Classic Stage Company

New York, New York

Classic Stage Company (CSC) is an award-winning Off-Broadway theater committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. CSC presents plays from the past that speak directly to the issues of today. As the company returns to works of the past, it endeavors to keep a clear eye on the future, particularly in terms of the next generation of artists and audiences. Founded in 1967, CSC is widely recognized for the superb quality of its productions, and has made significant contributions to theater as an art form through productions of classic plays, translations and adaptations, and a long-standing commitment to the identification and nurturing of leading and emerging talent. As a mid-sized professional theater, CSC takes pride in reaching more 30,000 theatergoers and students from the tri-state area each season with high-quality productions, parallel programming, and innovative education and outreach initiatives. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theater, CSC has been cited repeatedly by major Off-Broadway theater awards, including the Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards, and received the 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work. Its artists are among the best-established and emerging theater practitioners working in this country.

Classic Stage Company's innovative education and outreach program, The Young Company, brings classical theater to life and makes it accessible to underserved students in New York City public schools through in-school workshops and dynamic productions that are specially designed to engage teen audiences. Conceived with the objective of utilizing young artists to inspire young audiences, The Young Company is composed of a talented troupe of emerging actors culled from the Columbia University Graduate Acting Program. These actors function as teaching artists and mentors to give middle- and high-school students an inside look into some of Shakespeare's greatest works. The youth and diversity of our teaching artists is what makes the program so unique, enabling students to relate to their mentors as true contemporaries. The actors lead students in explorations of Shakespeare's language, physical improvisations, and acting exercises centered on characters from the play. The Young Company program culminates with students attending a professional production of the plays performed by their mentors at CSC's award-winning Off-Broadway theater. The Young Company's 2008–2009 curriculum will focus on Romeo and Juliet, which provides a powerful forum with which to engage students in discussions about family dynamics, teen romance, gang violence, and other topics that are relevant to their lives. Now in its fourth year, the program will reach more than 2,000 youths from diverse cultural backgrounds representing a minimum of 15 schools from all five New York City boroughs.

Visit them at: www.classicstage.org