Children's Theatre Company Creates Online Programming

Children's Theatre Company (CTC) is launching three online programs through their social media channels while performances and classes are cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Theatre also took immediate steps to reduce expenses including furloughing of staff, reducing hours, and implementing pay reductions in order to ensure the long-term viability of this important Minnesota cultural asset and the nation's most acclaimed theatre for young people.

Online Programming

In order to continue to serve young people and families and support their creativity and curiosity during this unprecedented time, CTC is launching three online engagement programs called Mindfulness Mondays, Write On! Wednesdays, and Suggestion Saturdays. Mindfulness Mondays will include both stress-reducing exercises for emotional intelligence, self-regulation, and empathy developed through the Creative Play program and thought prompts and exercises that reflect awareness, equity, and social justice. Write On! Wednesdays which will begin on Facebook, asks parents to send their children's original plays and stories to the Theatre. The following Wednesday, one script will be chosen to be performed by members of the Theatre's resident Acting Company and Performing Apprentices and released via video on Facebook. Finally, Suggestion Saturdays is a day when CTC's Artistic Director Peter Brosius will pose an artistic process question to our online audience. These programs will be joined by additional online programs rolling out over the next few weeks. CTC's Off Book online magazine will continue to feature additional ways to engage children at home with creative activities.

Performance Cancellations and Staffing Reductions

On March 13, CTC announced the cancellation of the remaining 28 performances of Spamtown, USA and 38 performances of The Rainbow Fish, and winter Theatre Arts Training classes through April 5. This followed the state of emergency declaration by Governor Walz to help curb the spread of COVID-19. CTC is making additional changes in response to the CDC guidelines for large group gatherings of less than 50 people for eight weeks that include canceling Spring Theatre Arts Training classes. The Theatre is exploring options for postponing its production of the beloved musical, Annie, and will announce details in the coming weeks. CTC's Theatre Arts Training summer camps and programming will continue as currently scheduled.

As a result of these cancellations and the resulting earned revenue impact, CTC has made substantial, painful, and immediate changes in staffing levels to ensure CTC is here for the future. Every single employee is affected. Among other things, this means that:

· CTC has furloughed 65% of full or part-time regular union and non-union employees

· CTC reduced hours for another 8.5% of full or part-time regular staff

· The remaining 26.5% of non-union full-time staff took pay reductions in the range of 2-20% on a graduated scale based on salary levels

· All part-time staff have also been furloughed

CTC will continue paying its portion of employees benefit premiums, including health care, for the duration of the time employees are on furlough or have reduced hours.

"We are heartbroken to be in this situation due to the coronavirus pandemic. We have to do everything we can to protect our ability to impact the lives of young people and their families in the future." stated Managing Director Kimberly Motes. "Regrettably, our financial position necessitates us taking very difficult steps now in order to be able to reemerge and continue to serve the children and families of Minnesota."

"Each of us, and everyone on this planet is being challenged and tested now like never before. It is so hard, the sacrifices so great, the uncertainty so unnerving," stated Artistic Director Peter C. Brosius. "But there is something we know: we will come out of this and we will continue to dedicate ourselves to the critical work we do of educating, challenging, and inspiring young people. We will be their allies and their advocates because we know they need to be respected, the complexity of their lives needs to be acknowledged, and they need to be given wings to fly. That is what we do and we do it so well. Our community needs this, our nation needs this and most importantly our young people need this."

Help from the Community

As CTC faces this significant financial loss, it is also asking donors for continued support. When this crisis subsides, the community will need the human connection that CTC provides more than ever and it can't do that without philanthropy, which accounts for nearly 50% of CTC's annual operating budget. Donations can be made on CTC's website: childrenstheatre.org.

About Children's Theatre Company

Children's Theatre Company (CTC) is the nation's largest and most acclaimed theatre for young people and serves a multigenerational audience. It creates theatre experiences that educate, challenge, and inspire for more than 250,000 people annually. CTC is the only theatre focused on young audiences to win the coveted Tony Award® for regional theatre and is the only theatre in Minnesota to receive three Tony® nominations (for its production of A Year with Frog and Toad). CTC is committed to creating world-class productions at the highest level and to developing new works, more than 200 to date, dramatically changing the canon of work for young audiences.

CTC's engagement and learning programs annually serve more than 93,000 young people and their communities through Theatre Arts Training, student matinees, Neighborhood Bridges, and early childhood arts education programs. ACT One is CTC's comprehensive platform for access, diversity, and inclusion in our audiences, programs, staff, and board that strives to ensure the theatre is a home for all people, all families, reflective of our community. childrenstheatre.org

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