Marin Theatre Company facts for kids
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The Marin Theatre Company (MTC) is a special kind of organization. It's a nonprofit group, which means it focuses on helping the community, not on making money for owners. MTC is a professional theater located in Mill Valley, California. It's a place where actors perform plays for audiences. Jasson Minadakis is the Artistic Director, who helps choose the plays and guides the creative side. Meredith Suttles is the Managing Director and CEO, handling the business side of the company.
About 35,000 people visit MTC each year! They offer a season of six main plays. These plays run from August to June in their Boyer Theatre, which has 231 seats. MTC has shown many exciting plays. For example, they've presented The Whipping Man and Circle Mirror Transformation. They also showed Topdog/Underdog, which won a special award called the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. MTC also puts on new plays for the very first time, like Bellwether. They even adapted a classic play, The Seagull, and showed 9 Circles, which won an award.
MTC loves to help new American playwrights (people who write plays). They have a special program just for this. They often show new plays for the first time ever. They also give out two national awards for playwriting. Plus, they hold readings and workshops where new plays are developed. They even have a special writer who works with them for a whole year!
MTC also has awesome programs for young people and teens. Students can watch main shows during the day. There's a Marin Young Playwrights Festival where young people can show their own plays. They also have a fun 24-hour play festival called 24/7. Kids can take after-school classes, join workshops in their classrooms, and attend summer camps. Each year, about 12,000 students from over 40 schools in the Bay Area join these education programs.
Marin Theatre Company: A Look at Its History
The Marin Theatre Company started in 1966. About 35 people from Mill Valley came together. They were led by Sali Lieberman. Their goal was to create the Mill Valley Center for the Performing Arts (MVCPA). This nonprofit group brought many different arts to Marin County. For ten years, they showed films, plays, poetry, dance, and concerts. They had classical, jazz, and folk music. After putting on many successful community plays, MVCPA decided to focus only on theater in 1977.
This small group faced many challenges. But they still managed to put on plays that won awards and were loved by critics. They performed in many different places. These included a golf clubhouse, a veterans’ auditorium, and even schools and parks. In 1984, the MVCPA changed its name to Marin Theatre Company. This showed that they now focused only on theater. It also showed they were growing beyond just Mill Valley.
This name change marked a time of amazing growth for MTC. By 1987, MTC became a professional theater company. They opened their own theater building with offices. They also worked with other local theaters to create the first professional contract for actors in the Bay Area. Later, MTC started a program to support new American playwrights. In 2004, they launched workshops and public readings for new plays. In 2007, they created two new awards for playwrights. In 2008, MTC joined two big theater groups: the League of Resident Theatres and the National New Play Network. More recently, MTC has invested in its production team and equipment. In 2011, they opened a new 5,500 square foot scene shop. This is where they build sets for their plays. It's located near Oakland and Emeryville, California.
Other Theaters to Explore
- American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco
- Berkeley Repertory Theatre
- TheatreWorks (Silicon Valley), Palo Alto, California
- San Jose Repertory Theatre
- Marin Shakespeare Company
