The Warehouse Theatre

Greenville, South Carolina

Founded in 1974, The Warehouse Theatre is dedicated to the concept of theater as a serious art form; to high-quality, diverse, and challenging productions; to the training of theater professionals; to community outreach; and to student education. The Warehouse's programming consists of the mainstage productions with a typical season consisting of five to seven productions ranging from the classics to Shakespeare, and from the innovative to regional premieres. In 1995, the theatre began its upstate Shakespeare Festival, which typically produces three plays in partnership with the City of Greenville, South Carolina, performed in a local park with no admission charge. The late-night On the Edge series includes improv and scripted productions that provide a forum for quirky, inventive, high-quality, and low-cost theater and is organized by the residency company, The Distracted Globe. In addition, the theatre's Journeyman Apprentice Program trains young actors. The Warehouse eventually grew to five programs when it created This Wooden O program, which uses its Journeymen actors to teach Shakespeare in local high schools. This Wooden O enhances a high school's teaching of Shakespeare by bringing it literally “off the page and onto the stage.” In so doing, the program also actively involves students, and the classroom curriculum fully incorporates South Carolina curriculum standards. The variety of exercises and their varied purposes builds flexibility into the program and enables classroom teachers and the Journeymen to structure their use of This Wooden O around specific school and classroom needs, resources, and schedules.

In 2007–2008, The Warehouse Theatre will produce Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and teachers can choose from either two-hour classes or multi-day residencies. Classes include not only the performance and typical classroom discussions of the material (language, plot, characters, themes, etc.), but also discussions of the theatrical techniques used in the particular production and the reasons for the particular staging. In its last two years, This Wooden O has built an outstanding record of reaching rural schools, schools with high non-majority populations, and schools with a high percentage of students receiving free and reduced lunch. The Warehouse Theatre's 36-week program allows the theater to serve schools within a 90-mile radius of Greenville and will bring within reach far more schools in rural areas and schools whose populations are more ethnically diverse. This reach will certainly include students who have never seen a live performance.

http://www.warehousetheatre.com/