Houston Theatre Brave Little Company Receives 2023 TYA National Award for Artistic Innovation

Brave Little Company, a theatre creating and producing work about, with, and for all of Houston's kids and their grownups, received the 2023 TYA National Award for Artistic Innovation. 

The award honors an individual or company that has demonstrated innovation – experimentation in content or in form – in recent artistic work in the field of theatre for young people, and is awarded by Theatre for Young Audiences/USA (TYA/USA), the service organization supporting, connecting, and advocating for the field of theatre for young audiences. Brave Little Company was selected for this extraordinary national honor by a committee of peers, who emphasized the theatre's responsiveness to Houston's diverse communities and its innovation in form during the pandemic. BLC staff members Brittny Bush, Kristy Lozano, and Troy Scheid accepted the award. More about Brave Little Company's work can be found at www.brave-little.com. 

“We are thrilled to celebrate and honor exemplary work in TYA with our TYA/USA awards for the first time since 2019,” says TYA/USA Executive Director Sara Morgulis. “At a time when theatre is needed more than ever in our communities, these individuals and companies have showed resilience, creativity, and adaptability in the face of challenging circumstances. We look to them as leaders in our field and models of future creative work.”

Founded in 2013, Brave Little Company has four main areas of work: creating and producing work about, with, and for all of Houston's kids, with a focus on dual and multi-language work; THE BIG "US" PROJECT, a collaborative theatre initiative created by 100 members of Houston's refugee and immigrant communities; Wish You Were Here, a creative collaboration with students with disabilities; and teaching artist residencies serving the needs of students and teachers.

BLC's recent original works for the public include the Paper Offerings series, "plays by mail" told through short films and letters sent to the audience's homes; Missing from the Museum, an audience-driven video series combining adventure and art history to highlight issues of representation in arts institutions; and Grandpa's Garden, a musical celebrating the roots and legacy of Black people in American history and before, performed at five locations around Houston in February and March 2023. BLC has been on the Touring Roster of Texas Commission on the Arts since 2020 and is a Young Audiences of Houston arts partner.

The award was presented on May 12, 2023, as part of the 2023 TYA/USA National Festival & Conference, the largest gathering of theatre for young audiences professionals in North America, held at Childsplay and the Tempe Center for the Arts in Arizona. Additional honorees at this year's National TYA/USA Awards include Julia Flood, who received the Harold Oaks Award for Sustained Excellence in TYA, and Caitlyn McCain, who received the TYA Community Impact Award.