the company's administration and production departments. The African-American Fellowship will serve as a platform for Steppenwolf's ever increasing initiatives to serve the "public square" and bring the arts and its professional leadership opportunities to various communities and exceptional candidates of all ethnic backgrounds.

Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships and contributing new works to the national canon.  The company, formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through on-going group work.  Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of forty-one artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting, filmmaking and textual adaptation.

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