Tennessee Shakespeare Co. Awarded Grant from Shakespeare Theatre Association and Theatre League, Inc

Patrick Flick, Executive Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA) and Mark Edelman, Founder and President of Theater League, Inc., a Kansas City, Missouri-based contributor to the performing arts, have announced that the League will be gifting 33 Shakespeare theatres across the United States and internationally with a grant of $255,000 in general operating support.  

Tennessee Shakespeare Company will receive a $10,000 grant from that total.

This marks the second year that these non-restricted gifts of either $5,000 or $10,000 will be awarded to STA-member/Shakespeare-producing theaters. Awarded theatres must have a budget between $150,000 and $2.7 million. An award of $5,000 also will be made to the Shakespeare Theatre Association.

Says Edelman: “Our 2023 partnership with STA and ongoing support of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival in Kansas City made the extension of this grant program for 2024 a natural for us. Hundreds of thousands of patrons -- many of them attending free of charge in festival-like settings -- will take advantage of our grants and the great work for which STA member organizations are renowned. I'd like to think William Shakespeare would be delighted.”

Says Flick: “STA is always looking for new ways to assist our membership, whether it be in the form of support to attend our annual conference, or by seeking out financial assistance for our hard-working member theatres. Support for Shakespeare and the classics in the communities we serve is such an important issue, and STA and all our member recipients are grateful to Theater League for their support.”

“We are seeing as recently as this week that the last arts industry to make it back from the pandemic is live theatre, more pointedly: classical theatre,” says TSC founder and Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary. “More regional theatres close or reduce their programming or eliminate large-scale Shakespeare productions each month. TSC has not and will not.  Further, we want to continue to offer live professional Shakespeare to Memphians for free in our Shout-Out Shakespeare Series in October. This generous grant from the Theater League will make that possible for us in Memphis and, importantly, beyond. In a time of reduction, pausing, and closing, as well as a retraction of teaching Shakespeare’s plays in American schools, Theater League and STA are making possible what might otherwise not right now. And it benefits every citizen.  TSC is most grateful.”

Kansas City-based Theater League is a not-for-profit performing arts organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in the communities it serves with the thrill of live theatre. Founded in 1976, the group supports theatre companies in its hometown and across the country, including subsidizing tickets for student groups through its Theater ROcKs (Reach Out to Kids) program.

“What appealed to us is the far-flung nature of the organizations we’ll be supporting with this grant program,” continued Edelman. “Shakespeare companies in 25 states plus the Czech Republic will get a little help from Theater League.”

STA is a 33-year-old theatre association founded in 1991 at a meeting in Washington DC, hosted by the Shakespeare Theatre and the Kennedy Center. The organization convenes annually to provide support for currently-producing companies, as well as to provide a place for peer-to-peer mentorship for emerging and newer Shakespeare-producing companies from within the United States and internationally. STA Full Organizational Membership includes over 125 producing theatres representing indoor, outdoor, Equity, non-Equity, year-round, seasonal, university-affiliated, and free Shakespeare companies with budgets ranging from $1,000 to $60,000,000.

STA’s member theatres engage a diverse array of audiences and staff representing a variety of characteristics, ages, and abilities. STA is a resource network that helps bridge the gap between scholarship and production, and promotes the teaching of Shakespeare in schools. STA conferences embrace a variety of topics designed to keep Shakespeare relevant to our modern world.

 

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