Public Engagement & Education
Driven by our mission to provoke conversations, we are committed to creating a space where the public can come together around conversations that matter. Using the power of theater to ask the most essential questions of our times, our PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT and EDUCATION programs break down barriers and embolden audiences and students to deepen their CURIOSITY and find confidence in THEIR VOICES.
Public Engagement
For over thirty years audience members like you have emboldened our work with VIBRANT DISCUSSIONS, debates, and reflections that spill out of the theater and fill the streets and lives of those around you with conversations that have never happened.
Now at home in Hell’s Kitchen, we have the space to bring together our AUDIENCES, NEIGHBORS, ARTISTS, STUDENTS, and PEERS—our community—all under one roof in exciting new ways. Join us in igniting conversations that matter.
Gracie Mansion Partnership
Last season MCC THEATER launched a partnership with THE GRACIE MANSION CONSERVANCY to increase access to arts and culture to at-risk youth. This partnership provides youths from across the City with tickets to attend MCC productions along with pre- and post-show workshops with actors, designers, and other members of MCC’s creative team.
More“MCC was born out of an impulse by a group of artists to CHALLENGE and LEARN from one another. The tenets of COLLABORATION and COMMUNITY were central to our work then and remain at the heart of everything we do today.”
-Will Cantler, Co-Artistic Director
Education Programs
Youth voices matter and creating an inclusive space where everyone’s stories are heard can inspire change in ourselves and in society.
MCC’s education mission is to help young people develop their ARTISTIC VOICES as well as the desire to speak out and the courage to be heard. Since 1999, MCC has used the power of theater to STOKE IMAGINATIONS, excite minds, and foster a collaborative and creative community for New York City high school students across all five boroughs. Using acting, improvisation, movement, playwriting, script analysis, and other theater skills, we crack open texts in exciting new ways that EMBOLDEN students with new knowledge and CONFIDENCE to express themselves freely, provoke and engage in conversations with each other, and apply what they’ve learned to their every-day lives.
With decades of experience under our belts, we know how theater can unlock the CREATIVE POWER of young minds. Our programs foster rigorous and supportive environments where trained theater professionals EMPOWER students with skills to embrace and develop their creative voice and the courage to speak up and be heard, take risks, and provoke conversations that have never happened.
Our programs transform the lives of more than 1200 New York City students every year, cultivating in them a deep appreciation for the arts and its power to engage and affect change.
Even if our students don’t pursue careers in the arts, the interpersonal skills, teamwork, confidence, and social poise they learn while engaging in theater will help them find success in whatever career paths they may choose to follow.
Internships
MCC Theater interns gain a broad perspective on the day-to-day work environment of a non-profit Off-Broadway theater company, as well as a detailed understanding of how their specific department operates. We work with our interns to develop their individual strengths and to give them interesting work that will help them grow.
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“As a member of the MCC YOUTH COMPANY, ever day I felt more and more empowered knowing that MY VOICE , my perspective was being heard.”
-Julissa Contreras, MCC YOUTH COMPANY Alum
Youth Company in the News
From Three Troubled Lives, a Play and a New Family
The New York Times
Recently Cesar Rosado took a late-night flight back to New York after working a job in Colorado. He slept for a few hours, taught some classes at the Atlantic Acting School and then settled into a seat at the Lucille Lortel Theater to see Lucy Thurber’s TRANSFERS, an MCC production about two disadvantaged kids from the South Bronx, each nominated for a scholarship to an elite university.
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Dominique Fishback, Star of HBO's THE DEUCE, Is Bringing Women on the Margins Into the Spotlight
W Magazine
When Fishback was just an I Love Lucy–watching 8-year-old, a theater group came to perform at her elementary school. Immediately, she knew that acting was something she wanted to try, and by the time she was 15, she became part of a local organization called the MCC Theater Youth Company, where she saw her first one-woman show.
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Rebel Verses 2018 Explodes onto the Vineyard Theatre Stage
Times Square Chronicles
Rebel Verses 2018 is a night when youth from numerous organizations made up of young artists, ages 13-19, are granted the opportunity to collaborate and network with their peers and certain prominent artists in order to to showcase original work. It’s a powerful and uniquely engaging two-week theatrical event.
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Ticket sales cover less than 50% of our operating expenses.
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Contributions from individual donors provide vital support for our mainstage productions, literary development and education and outreach programs. Whether big or small, every gift helps.