Bay Area Children's Theatre Receives $8,000 EBCF Challenge Grant

The Bay Area Children's Theatre (BACT) has received an $8,000 challenge grant from the East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF).

To secure the grant, BACT has until June 30 to raise a matching sum of $8,000 from the community.

"We are honored to have been selected to receive this challenge grant," said BACT Executive Director Nina Meehan. "We are seeking philanthropic support to match the grant, which we will use for a new production based on stories that children living with special needs have created in workshops with our artists."

The EBCF grant is awarded as part of the East Bay Fund for Artists matching grant program to support artists in the Bay Area, engage the community, and create new works for East Bay audiences and organizations. The grant and matching gifts will support the work of composer and playwright Min Kahng, who is creating the play, Story Explorers, for children living with special needs and their families, based on the workshops. Kahng, whose work for BACT includes stage adaptations of Bad Kitty and the award-winning Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, is actively involved in the Bay Area theatre community as a playwright and musical director.

BACT will debut Story Explorers Saturday, February 18, 2017, at the Osher Studio, 2055 Center Street, Berkeley, CA 94704. The play will run for three weekends. Opening day performances will be free for the children who participated in the workshops. Hannah Dworkin, who created the workshop curriculum for BACT with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, will direct the production.

Story Explorers will provide a multisensory experience that integrates art and movement in a sensory-friendly (i.e. quiet, never dark), theatrical environment for children living with special needs and their families.

Tax-deductible donations to help BACT secure the EBCF challenge grant may be made securely online at donate.bactheatre.org

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