NEW YORK CITY: Theatre Communications Group (TCG) has announced the 2025 grant recipients in the THRIVE!: Uplifting Theatres of Color program. Developed and administered by TCG in collaboration with the Theater League of Kansas City, the program provides unrestricted general operating support to eight Black, Indigenous, and Theatres of Color (BITOC) based in the United States, including tribal nations and U.S. territories. The eight recipients are Bishop Arts Theatre Center of Dallas, East West Players of Los Angeles, GALA Hispanic Theatre of Washington, D.C., Karamu House of Cleveland, North Carolina Black Repertory Company of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Repertorio Español of New York City, St. Louis Black Repertory Company of St. Louis and the Ensemble Theatre of Houston.
“These grants recognize the enduring power and resilience of BITOC and community-serving theatres,” said TCG co-executive director of national and global programming Emilya Cachapero in a statement. “We’re grateful for the Theater League of Kansas City’s commitment to uplifting the transformative work happening across these organizations.”
The THRIVE! Uplifting Theatres of Color program is developed and administered by TCG with an advisory circle of BIPOC theatre leaders. It is designed to support theatres that have historically been excluded from many institutional funding opportunities and continue to face systemic barriers to access. These grants reflect a continued commitment to sustaining the artistic and cultural contributions of BITOC and regionally impactful theatres at a time when access to flexible funding remains a critical challenge across the theatre ecology.
“We’re pleased to be joining TCG on such a worthwhile program,” said Theater League of Kansas City president Mark Edelman in a statement. “The geographic, social, and cultural diversity of these groups makes this program especially important today, as the performing arts find themselves under siege from traditional public support.”
The Theater League of Kansas City is a not-for-profit civic performing arts organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in the communities it serves with the thrill of live theatre. Founded by Mark Edelman in Kansas City in 1977, the organization has presented the best of Broadway in theatres across the country to well over a million patrons. Today, the League supports a broad range of professional theatre through grants, student ticket subsidies and new work development in its hometown of Kansas City and performing arts organizations around the country.
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, leads for a just and thriving theatre ecology. Since its founding in 1961, TCG’s constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to over 750 member theatres and affiliate organizations and over 3,000 individual members. Through its programs and services, TCG reaches over one million students, audience members, and theatre professionals each year.
