August Pop-Up Grant Announcement

Announcing Our First Four TACA Pop-Up Grantees

Creating and sharing art amidst a global pandemic is no simple task! That is why we created TACA Pop-Up Grants – to celebrate and reward local arts organizations for programming that demonstrates exceptional quality, creativity & innovation, and accessibility & inclusion. Grantees were selected via a nomination process that incorporates 35 anonymous local volunteers. This month, we selected four grantees from a pool of 30 nominations. Pop-Up Grants are an important component of the TACA Resiliency Initiative – a focused effort to support and strengthen Dallas arts and cultural organizations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more, visit taca-arts.org/resiliency.

TACA’s inaugural grantees are Cry Havoc Theater Company, Dallas Children’s Theater, Echo Theatre, and Prism Movement Theater. They will each receive a $2,000 grant for the programs listed below!

Cry Havoc Theater Company

Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground and Project Ghostlight

Guest Marlon Meikle (aka Indigo Dai) hosting Project Ghostlight

Cry Havoc Theater Company creates art that amplifies the voices of young people and serves as a conduit for community dialogue.Cry Havoc received a Pop-Up Grant for two of their programs: Dark was the The Night, Cold was the Ground and Project Ghostlight

Dark was the The Night, Cold was the Ground was Cry Havoc’s first original dystopian sci-fi audio play created by Ruben Carrazana and the Teens of Cry Havoc. They created a kind of “mockumentary” that chronicles what a group of aliens discovers when they crash-land on Earth in the year 4040.

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Project Ghostlight is a bi-weekly virtual open mic for the young and young-at-heart. Each show features a new host and musical guest, and community members of every age are invited to read any piece of writing, original or otherwise. This event has attracted participants from Dallas, New York, London, Chicago, San Francisco, LA, Portland, and even Adelaide, Australia. The next Project Ghostlight takes place Thursday, September 10th at 7:00 p.m. CST – to learn more and to register to attend by clicking below.

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Dallas Children’s Theater

Children & Racism Talkback

Dallas Children’s Theater (DCT) inspires young people to creative and productive lives through the art of theater. DCT strives to serve the children and families of North Texas, especially underserved populations who have the greatest need for the essential social and emotional benefits of theater. DCT received a Pop-Up Grant for A Kids Play About Racism and their Children & Racism Talkback.

A Kids Play About Racism, a world-premiere virtual production made possible by 41 Theater for Young Audiences USA theaters, utilizes theatre to offer young children and families a way to engage in meaningful conversation about race. Dallas Children’s Theater helped continue that conversation through our “Children & Racism Talkback,” which invited Author Jelani Memory, Play Adaptor/Director Khalia Davis, and national cultural competence expert Anthony Peterson to answer questions about the play and offer insight on how children and families can practice antiracist behavior and work towards a kinder, more understanding world.

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Watch the Children & Racism Talkback

Echo Theatre

It’s My Party!

Echo Theatre’s mission is to promote the unique perspective that is the female voice. When the pandemic brought down the curtain on live performance in its 22nd season, the organization regrouped to create programming which not only adhered to social distance guidelines, it advanced the theater’s mission globally. Echo Theatre received a Pop-Up Grant for their virtual readings of It’s My Party!.

To celebrate the Centennial of the 19^th Amendment this month, It’s My Party! by Ann Timmons was to have been performed live onstage – and the show did go on via a Zoom reading. The cast, the addition of light costuming and backdrops for all the actors, and a sound design created by director Carson McCain brought the reading to life. Producer Eric Berg and Managing Artistic Director Kateri Cale utilized the services of On the Stage to rehearse, sell tickets, and stream four live readings and a chat each night to field questions about the real-life characters and the Suffrage movement. The nation-wide 19^th Amendment Centennial celebration will be extended through 2021, and Echo Theatre plans to produce the Regional Premiere of It’s My Party! with the same cast and creatives when it’s safe to gather again.

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Prism Movement Theater

Everything Will Be Fine

Prism Movement Theater aims to provide quality movement theater born of ensemble-based work; emphasizing community outreach, education, and diversity in our work. They strive to make inclusive affordable theater for all. Prism Movement Theater received a Pop-Up Grant for their live production of Everything Will Be Fine.

Everything Will Be Fine is about a woman learning how to deal with a new world and her well meaning (if slightly clueless) friends after experiencing an unthinkable loss. This live, COVID-safe, drive-in theater experience allows audiences to watch the show from the safety of their cars, listening in on the dancers music from the radio as they dance among the headlights. Stage West is presenting Everything Will Be Fine at Texas Wesleyan University from September 3-27.

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