O.C.'s Chance Theater Receives $17K in Grant Funding

The Chance Theater is pleased to announce that it has received multiple grants totaling $17,000 from The Elizabeth George Foundation, James Irvine California Arts Initiative and Bank of America.

The Elizabeth George Foundation donated $5,000 to "Speak Up--Take a Chance," the Chance Theater's summer educational program for Anaheim High School students, currently in its seventh year. "Speak Up" focuses on giving theater students a  full theatrical experience by overseeing the mounting of an original production that is written, directed, designed and produced by the students themselves.  The program is offered free-of-charge to Anaheim High School students who have been selected by various teachers throughout the district.

"This grant comes at a very important time for us," notes Chance Theater's Development Director Erika C. Miller. "This eight-week summer program is completely free to our students, so without outside funding, we simply could not afford to produce another one. Now we're assured that we can continue this program for another year and focus on making it even better."

The James Irvine California Arts Initiative, a collaboration of the Orange County Community Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation, donated $7,000 to help subsidize a portion of the expenses needed for building a stronger Sustaining Membership base by partnering with SparkOC on ticket promotions, giveaways, cross promotions and advertising.  Sustaining Membership is a special sponsorship program started by the Chance three years ago which allows patrons to make a small, automatic monthly contribution.  In exchange, some benefits available to Members are unlimited admissions to Chance productions, discounted tickets for guests, as well as exclusive member events.

"To have this opportunity to try new avenues of marketing and growth is a bit liberating for us," says Miller. "We're a small organization and attempting this kind of promotional push was always outside of the realm of possibilities for us.  Thanks to the James Irvine California Arts Initiative, we hope to bring more attention to a program that will be a key factor in the continued growth of our organization."

Chance Theater also received $5,000 from Bank of America's "Local Heroes" program. The theater nominated patRon Lewis Crouse as a "Local Hero," and Crouse named Chance Theater as his favorite organization to receive the "Local Hero" monetary grant.

In addition to these new grants, the Chance Theater still has several active grants from 2009 totaling $11,000: The Disneyland Cast and Community Fund gave $6,000 to "Speak Up," and the California Arts Council and Anaheim Arts Council each donated $2,500 to the "Page to Stage" program, which benefits high school students as they take an in-depth look at the world of theater. 

Recently nominated for six Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and six Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards (including Best Season), and named "Outstanding Arts Organization" for the second time in five years by Arts Orange County, the Chance is proud to be one of the leading ensemble based theatre companies in Southern California. Voted "Best Theater Group" by MyFoxLA for two years in a row and "Best Small Theater" by Orange Coast Magazine, the Chance is a recipient of the 2007 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's (LADCC) Polly Warfield Award for Excellence. Founded in 1999, the Chance Theater's mission has always been to intimately present personally meaningful, uniquely engaging stories that promote dialogue within our community and provide a visceral experience for theatergoers. As a constituent member of Theater Communications Group (TCG), Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET), and the Los Angeles Stage Alliance (LASA), the Chance continues to bring national attention to the Southern California and Orange County theater scene through its recent achievements, which includes a 2006 GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding Los Angeles Theater. For more information, visit www.chancetheater.com.

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