THE SHAKESPEARE CENTER OF LOS ANGELES INC

Since 1986, the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles (SCLA) has been a vibrant hub for award-winning, contemporary interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays and other great works while serving our community through programs designed to engage and enrich people from all walks of life. Our Mission is to provide Los Angeles with innovative, world-class theatrical productions of Shakespeare and other great works, high-quality arts education and workforce development programs for underserved youth, veterans, and formerly incarcerated people — because arts engagement builds community and changes lives.

SCLA has consistently produced critically acclaimed world-class theater linked to arts-based workforce programs and arts education initiatives that have been nationally replicated. We have created thousands of summer arts-based employment opportunities for poverty-threshold youth; have paid youth more than $2 million in wages; and have hired and trained hundreds of chronically under-employed veterans to crew our productions, paying them more than $500,000 in wages. Our programs and productions have received recognition from the National Youth Employment Coalition, U.S. Department of Education, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others.

SCLA’s current programming operates on three intersecting tracks: Professional Mainstage Theater Production; Arts-Based Employment and Workforce Training; and Arts Education.

Our Mainstage Productions, produced via a contract with Actors’ Equity Association, are performed by professional actors. Productions are produced for general audiences with special Student Matinee performances offered to Title 1 schools. Most recently, in March and April of 2023, SCLA staged 30 performances – 27 general admission performances and 3 performances for schools – of The Tempest: An Immersive Experience. The Los Angeles Times named this production one of the “nine top Los Angeles theater offerings for 2023.”

Will Power After-School serves poverty threshold youth ages 14-24, who are hired as full-time, paid employees to study, create, produce, and perform adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. Youth are guided throughout by trained teaching artists/mentors, human relations facilitators, and peer mentors who are program alumni. The program develops empathy and workforce skills; builds academic resilience and literacy skills; enhances interpersonal communication; and nurtures an appreciation for creative, artistic expression. It takes place during the after-school hours and on summer break and culminates in free public performances created by and featuring youth.

In 2012, SCLA launched Veterans in Art (ViA), a program offering short-term paid vocational training in technical theater arts and life-skills development for high-need, chronically underemployed, honorably discharged U.S. military veterans. Its goal is to build confidence and community for veterans who are struggling with their reentry to civilian life. ViA participants work as venue and scenic crews, audio engineers, wardrobe assistants, and technical directors for professional and WPY productions. The program is designed to provide immediate forms of employment, engagement, and interventions for participants. Throughout the course of SCLA’s annual cycle of programming, we pay participants $20/hr for up to 120 hours of theater training and engagement.

Will Power to Schools offers teachers at Title 1 schools from LAUSD with in-person professional development seminars, arts integration training projects, and free innovative curriculum materials. This nationally-recognized program enhances the way teachers at Title 1 schools inspire meaningful classroom engagement related to the works of William Shakespeare.

Population Served:
SCLA serves general audience members of all ages and walks of life throughout Los Angeles County. Audiences for mainstage productions come from all areas of LA County and the southern California region. The youth, teachers and community members we serve through our workforce development and arts education programs come to us from approximately 40 zip codes, including many in the lowest quartile. Although there is no explicit family income requirement to participate, approximately 95% of these participants live at or near the 125% federal poverty level. Specifically for our workforce development programs, our adult veteran participants are typically ages 30-55 and our youth participants are typically 14-24. Historically, the race/ethnicity distribution across these community programs is approximately 52% Latinx, 38% Black, 6% Asian, and 4% White.

SCLA is committed to centering, uplifting, and involving historically underserved communities. We strategically and intentionally engage, employ and cultivate long-term partnerships with a diverse spectrum of under-resourced agencies and institutions; excluded and marginalized youth and community members; and historically underrepresented artists and cultural practitioners. These relationships include collaborations and resource-sharing with the West LA Veterans Collective, the UCLA Community Based Learning Program, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Linked Learning initiative, the Amity Foundation, and the School of Theater at CalArts, among others. Our programs have won local and national awards, including recognition from the National Youth Employment Coalition, National Summit for Arts Across the Military, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice, the National Endowment for the Arts, Actors’ Equity Association, and NAACP-Los Angeles.