TheatreSquared Announces Expansion with 3-Year Grant

TheatreSquared (T2) Artistic Director Robert Ford and Managing Director Martin Miller today announced a major initiative to expand the theatre's artistic and institutional capacity, funded in part by a three-year, $275,000 grant from The Walton Family Foundation. The theatre will immediately begin a national search for a Director of Advancement, a senior staff position. Additionally, beginning with the 2011/12 Season, new resources will be dedicated to an ongoing awareness and marketing campaign to build Northwest Arkansas's audience for professional theatre. Finally, T2 will deepen the artistic bench for each production through a new fellowship program for distinguished visiting artists, bringing together experienced professionals from Northwest Arkansas with peers from around the country to collaborate in creating exceptional works on stage.

"A regional theatre stands on three legs," said T2 Managing Director Martin Miller, "our audience, our donor base, and-most paramount-the quality of the artistic work. It's thrilling to be able to announce with confidence today that we have new resource committed to strengthening all three. "

TheatreSquared will consult with national peers to design the new staff position of Director of Advancement, responsible for ensuring that the theatre has the necessary resource to advance its artistic and educational mission by maintaining individual donor relationships and pursuing new funding opportunities. The Theatre will also build on the momentum of recent audience growth-represented by a 180% increase in attendance from 2009 to 2011-by consulting with leading local brand and communication firm, DOXA, to launch an expanded regional marketing campaign. For the 2011/12 Season, TheatreSquared will also create a fellowship program for distinguished visiting artists to join the casts and creative teams for each T2 production-actors, directors, and designers who share the company's aesthetic for intimate, original theatre.

"We are proud and grateful that this community has so strongly endorsed the notion of a home for professional artists in Northwest Arkansas," said T2 Artistic Director Robert Ford. "The Walton Family Foundation joins a group of indispensable partners who make this remarkable region uniquely suited to a story like ours. For TheatreSquared-and for Northwest Arkansas-the next stage holds great promise."