Press
What People are saying about Riverside Theatre Works...
THEATRE & CULTURE....
Boston Tap Company in the Press!
April 4-6, the Boston Tap Company premiered its first performance at Riverside Theatre Works to sold out audiences! Click here for the full review!
Riverside Theatre Works pockets cultural grant
Click here for the full article.
Riverside student in national tour of Annie!
Abby Spare currently cast in a national of Annie playing the role of Tessie is a student at Riverside Theatre Works- She studies voice with Liane Grasso and was a member of the performance troupe Next Generation. http://www.annieontour.com/main.html
Curriculum Guide of Riverside Theatre Works
The Arts & Culture Initiative in partnership with the City of Boston has produced a series of curriculum guides with an arts, performance, and interpretive science focus. Each guide uses a template that is designed to dovetail the citywide Arts Frameworks and Standards adopted by the Boston Public Schools. These guides are for use by youth service providers in-school and / or community settings. All lessons, where appropriate, are based on the experiential learning model of Do, REFLECT and APPLY or “hands-on learning”. The Arts & Culture Curriculum guides represent the highest quality of arts programming by local community-based art organizations, art & culture institutions, and independent teaching artists serving our school aged children and Teens. This curriculum guide was commissioned by Lana Jackson Arts & Culture Coordinator / Boston After School and Beyond & the Barr Foundation. Riverside Theatre Works Musical Theatre Curriculum was selected to be a part of this guide. Thank you to the time and talents of the staff and Faculty of RTW - Melissa Williams, Tara Brooke Watkins, Maureen Fish, & Jenny Tsai. A copy is available in the office and will be posted online soon.
2008 BOSTON CULTURAL COUNCIL GRANT
Riverside
Theatre Works has received a matching grant of $3000.00 from the
Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. This grant was awarded
through the MCC’s Local Cultural Council Program and it will support
the printing and mailing of our summer camp flyers this year. State grants are awarded theough a competitve process. This grant signifies that Riverside Theatre Worksprovides a high levelof quality in its programs, community service and administrative ability. With an increase in our summer programming options, RTW will increase the size of our printing and mailing to inform more people about our performing arts classes and collaborations. Currently we have been able to serve over 250 kids inthe summer- with our new programs we hope to increase theis number to over 400. Support fromt eh MCC enables RTW to reach new audiences and provide the highest quality of programming to our surrounding communities. MCC budget of 13 million, including $12million fromteh state of MAssachusetts and grants from the NAtional Endowment forthe Arts, Wallace Foundation, and other sources. The mission of the MCC is to promote excellence, education, access and diversity in the arts, humnaities and interpretive sciences in orderto improve the quality of like for all MAssachusetts reidents and to contribute to the ecenomic vitality of our communites. The not-for-profit cultural industry has a $4.2 billion economic impact in the state.
Congratulations to Riverside Theatre Works
RTW has been listed inthe Massachusetts 2007 Catalogue for Philanthropy. www.cfp-ma.org
The Catalogue for Philanthropy was created in 1997 by a collaboration of leading foundations, corporations and donors, to
promote philanthropy through donor education. We were independently incorporated
in 2002. In our first decade, we examined every aspect of philanthropy’s
presentation to the public and gradually developed our own set of teaching
instruments specifically designed for donors. The cornerstone of our program is
still this printed Catalogue, but
our website; www.cfp-ma.org, is being revised to open up a whole new range of
educational and practical resources—primarily for donors and grantmakers, but
also for strategists within fields, the media, scholars, students, and anyone
else interested in philanthropy, especially in Massachusetts. We believe
philanthropy itself has entered a paradigm-shift, which we are working to guide
in donor-friendly directions, to promote philanthropy in
perpetuity.
Pay What You Can / Hyde Park Shopper
To educate, enlighten, entertain...
Riverside Theatre Works of 45 Fairmount Ave. begins this 2005-2006 season with new perspective on what it is all about. With their new mission, executive director Melissa Williams and artistic director Tara Brooke Watkins, have worked through the year to open its doors this September with a fresh outlook on Riverside's role in the Hyde Park community.
"We don't want to just be a place people drive by and wonder who we are and what we do," said Watkins. "We want people to feel like this is their own theatre for their own families." In the past, RTW has put on a number of professional productions, but without the community in the seats to watch. After researching the demographics of its home, the directors designed a new Riverside.
"It's a family theatre now," Williams asserted. "People should feel like there is a place to bring their kids right in their own backyard other than paying to see a movie that may not always be appropriate." The sold-out success of last year's Annie and Wizard of Oz brought on this change and has been received well around the community already.
But that's not all Williams and Watkins are doing to meet Hyde Park's needs. "We realize that not every family can afford to come to the theatre, or even if they can, they're afraid of spending the money," said Watkins. To help our neighbors feel that this is their theatre, RTW is adding a "Pay What You Can" program into their main stage season. Every Saturday matinee 3:00pm performance, one-third of the audience's seats will be set aside for people to reserve and pay whatever they can afford to pay. These seats will go on sale one week prior to the performance and can be reserved over the phone. If seats are left the day of the show, audience members can pay for them just by showing up for the performance.
The season lined up for RTW certainly has the variety needed to lure any family in to see quality theatre. They open with Cheaper by the Dozen on Oct. 14-30, following with two Christmas shows for the price of one Amahl and the Night Visitors (which should wet the appetites of opera buffs) and A Christmas Carol, finally, closing with the energetic and imaginative Seussical in May.
Still, Riverside is much more than just a stage for the community; it is a hidden gem of a fine arts school. Every day of the week, after school, students from all over the Boston area attend Riverside for piano lessons, private voice, guitar, tap, ballet, acting, musical theatre, stagecraft, and much more! A visitor walking through Riverside's doors can be amazed at the excitement and dedication of the students trained in RTW's classes. For those interested, class registration is currently being accepted and anyone can pick up a brochure at Riverside.
While Williams and Watkins look forward to the year ahead, it is clear that what has already been done is making an impact.
