A Timeline of CTC & Peter C. Brosius
Posted on May 1, 2024
Over the 27-year tenure of Artistic Director Peter C. Brosius, much has happened at CTC. The theatre has premiered over 70 world-class productions, introduced exceptional new programs, and achieved significant milestones. In the following article, you will explore how CTC has evolved, nurtured young people, and contributed to the world of theatre.
1998: Neighborhood Bridges is founded by Peter C. Brosius, artistic director of Children’s Theatre Company, and Jack Zipes, professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota. This literacy program uses storytelling and creative drama to help children develop their critical literacy skills and to transform them into storytellers of their own lives.
1998: Threshold (New Play Development) department is established.
2001: CTC receives a grant from the Jerome Foundation to collaborate with New Dramatists in New York City on Playground, a program designed to encourage emerging playwrights to create new work for young audiences.
2003: A Year With Frog and Toad opens on Broadway, following an Off-Broadway run and the 2002 world premiere at CTC.
2003: CTC receives the Tony Award® for Outstanding Regional Theatre.
2004: CTC receives the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America Medallion of Honor.
2004: The November 2, 2004, edition of TIME magazine named CTC as the top theatre for children in the United States.
2005: Expanded its physical space with a $30 million construction project, adding the Cargill Stage, the McGuire Education Center, and production shops. The introduction of preschool programming began with the opening of the Cargill Stage.
2005: CTC partners with Seattle Children’s Theatre to create Plays for Young Audiences (now Plays for New Audiences), a clearinghouse for scripts and a resource for professional theatres, community theatres, and schools. This nonprofit licensing business helps to ensure the ongoing life of the plays we have commissioned.
2006: CTC receives the Wallace Foundation Excellence Award for engaging teen audiences.
2007: CTC and Ma-Yi Theater Company in New York form a partnership to commission and co-produce plays for young audiences by Asian American writers.
2007: CTC receives a two-year grant from the Bush Foundation to create artistic and educational programming informed by early learning research.
2009: CTC is chosen to participate in the EmcArts Innovation Lab, a project funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Trust.
2010: CTC’s first commissioned preschool production, the world premiere of The Biggest Little House in the Forest, begins performances on April 27.
2013: The ACT One program is created. ACT One is CTC’s cohesive platform for access, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
2014: The Arrival is selected for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts New Voices/New Visions festival.
2015: CTC is honored with a $100,000 Community Creativity Cohort grant from the Bush Foundation in recognition of our leadership in community engagement with the arts.
2016: Peter C. Brosius receives the Sara Spencer Artistic Achievement Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education.
2021: The Mellon Foundation awards a five-year grant to five partner theatres—Latino Theater Company, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Native Voices at the Autry, Penumbra, and Children’s Theatre Company—to commission 16 new works by BIPOC artists; eight titles have been commissioned to date.