THEATER FOR EVERYONE
At The New Victory we know that kids have amazing capacities for suspending disbelief, getting swept up in fantasy and adventure, and opening their minds to new experiences. We also know that kids are the world's most honest audience members. We keep all of this in mind as we scour the globe year-round, traveling to international, national and local festivals and venues as close as Brooklyn and as far away as Moscow.
While kids deserve theatrical stories and experiences full of the kind of magic that only live performance can deliver, adults who bring kids to the theater deserve this too. We don't put anything on New Victory stages that the very grown-up Programming Department staff didn’t enjoy as much as the 6-year-old sitting next to them.
New Victory ancillary public programming and in-theater engagement activities are designed for families and kids to learn and play together, while acquiring exciting new skills and deepening their relationships to the arts and each other. New Victory in-school programs are guided by our strong belief that arts engagement has the power to spark imagination, creativity and dialogue, and give students tools for learning in all disciplines. In all New Victory activities, we seek to provide experiences that push boundaries, encourage global thinking and provide lasting memories.
At the heart of the New Victory philosophy is the commitment to break down barriers—be they cultural or economic—and provide access for students, teachers, kids, families and communities of New York City and beyond to experience and engage with the work on our stages. We call this "bringing kids to the arts, and the arts to kids" and, in 2010, created the New Victory Arts Award to honor individuals who embody this commitment. Bill Irwin, celebrated actor, outspoken advocate for arts education and New 42nd Street founding board member, was honored with the inaugural award in 2010. In 2011, we presented the New Victory Arts Award to Cheryl Henson, President of the Jim Henson Foundation, and, in 2012, we will honor the Australian Arts Council.
Learn more about how our Programming Department books shows on our Bookings & Submissions page.
THE NEXT GENERATION OF THEATER FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
The New Victory Programming Department recently launched the New Victory LabWorks Project (formerly the New Vic Collaboratory), a program designed to help spur the development of high-quality performing arts for young audiences. The New Victory LabWorks Project has three areas of focus:
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New work development—providing artists, from a variety of performing arts disciplines, with resources to bolster the creation of innovative performing arts for young audiences. Part of this focus is a brand new residency program, in which selected performing arts companies are given rehearsal space, artist mentorship, feedback, and other support, to help them create original productions for family audiences. The New Victory LabWorks Project also plans to establish a commissioning program and other initiatives in the future.
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Professional and art form development—offering and encouraging opportunities for exchange with national and international artists, workshops, master classes, and training. Occurring throughout the year, these events are open to a diverse spectrum of arts professionals: practitioners, educators, presenters, and producers.
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Advocacy—promoting the importance of quality performing arts and arts education in the lives of young people. The New Victory LabWorks Project plans and produces forums and other events, both online and face-to-face, to elicit dialogue among a national and global network of industry professionals (artists, educators, producers, presenters, managers, journalists and dramaturgs). LabWorks aims to qualify and quantify the impact of performing arts on young people and better communicate the significant role that this field plays in not only fostering new generations of enlightened, enthusiastic theater-goers, but also creating a community of cultured and compassionate global citizens.
2012-13 New Victory LabWorks Project Pilot Residency
We are thrilled to pilot the New Victory LabWorks Project residency program with NYC-based Trusty Sidekick Theater Company’s production of The Boy at the Edge of Everything by Finegan Kruckemeyer. Kruckemeyer’s play The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy was presented as part of the 2010-11 New Victory season, and his piece The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly will close out the 2012-13 season in June.
Trusty Sidekick has completed three weeks of research and development in the New 42nd Street Studios, and they will return for two more sessions of creative development and rehearsal this season. The Boy at the Edge of Everything was previously workshopped as part of the Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices Program (May 2012) and Cleveland PlayhouseSquare’s Launch Residency Program (June 2012). The New Victory Theater is delighted to be a part of the development of this wonderful play for young audiences.
For more information about the New Victory LabWorks Project, please contact Carrie DuBois, Assistant Director of Programming.
The New Victory LabWorks Project is supported, in part, by a grant from New York State Council on the Arts.