Through our annual Social Impact Theatre Grant Program, the Foundation supports theatres in Western states that are igniting positive changes in their communities through the programming they bring to life on stage. Year over year, it is a deep honor of mine to witness the grant program’s awardees putting stories on the stage that matter, building engagement strategies to further educate and inspire their audiences, and partnering with organizations in their communities to help deepen the impact and authenticity of those strategies.
Before the Foundation announces the 2025 Social Impact Theatre Grant Awards this Fall, I wanted to reflect on the myriad ways the awardees from 2024 made positive impacts on their audiences and within their communities, and the strategy, leadership, expertise, and conviction demonstrated by these theatres.
Despite many arts organizations continuing to grapple with a changing environment, funding cuts, and increased expenses, the 10 theatres that received Social Impact Theatre Grant Awards in 2024 staged productions that collectively reached over 70,000 audience members across Washington, Oregon, California, and Colorado.
Productions highlighted pioneering technologies in the theatre sector, from live looping featured in Mexodus, to new visual technologies used in Co-Founders. Settings took audiences to the 1850’s, following the underground railroad that went south from Texas to Mexico across the Rio Grande, to 1930’s Harlem Renaissance, and to a once-successful restaurant in a strip mall outside of present-day Cleveland, Ohio. And themes ranged from destigmatizing mental illness to how we connect with and support our aging relatives; from impacts of climate change, to impacts of the incarceration system on family relationships; and from a celebration of the Bay Area’s entrepreneurial landscape to a celebration of the resilience and endurance of the immigrant experience.
While disparate in settings and themes, all productions were united in inviting their audiences to grapple with, learn more about, and discuss topics incredibly timely, relavent, and at the forefront of American discourse. How the theatres accomplished that ran the gambit. Some examples include:
- Mexodus creators Brian Quijada and Nygel Robinson participated in talkbacks with audiences at Berkeley Rep, diving into the technical craft of live looping and how it serves as a metaphor for solidarity and supporting one other;
- The Old Globe hosted breaking bread style events where audience members gathered over meals to discuss their family dynamics, traditions, and experiences before seeing House of India;
- Denver Center for the Performing Arts featured an interactive wall in their lobby during the run of The Reservoir where audiences shared meaningful advice they received from the elders in their lives;
- The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts partnered with the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE) to curate a series of post-show discussions with leading ethicists and scholars on the themes of Here There Are Blueberries like the transformation of norms and complicity as the new normal;
- And Rubicon Theatre Company followed each performance of Crazy Mama by inviting audience members to join a discussion with local mental health professionals from the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) to help unpack the plays’ themes and connect folks to local resources.
The Foundation is deeply honored to support this work – work we call Social Impact Theatre because we believe in the power of live theatre to spark dialogue, bring different viewpoints together on challenging subjects, build community, inspire empathy, and provide a lens to process the issues facing society today – which now, more than ever, feels like a critical investment not just in the art form, but in our humanity.
By Geri Auriemma, Program Officer – Social Impact Theatre
Photo Credit: Jamar Jones and Esther Okech Lewis in Blues for an Alabama Sky at Seattle Rep (2025). Photo by Nate Watters.