GRoW @ The Wallis is the umbrella for our robust mix of education and outreach activities and programs at The Wallis. Thanks to a generous gift from Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Regina Weingarten, our campus includes a dedicated education wing, with three state of the art classrooms and a beautiful outdoor courtyard. These GRoW programs are in service of two main goals: expanding access to opportunities in the performing arts for those often left out; and providing exceptional opportunities for serious young artists.
We are grateful to all the people who make this work possible: the entire staff of The Wallis, all our school and community partners, and the wonderful donors who help support this work.
Here is a summary of our work in 2017-18.
Expanding Access to the Arts
In the 2017-18 school year The Wallis presented 15 student matinee performances. 53 schools and 2 homeschool networks participated. 4,916 students attended accompanied by 307 teachers and other adult chaperones. 135 students and parents from two of these school partners also attended weekend “family day” performances. The Wallis brought teaching artists to offer classroom support and coaching for five Wallis Focus Schools: Alliance College Ready Middle Academy #8 in Boyle Heights, Alliance Neuwirth Leadership Academy in South LA, Bella Vista Elementary in Montebello, Equitas Charter Academy in Pico-Union, and The School of the Arts at West Adams Preparatory Academy (LAUSD).
The Wallis joined with Invertigo Dance Theater to offer weekly Dancing Through Parkinson’s classes, with 3-10 participants each week.
The Wallis provides an artistic home for The Miracle Project, offering weekly classes, summer musical theater camp, and performance opportunities for approximately 100 students and volunteer co-actors with autism and all abilities. This is an important opportunity for participants to gain new skills in the performing arts, build new friendships, and share their stories on stage. Several of the participants have been able to secure professional roles performing in film and television.
In December 2017 we joined with Naomi Ackerman and The Advot Project to present “Listen” in the Lovelace Studio Theater. This was an opportunity for young people who had been incarcerated to share their achievements and challenges as they returned to the community. The invited audience was asked to consider what specific actions each of us can take to improve support and opportunities for these youth.
We partnered with the New York-based jazz education organization JazzReach to bring performances of their Metta Quintet to several elementary schools in underserved communities. We also presented a student matinee performance at The Wallis and hosted a side-by-side performance of their musicians working with the jazz ensemble from Foshay Learning Center in South LA, under the direction of teacher Vince Womack.
Thanks to a grant from the California Arts Council, we collaborated with Director Greg Shane and CRE Outreach to bring “Moving On,” an original theater piece created and performed by military veterans, to the Lovelace Studio Theater for two performances in June 2018.
Our Community Partners program provided 1,966 free tickets for constituents of other nonprofit groups to see shows at The Wallis throughout our season.
People served by the following agencies attended shows during the 2017-2018 season:
- Beverly Hills Active Adults
- Advot Project
- Beverly Hills Senior Housing
- Choreographers Theater Ensemble
- Claude Pepper Senior Center
- Create Now
- CRE Outreach Veterans
- Gabriella Foundation
- Green Dot Schools
- Harmony Project
- Hope Street
- LAMOTH (Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust)
- Los Angeles LGBT Senior Services
- MATI (Israeli community center)
- MAAF (Mutual Amputee Assistance Foundation)
- Move the World
- Menorah Housing Foundation
- Neighborhood Music School
- New York Film Academy
- NOHO Senior Arts
- Nurture and Nature
- Peninsula Seniors
- Save A Heart Foundation
- Silvercrest Senior residences
- Stop Senior Scams
- Theater Lab
- West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation
Investing In Young Artists
These programs have been informed and inspired by the work on our stages and provide opportunities not otherwise available for young artists in the greater Los Angeles area.
12 early career actors participated in The Wallis Studio Ensemble and performed two productions at The Wallis – “Disposable”, an original devised piece, and “The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” adapted from the radio play by Douglas Adams. They also performed “Disposable” as part of the San Diego International Fringe Festival.
Two creative teams completed our six month course “Creating Musical Theater: A Collaborative Lab” and had their work performed in the Goldsmith March 18, 2018 for an audience of 198 people. These young writers and composers also had the chance to share their work with legendary Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz and receive his detailed feedback.
Ten teens participated in our Wallis Student Arts Reporters program. This initiative exposes young people to the field of arts journalism through workshops with professional writers and opportunities to attend and review performances throughout our season.
We hosted five master classes with four dance companies for a total of 80 dance students. We also hosted a jazz master class with Arturo Sandoval where three student ensembles performed and received feedback and an audience of jazz educators and students observed.
The Wallis is proud to be the Los Angeles area home for Broadway Dreams, an international musical theater training program taught by a faculty of Broadway professionals. 75 performers from ages 10-55 participated in an intensive week of workshops and rehearsals that culminated in a fully produced showcase performance in our Goldsmith Theater July 14, 2018.
The Wallis joined with the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust to present their “Voices of History” program. Eight teens interviewed two survivors of the Holocaust and worked with theater director Ann Noble to create brief theater pieces about their dramatic personal stories. Students rehearsed in a classroom at The Wallis before performing in the Lovelace Studio Theater the evening of July 25, 2018.