Happy New Year! 2022 was a big year for TWP, and I’m excited to share our progress.
New Grants & Funding
Under fiscal sponsorship by Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, we received increased funding from the California Arts Council (CAC), including:
- A General Operating Support grant which allowed us to expand and diversify our staff
- An Impact grant that has augmented our continuing Arts in Corrections Theatre Inside program with the men at California State Prison-LA County/Lancaster
- A new Arts in Corrections Equity, Decarceration, and Transformative Justice Training contract that will provide training for prison arts providers delivered almost exclusively by presenters with lived experience
- A Reentry Through the Arts grant that has expanded our collaboration with the Project Rebound community at Cal State LA
- Multiple arts partnership grants with The Francisco Homes, which has supported and expanded our LIFER: Stories from the Inside/Out program
- A new CAC Jump StArts grant that will enable us to provide a theatre and writing program to teen mom members of McAllister High School’s Empowerment Collective
One of my goals in 2023 is fundraising beyond grants and contracts. I plan to formalize the community’s ability to make tax-deductible donations and hope to do that through our fiscal sponsor.
Programs, Projects Productions
Through collaborations with incarcerated residents at California State Prison-Lancaster this year, we’ve created Hope’s Door and STAND!
In partnership with The Francisco Homes and Project Rebound/LA, we’ve led persons with lived experience in the creation and presentation of Born of Chaos, performed at the Cal State University Theater and PHOENIX, which was performed as part of the Noise Now series at A Noise Within in Pasadena.
Our award-winning poetic film collage, The Circle, was screened and celebrated at numerous documentary film festivals. It was most recently featured at the Justice on Trial film festival at LMU, where our Associate Director/Documentarian & Co-Director of the film, Marlene McCurtis, and featured actor Allen Burnett made moving presentations as part of the post-screening panel.
We went international as part of the No Labels No Walls virtual festival, where PHOENIX was screened, and several actors participated in a panel discussion.
Susie Tanner’s journey creating TheatreWorkers Project and her collaboration with many professional and community artists over 4.5 decades were celebrated in a two-part Change the Story/Change the World podcast. Listen to it here: Part 1: Episode 59 Part 2: Episode 60
