Our goal is to reach the greatest amount of people with our theatre programs. Fantasy Theatre is a touring theatre, traveling throughout Florida, the Southeast and Internationally to theatres, schools, fairs, libraries and outdoor festivals. We make it possible to bring arts and culture into urban and rural neighborhoods. Recognizing special needs, we developed, as part of our mission, a free admission policy for critically ill children and other special constituencies.
Fantasy Theatre Factory is a professional touring theatre created in New York in 1977 by Ed Allen and Mimi Schultz, performing artists and teachers. The company expanded, incorporated as a Florida Not-for-Profit in 1982, and has toured nationally, internationally, and the State of Florida since that time. As a touring theatre, we are uniquely different from housed theatres in that - we take theatre to our audience. Our audiences do not come to our theatre space. This gives particularly underserved communities the best access to our programs. We perform in rural and inner-city schools, theatres, parks, hospitals, community centers - practically everywhere. Sets, props, costumes, and - even actors must be able to travel for extended periods of time. In this manner, Fantasy Theatre presents more than 400+ Florida programs, reaching over 150,000 people each year. Our mission is to make more quality theatre programs available to more people.
Fantasy Theatres programs are an evolution of more than 23 years of performing and teaching in Florida. Company founders/directors are recognized for their exceptional talent and entertaining programs and, also, as effective teachers and mentors in a wide variety of performance skills and arts administration. Both hold Masters Degrees in Education and have served as instructors for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Clown College, Florida Professional Theater Assoc. (FPTA) workshops, multiple colleges and, schools and international festivals. For 2000 and 2001, Fantasy Theatre received the Business and Arts Councils ARTS IMPACT AWARD and also Arts Educator of the Year Award, for Miami-Dade. FTF was nominated for Arts Management Excellence Award in 2004.
Local and Regional Outreach: We present theatre for family audiences. Our 13 touring shows appeal to pre-school, elementary, family, adult, and senior audiences. Our shows cover themes of: Childrens Literature, Reading, Ecology, Social Service, Black History, Dance, English, and Music. Fantasy Theatre programs include community events, theatre and school shows and residencies, at-risk workshops, field-trip programs and special events. During our last completed season 2005, we hired over 100 Florida artists in over 400 programs.
To round out our programming, and to utilize FTFs good relationships with many national and local artists, we offer Local and National Artist Programs. This brings national talent to our sponsors and showcases local talent in a manner that they cannot afford to do individually.
As a Florida State Touring Company (1985 to 2006), we travel to over 15 Florida counties each season. Fantasy Theatre has a long history of working closely with school systems throughout Florida. Approximately one-third of our counties served are REDI counties. In the last two years, Fantasy Theatre performed in over 22 Florida counties, including 9 underserved counties: Bradford, Brevard, Broward, Collier, Dade, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Holmes, Jefferson Madison, Monroe, Nassau, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, Pasco, Polk, Seminole, St. Johns and St. Lucie counties.
Festival Production: Fantasy Theatre produces entertainment for large fairs and festivals throughout Florida, reaching thousands of people with its fully-staged shows and street theater.
We have performed at THE FAIR (formerly known as Dade County Youth Fair) since 1990, performing shows daily over the fairs 18-day run. From 1989 to present, Fantasy Theatre has produced all Childrens Theater entertainment for the 3 day, Miami Beach Art Deco Festival.
Educational Outreach: Educational outreach is our forte. Fantasy Theatres Artist-In-Education Program features shows and workshops for children and in-service training for teachers. We present over 400 shows in schools yearly. We also partner with the Broward, Dade, Hillsborough and Okeechobee County School Boards yearly to present residency programs. In 2004-2005, we partnered with 5 other organizations that serve children to create arts residency programs. Three year-long residencies were offered at: the Miami Children's Museum, the Henderson Mental Health Center in Broward and Pembroke Pines Arts Park. We are have two other residencies are three-five weeks in length.
Initiated in 1997, we produce our own Theatre Field-Trip Program yearly throughout South Florida. This program has grown and now serves areas that previously could not afford to bring theatre to them. (Downtown Ft. Lauderdale, Liberty City, Hialeah and South Dade, North Miami and downtown Tampa.)
We currently have 4 college students enrolled in our Theatre Internship Program with the University of Miami. This program provides students with 5-10 hours each week of involvement with professional actors, rehearsals and all aspects of theatre production and management. High school students receive credits, while college students are reimbursed $8.00/HR. for their internships.
Special Needs Outreach: In 1993, the companys Mission Statement was amended to include a stronger commitment to providing free programs for special needs children and their families. We created Project Smile. This community outreach program sets aside funding for organizations that service special needs children. Since then, over 9,000 children and families have attended our programs at no cost. Project Smile is a permanent component of our company programs. Since 1999, FTF again amended our Mission to provide 10% of all ticketed seats free to special needs children and organizations.
International Tours: Fantasy Theatre has toured the world to expand international awareness and appreciation of Floridas performing artists. We toured Tokyo, Japan in 1987 and the Arctic Circle in 1988 for the United States Armed Forces. The company performed in France and Holland in 1990, the Grand Bahama Islands in 1993, and Englands Covent Garden Street Festival in 1994. In 1997 company members performed in Venezuela for the United Family Communications conference. The company returned to the American School in Paris in 1998. FTFs Artistic Director was brought to Scotland in 2000 to oversee a creative video project for Multi-Vision Studios (video) and to meet with Edinburgh Fringe Festival for possible future tours. International touring has become cost prohibitive in recent years.
Educational Shows
Fantasy Theatre Factory7069 SW 47 Street
Miami, FL 33155
Map305-284-8800
www.FTFShows.com
