Nashville Children's Theatre
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615-254-9103
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25 Middleton Street
Nashville, TN 37210
Organization Details

Programs

Budget
$100,000.00
Description
Nashville Children's Theatre has developed a series of online interactive drama classes and camps for people 3 years of age through adult. Sessions typically meet twice per week over a five-week period, or on Saturdays for four weeks. Each class is taught by an experienced art professional.
Program Successes
Nearly 1,000 students participated in the NCT Online Drama School since the inception of the program in March 2020 through the summer/fall of 2020 . The reach of the school now includes students from 16 states, 1 US territory, Canada and Spain.
Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities  - Arts Education 
Beneficiaries
Children
Adults
At-Risk Populations
Long-term Success
Nashville Children's Theatre provides arts education for children and adults. Since online classes have been added since the COVID-19 pandemic, attendance is no longer limited to students within driving distance to Downtown Nashville. Student participants live in 16 states, 1 US territory, Canada, and Spain. In 2020-2021, which was affected dramatically by the pandemic, we still served 1,516 students through our camps and classes. We have kept virtual camp and class offerings and will continue to serve students through an online options.
Short-term Success
Virtual camps and classes have offered a creative outlet for people in their homes due to COVID-19, as well as students who wish to participate in person.
Program Success Monitored By
The NCT Drama School frequently surveys participants to assess the impact of the program.
Program Areas Served
Online
Budget
$100,000.00
Description
Nashville Children's Theatre will begin offering streaming in-class educational modules for students in public and private schools. In addition to the performance, the educational modules will include a comprehensive teacher guide which has been aligned to Tennessee State Standards.
Program Successes
Student awareness and mastery of program content through essays, illustrations, and in-class skits.
Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities  - Cultural & Ethnic Awareness 
Beneficiaries
At-Risk Populations
K-12 (5-19 years)
Long-term Success
Nashville Children's Theatre is committed to providing arts and cultural education to as many students as possible in lieu of in-person field trips.
Short-term Success
same
Program Success Monitored By
Nashville Children's Theatre's production and education staff will monitor survey results to ensure the course material is maximized within participating schools.
Program Areas Served
On-line
Budget
$319,000.00
Description
Nashville Children's Theatre offers year-round theatre classes and drama programs for young people ages 3-18 through The NCT Drama School classes take place during the school year on Saturday mornings, and in week-long camp sessions during summer and school breaks. Mini-Camps and Drama Days round out the offerings by providing an arts education experience when students are out of school for 1-2 days. A professional theatre artist teaches each course, and many of our teachers also perform professionally on NCT's stage. Classes offer a developmentally appropriate curriculum that celebrates the individual successes of each student while encouraging growth. The Family Access Membership program ensures that camps and classes are available to all young people through a needs-based scholarship program. in FY20 (even with the impact of the pandemic in the spring, NCT had 2,258 students enrolled.
Beneficiaries
At-Risk Populations
Children and Youth (0 - 19 years)
Program Success Monitored By
Program successes and yearly evaluations of the NCT Drama School is overseen by NCT's Education Director, Colin Peterson.
Program Areas Served
None
Budget
$125,017.00
Description
Outside our established series of year-round camps and classes, we offer a wide variety of education programming. These programs serve more than 3,000 youth and students through in-school and community based programs including afterschool workshops, in-class workshops, Scout workshops, community events, programs for children on the Autism Spectrum, and professional development for educators. The following partners are a crucial component to the success of these programs: Vanderbilt Kennedy Center TRIAD. Nashville After Zone Alliance, Girls, Inc., Girl Scouts of America, YWCA, Metro Nashville Public Schools, Alignment Nashville, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters
Beneficiaries
Adolescents
At-Risk Populations
Program Areas Served
None
Budget
$425,000.00
Description
Nashville Children's Theatre offers professional theatre performances for family audiences throughout Nashville and Middle Tennessee as a part of its Weekend Family Performance Series. These acclaimed performances provide thought provoking entertainment that is designed to engage both kids and adults for a modest admission price. NCT's last full season before the pandemic consisted of six full-scale productions for family audiences with nearly 80,000 people served through its performance series. NCT provides Family Access Memberships (FAM) and partners with local nonprofits to welcome families facing financial challenges to performances at low or no cost. A discounted preview performance, sensory-friendly performance, and post-show discussion is offered with each production. Free pre-show activities take place for every performance throughout the season.
Beneficiaries
Families
At-Risk Populations
Children and Youth (0 - 19 years)
Long-term Success
Nearly 60,000 children and 20,000 adults attend the theatre every year.
Program Areas Served
None
Budget
$650,000.00
Description
NCT's School Performance Series is Nashville's most established and broad-based education program, designed to enhance and expand arts education curricula while also stimulating students' creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Each year 60,000 students from all cultural and economic backgrounds attend professional theatre productions. The performances are augmented with show-specific curriculum guides given to teachers to help integrate NCT performances into the classroom. Each play in NCT's season is brought to life by the finest professional theatre artists in the Middle Tennessee region. NCT's 2021-2022 season will resume with 6 full stage productions: The Lightning Theif, Elves and the Shoemaker, Peter Pan: Wendy's Adventure to Neverland, Baby Shark (theatre for the very young, 0-5) and The SpongeBob Musical.
Beneficiaries
Children and Youth (0 - 19 years)
K-12 (5-19 years)
Program Areas Served
None

CEO/Executive Director/Board Comments

Although NCT routinely serves over 80,000 people per year, and is the most attended theatre company in the region, we know we need to serve more people each year. In order to increase our capacity, NCT is taking a revised approach to institutional planning by marrying a multi-year artistic vision to a fundraising and marketing plan that extends the planning horizon and aligns resources with measurable outcomes, such as audience growth and community impact. Further, NCT is keenly aware of the demographic changes occurring in our region, and are taking proactive steps to design responsive programming in order to be relevant and accessible to today's youth as they grow into tomorrow's leaders. Such programming includes a new works incubator that will commission works by, for, and about diverse and underrepresented communities in our region and nation. Additionally, NCT plans to expand our programming to include theatre for the very young which will embrace infants through age five along with members of their family in a nontraditional theatrical environment. NCT will reframe its fund development and marketing efforts in order to reach more schools, despite the growing challenges of scheduling field trips and buses in the region. We will seek to increase funding for our Family Access Membership program in order to provide free and reduced cost tickets to our shows, and need-based scholarship to our camps and classes, and continue to stand up for improved academic performance through theatre programs provided by NCT. In order to produce our portfolio of programs at the highest caliber, NCT's leadership will measure and evaluate each program against our proposed and actual outcomes, and jettison under-performing programs in favor of those which are delivering the most robust results. Our focus on our mission must remain sharp in order to channel resources effectively, and steward our community's investment in the theatre as intelligently and transparently as possible.