TRTC's Outreach Programs

TRTC's Outreach Programs are supported in part by grants from the
Colorado Council on the Arts and the NEA, the Aspen Community Foundation, and The Embrey Family Foundation




Educational Outreach
Touching the Lives of Our Valley's Children

Since our founding in 1995, TRTC has been committed to making professional theatre accessible to our valley's students. Our resident actors regularly go into the schools and work with students and teachers on educational projects as they relate to dramatic literature and poetry. We have helped design projects, read aloud, performed scenes from our plays, and from plays the students are studying. With the teachers, we help students understand how dramatic literature and performance choices reflect the world they live in. TRTC also brings their special Literary Night performances into the schools to share with the students the writings and history of some of the world's most revered authors.

TRTC offers special high school matinees (or previews) at a reduced ticket price, allowing students and teachers to attend our productions that they might otherwise not be able to afford. We provide study guides and facilitate discussions immediately following the performance. The discussions are designed to help bring the themes and context of the play into meaningful contemporary terms, that only the immediacy of theatre can provide.



Latino Theatre Initiative
Building Bridges Through the Theatre Arts

TRTC has been a leader in embracing the diversity of our valley. Our world premiere of the English translation by Lesley Jackson for TRTC, of Mexican playwright, Rafael Solana's The Bishop Has Her Day, was attended by the Mexican Consulate and his staff from Denver.

The Aspen Times theatre critic wrote, "TRTC has once again chosen a truly original work, one that should help to bridge gaps between the Roaring Fork Valley's Latino community and those who wish to learn more about the culture, customs and, most importantly, the human strengths and frailties that bind us all together...Kudos goes to TRTC's Lon Winston for delivering this play to English and Spanish-speaking theater-goers. Theater is, after all, a main source of understanding people from all cultures and from all walks of life."

TRTC offers scholarships to qualified children. We have teamed up with the valley's local nonprofit bilingual newspaper, La Union, to reach more and more of the Latino population. TRTC participates in the Cinco de Mayo Celebration and Le Festivalas de Americanas in Carbondale.

Our FREE El Dia de los Muertos celebration (Day of the Dead) on Nov. 2 of each year has become a Carbondale phenomenon. Now that we have our own theatre, the event has grown tremendously. This past year we had over 250 Latinos and Anglos (standing room only) enjoying the event together in our new theatre. Following our ritual procession into the theatre, the celebration continues with performances by Latino children, adults and TRTC's resident actors.



This Celebration is sponsored in part by the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado .



FREE Literary Nights
Celebrating the World's Great Writers

TRTC is proud to present FREE Literary Nights. These events have become very popular. Once a Literary Night has been developed and performed at the theatre, they are available to our schools for free. Some of the authors presented include Franz Kafka, Willa Cather, Latino Poets, O. Henry, A. A. Milne, Kurt Vonnegut, Rabelais, Rudolfo Anaya, Dashiell Hammett, and Ray Bradbury. Literary Nights are presented approximately six times a year, plus special events with the Garfield County Libraries. They are always listed in TRTC's monthly newsletter ONSTAGE.
TRTC has a free Educational Outreach Program. If you are a teacher in the Roaring Fork Valley and would like TRTC to visit your school (or bring your students to our theatre), and present one of Literary programs to your students, please contact us to make arrangements.



TRTC's New Play Readings
Hear the Newest from Our Country's Talented Playwrights

TRTC's Founding Artistic Director, Lon Winston has long been an advocate of new plays, their playwrights, and the development of these plays. This program focuses on helping local playwrights, although plays are considered for a staged reading from all over the country. Talk-backs with the audience, cast, playwright and the director follow each reading. Theatre is not complete without the reaction and input from our audiences.

We will also be reading plays aloud that we may be considering for future production in one of our upcoming seasons.



In helping support TRTC, you are helping to support these wonderful programs -- Yet another advantage of being a TRTC patron.

Lon Winston, Founding Artistic Director
Thunder River Theatre Company

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