Roundabout Theatre Company Inc

Target demographics: students, educators, young adults, and theatre audiences

Direct beneficiaries per year: over 260,000 audience members and over 30,000 students, educators, and young adults.

Geographic areas served: New York City

Programs: Theatrical productions: During the 2017/18 season, Roundabout produced 8 full-scale productions on our Broadway stage - the American Airlines Theatre - and Off-Broadway stages - the Laura Pels Theatre and the Black Box Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. Our productions reached over 260,000 audience members including those who received deeply discounted tickets through our ACCESS Roundabout program.

Artistic development: Roundabout is committed to providing a nurturing home to artists at all stages of their careers and does so through a variety of initiatives. Our New Play Initiative takes a three-pronged approach to new work: commission, develop, produce. During the 2017/18 season, this work included: 33 readings and workshops of plays and musicals, of which 27 were new works and six were classic plays and musicals. Through the Roundabout Underground program, we create strong and lasting relationships with artists who we believe will be the future of American theatre, contributing to the canon of plays that theatres like Roundabout will be reviving in the decades to come. With high standards and high production values, we surround young playwrights in the Underground with a supportive environment and a talented creative team of other artists on the rise, giving them the best chance at success. During the 2017/18 season at the Underground, we produced playwright Jiréh Breon Holder's Too Heavy for Your Pocket and 2017/18 Playwright in Residence Alex Lubischer's Bobbie Clearly.

Through our ongoing Associate Artist program, Roundabout also provided an artistic home to 10 respected members of the theatre community from the worlds of playwriting and directing. Through this program, the artists are given a stable base of support and a home where they have the opportunity to bring projects at all stage of development.

Education programs: During the 2017/18 season, Education at Roundabout impacted 4,048 students and 252 educators through in-classroom and afterschool programs at 21 partner schools - largely Title I and Title V schools - in all five boroughs of New York City. Roundabout's education programs engage students in non-traditional ways of learning in order to help them acquire the skills needed to be productive, engaged citizens. Theatre access provides free and discounted matinee tickets to Roundabout productions for student groups from throughout the tri-state area. This commitment to making world-class theatre accessible and affordable for the widest possible audience gives many students their first Broadway experience.

Teachers are invited to participate in professional development workshops and can receive lesson plans to prepare their students for a trip to the theatre. Professional development at Roundabout offers a variety of workshops to enhance each educator's ability to use theatre as an effective teaching tool in the classroom. These workshops are offered throughout the year to teachers, schools, and districts and are often customized to meet different learning objectives. The Roundabout Youth Ensemble (RYE) is an afterschool program in which participants can select a theatrical track and work together to stage world premieres of student-written plays. This past year, RYE served 52 students from 25 schools.

Each summer Roundabout hosts 9 interns, introducing and immersing them into the day-to-day operations of a professional theatre; and, each season Roundabout administers a 9-month apprentice program, enabling a richer and longer-term experience for these 9 to 11 full-time staff members. Roundabout's groundbreaking Theatrical Workforce Development Program, now in its third pilot year, provides out-of-school, out-of-work young adults with training and job placement opportunities to create viable pathways into vocational theatre careers. To date, Roundabout has served 54 total fellows in three cohorts.

ACCESS Roundabout: Through the ACCESS Roundabout program, Roundabout allocates over 42,000 affordable tickets, as low as $10, to theatregoers every year. Additionally, deaf and hard of hearing patrons are offered sign interpreted performances, as well as the GalaPro app, which offers closed captioning and audio description services. To serve patrons with Autism and other sensory, communication, movement, and/or learning needs, we offer relaxed performances which are slightly modified to reduce sound levels and provide an inclusive environment for people to attend live theatre who may not be able to do so with a general audience.

Roundabout archives: Roundabout is one of a few not-for-profit theatres in the country to house an archive. Launched during the 2008/09 season, the Roundabout Theatre Company archives allow us to formally catalog and preserve our work and rich history as one of the country's most prolific producers of theatre. Our catalog of archival holdings is made available to the broader academic and theatrical communities.