Founded in 1989, the company hosts a play development program, The Essential Theatre’s New Play Reading Series, the Children’s Program in Public Schools and the Women’s Works Program. New Play Reading Series
The New Play Reading Series is created to give voice to work of new and established playwrights. It is in substance an incubator that serves to nurture the work of participating writers for a three-year period in a supportive and collaborative environment with other artisans, actors and directors. Further, it is a forum where audience members are welcomed to engage in an open, frank dialogue with playwrights about issues presented in the material as well as techniques used to present them. The New Play Reading Series was initiated in the spring of 1992. Children’s Programming
The Essential Theatre Children’s Program in Public Schools was initiated in the winter of 1993. The Program maintains relationships with DC Public Schools and communities in southeast Washington DC , wards 7 and 8, traditionally the city's quadrants most often receiving less arts related services. The general purpose of this program is to introduce students attending selected schools to the theatrical process. An interdisciplinary educational approach is used that directly supports traditional classroom curricula, and can extend to structured after school programming. Students gain exposure to each of three aspects of theatre--acting, production and management. the program's core objective is to arm students with a sense of accomplishment through assuming different levels of responsibility and working together to realize a culminating quality product. Students experience numerous academic and social benefits as a result of this exposure. Presentations as well as Classroom instruction offer students activities through theatre arts that make traditional classroom lessons come to life through dramatizations of topics such as history, science and math while enhancing participating students core reading and writing skills. The program also offers volunteer opportunities for students from local school districts who need community service hours for high school graduation. These students' work advances company operations and provides the students with experiences that eases their transition into post secondary educational settings and the work world. Women’s Works Program
The Women’s Works Program is created to celebrate, investigate and cultivate work for, by and about women. As a means of reaching its target demographic, women aged 25 thru 65, the Theatre endeavors to present one of its productions each year that is solely dedicated to women’s issues. It is a priority for the company to reach out to women of all socio-economic backgrounds through this program as it celebrates the triumphs and travails of women around the world. Institutional Objectives:
To create new theatre audiences. To find, encourage and train new talent. To produce theatre entertainment with unique appeal. To provide all people in our community an outlet for creative expression.
