$200,000 Awarded in Grants to Help Productions at Strand Theatre

Mayor Michelle Wu and the Mayor’s Workplace of Arts and Tradition at this time introduced the Metropolis of Boston has awarded $200,000 in grants to 12 people and organizations to help productions on the Strand Theatre in Upham’s Nook.

“The Strand Theatre has been an iconic landmark within the Dorchester neighborhood for greater than a century, and it’s nice to see such a various group of presenters sharing their work on the theater over the following 12 months,” stated Mayor Michelle Wu. “This grant program gives us with a singular alternative to help these presenters, whereas additionally making these productions extra accessible to the encompassing group.”

This grant goals to help presenters with mitigating prices to supply occasions on the Strand. The grant was open to all types of performances, together with dance, music, theater, movie, and video. The Metropolis of Boston has put aside three five-week blocks on the Strand Theatre calendar all through the following 12 months for these productions.

“We’re thrilled to have the ability to assist deliver thrilling, new programming to the Strand with this grant program and provides small and rising producers an opportunity to deliver their visions to life,” stated Kara Elliott-Ortega, Chief of Arts and Tradition for the Metropolis of Boston. 

The Strand Theatre grantees embody:

• Boston Bhangra, which is able to produce two dance occasions selling Bhangra, a type of conventional Indian folks dance.
• MAPOU Leisure Inc., which is able to produce an occasion highlighting Haitian artists and distributors. 
• FaceMeStudios, which is able to produce its first collaborative undertaking, FaceMe Physique Gallery, a three-day occasion and gallery targeted on sharing the tales of the ladies and their experiences with shallowness and physique dysmorphia.
• 4 Star Dance Studio, which is able to produce an occasion celebrating the group’s twentieth anniversary of serving the group. 
• The Boston Fashionable Orchestra Challenge, which is able to produce the five-year sequence As Advised By: Historical past, Race, and Justice on the Opera Stage, beginning with the New England premiere of X: The Life and Occasions of Malcolm X.
• CUSAV Leisure, which is able to produce Mega Present, an annual occasion that includes Cape Verdean artists with proceeds benefiting youngsters in Cape Verde.
• Tony Williams Dance Heart, which is able to produce a multimedia piece that tells the story of African slavery in America and consists of dancers and spoken phrase. 
• OrigiNation Cultural Arts Heart, which is able to produce the annual musical theater manufacturing of Our Story! Celebrating the African and African-American Expertise by way of Spoken Phrase, Music & Dance, which takes place throughout Black Historical past Month.
• Roxbury Heart for the Performing Arts, which is able to produce its twenty sixth efficiency of Nubian Nativity, a nativity present targeted on African-centered themes with an all-Black forged, in November 2022.
• ANIKAYA/Akhra, Inc., which is able to produce The Ladies Collect, a ritual of therapeutic carried out by seven native and worldwide ensemble members and a cohort of native dancers, singers, and performers.
• Robby Thomas, who will produce “We Transfer in Shade”, a musical revue that seeks to seize the African American narrative by way of music, poetry, dance, and visible artwork, with 300 tickets donated to the group for the occasion.
• Firm One Theatre, which simply accomplished a four-week manufacturing of the brand new play am i able to contact it?, with all tickets being Pay-What-You-Need.

“This grant gave us the chance to bolster our mission—amidst a pandemic—by returning to the Strand with a narrative targeted by itself group, advised by a author who calls each Roxbury and Dorchester residence,” stated C1 Co-Founder and am i able to contact it? director Summer time L. Williams. “Over 4 weeks of performances, we partnered with over a dozen native community-driven organizations connecting artists, activists, entrepreneurs, teenagers, households, and extra—all coming collectively round a really native piece of artwork which is able to proceed to make an affect far past Boston, with future productions already scheduled in Los Angeles and Cleveland, in addition to a digital capability to introduce this neighborhood and the Strand to the world. We’re so grateful to accomplice with the Metropolis in creating significant performances on the Strand!”

Grant quantities vary from $5,000 to $80,000 and have been based mostly on the scope of the manufacturing and grantees’ finances sizes. Productions should happen on the Strand, and the funding can be utilized for any manufacturing bills, apart from the four-wall constructing house. Grantees receiving grants of at the least $25,000 are required to make their productions Pay-What-You-Can or present a required p.c of free tickets to the group.

Purposes for the following spherical of Strand Theatre grant funding will open within the fall of 2022. Extra data will likely be posted on boston.gov/strand. 

Concerning the Strand

The Strand serves as a cultural and academic useful resource to artists and audiences, no matter race or cultural background, age, capacity, gender, financial degree, or sexual orientation. It operates primarily as a roadhouse for touring occasions, concert events, group multicultural occasions, theater productions, dance productions, unbiased film premieres, video manufacturing, rehearsal house, assembly house, and artwork reveals. The constructing is comprised of 5 areas, the Corridor of Mirrors, Gallery Room, Essential Stage, Grand Assembly Room and Again Assembly Room. The principle auditorium seats 1,400 patrons and might be damaged right down to as little as 292 seats, that includes an in-house sound and lightweight bundle to accommodate most non-touring productions.