Dallas Theater Center Collects More Than $68k for North Texas Food Bank

Dallas Theater Center announced today $68,660 was presented to the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) following the run of DTC's production of A Christmas Carol. For nine consecutive years, DTC has partnered with NTFB to collect donations and canned goods during performances of A Christmas Carol. This year the amount raised by patrons attending A Christmas Carol from Nov. 23 to Dec. 28, 2016 provided 203,520 meals for those in need across North Texas. It is under the leadership of former NTFB CEO Jan Pruitt, that DTC and NTFB established a partnership that has been rich throughout the community for nearly a decade.

"Dallas Theater Center is saddened to hear of the recent passing of long-time friend and North Texas Food Bank CEO Jan Pruitt," said DTC Managing Director Jeff Woodward. "For the past nine years, DTC has collected more than $600,000 for NTFB, spear-headed by the leadership and inspiration of Ms. Pruitt and her determination to help our neighbors in North Texas. We are proud to have worked alongside the dedication of such a leader and to assist NTFB in feeding the hungry."

"Thanks to the efforts of patrons and Dallas Theater Center staff, more than 200,000 meals will be made available to North Texans in need," said Simon Powell, interim CEO for NTFB. "We are thankful to DTC for their partnership, and for the support they have shown the NTFB family after the passing of our beloved Jan. We are comforted in knowing that we will keep her memory alive by carrying on her vision for a hunger free North Texas."

In addition, DTC's Project Discovery participants contributed a total of 414 items for the Project Discovery "Fight Against Hunger" food drive. W.H. Adamson High School donated 182 cans, alongside other participating schools David W. Carter High School, Garland High School, Jack E. Singley Academy, Kemp High School, Nimitz High School, North Dallas High School, Skyline High School, Trinity High School, Uplift Hampton Preparatory and WT White High School. Trinity High School also donated $100 in addition to canned goods. Project Discovery allows students and teachers to experience and study live, professional theater. The program makes theater more accessible to students, regardless of their ability to pay, and increases engagement of students in experiences that explore issues using theater as a catalyst. Roughly half of Project Discovery participants will see a professional theater production for the first time while in the program and more than 90% of participants indicate an increased level of confidence in attending theater and sharing opinions about their experience.

The DTC Guild assisted in the collection of donations throughout the run of A Christmas Carol. In addition, DTC administrative staff also spent a day volunteering at one of the Food Bank's two Dallas facilities. For more information on how to donate or volunteer at NTFB, please visit www.ntfb.org.

ABOUT Dallas Theater Center:

One of the leading regional theaters in the country, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 100,000 North Texas residents annually. Founded in 1959, DTC is now a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its Mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas and at its original home, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. DTC is one of only two theaters in Texas that is a member of the League of Resident Theatres, the largest and most prestigious non-profit professional theater association in the country. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and Managing Director Jeffrey Woodward, DTC produces a seven-play subscription series of classics, musicals and new plays and an annual production of A Christmas Carol; extensive education programs, including the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award-winning Project Discovery, SummerStage and partnerships with Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and South Oak Cliff High School; and community collaboration efforts with the Sixth Floor Museum, the City of Dallas, North Texas Food Bank, the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Public Library, Dallas Holocaust Museum, Dallas Opera, Dallas Black Dance Theater, and leading the DFW Foote Festival. Throughout its history, DTC has produced many new works, including The Texas Trilogy by Preston Jones in 1978, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, adapted by Adrian Hall, in 1986, and recent premieres of Deferred Action by Lee Trull and David Lozano, Clarkston by Samuel D. Hunter; Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical by Robert Horn, BRandy Clark, and Shane McAnally; FLY by Rajiv Joseph, Bill Sherman and Kirsten Childs; Fly by Night by Kim Rosenstock, Michael Mitnick and Will Connolly; Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson; The Trinity River Plays by ReGina Taylor; the revised It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams; Give It Up! (now titled Lysistrata Jones and recently on Broadway) by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn; Sarah, Plain and Tall by Julia Jordan, Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin; and The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson. Dallas Theater Center gratefully acknowledges the support of our season sponsors: Texas Instruments, American Airlines, Lexus, City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, Time Warner Cable and WFAA.

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