Did You Go to See Shows with Your School?

We want to hear your theatre education stories in honor of TDF’s 50th anniversary

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Decades later, with theatre tickets (and everything else) exponentially more expensive than in our youth, many New York City kids still only get to see shows thanks to theatre education programs that partner with their schools. TDF runs a number of them including Open Doors. Started by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein in 1998, Open Doors took 24 groups of eight students to six shows each this past season, with 28 mentors such as playwright-director James Lapine (Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George) and actor Peter Friedman (Tony nominee for Ragtime) facilitating post-performance discussions. (Starting this fall, Open Doors will be renamed in Wasserstein’s honor.)

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Top imagine: William Cullen Bryant High School students with mentor James Lapine and teacher Kelly Gilles at TDF’s 2018 Open Doors Graduation. Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

RAVEN SNOOK