Traveling Players named a "Summer School in the Arts" by NEA

Local program one of only 25 honored nationwide

Traveling Players Ensemble was named a "Summer School in the Arts" by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  Only twenty-five arts institutions in the nation were honored with this distinction. Traveling Players Ensemble, a professional theatre company dedicated to bringing great theatre into the great outdoors, will receive $20,000 from the NEA to support their summer camp programs, which begin later this month. 

"We are thrilled to be recognized by the NEA," commented Jeanne E. Harrison, founder and Producing Artistic Director of Traveling Players Ensemble.  "Our program teaches classical theatre comprehensively, but it also teaches outdoors skills, which I believe allows them to deepen their artistic work.  This designation by the NEA as a Summer School in the Arts will allow us to test out that theory and send data back to the government." 

Traveling Players Ensemble's theatre camps train teens and pre-teens in classical theatre (Shakespeare and Moliere) and then take the students on tour to perform their shows.  Founded in 2003, Traveling Players has been invited to perform at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, Colonial Williamsburg, Shenandoah National Park, Reston's Multicultural Festival, and the International Children's Festival at Wolf Trap.  Traveling Players is in residence at the Madeira School in McLean, VA, where they will give public performances in July and August.  Traveling Players' theatre camps are unique in that they train their actors to perform outdoors in amphitheatres.  Traveling Players participants camp out once a week, practicing the Leave No Trace camping skills that the performers will need when they go on tour by backpack. 

"Summer School in the Arts" award winners were selected through a competitive granting process.  In order to qualify, students must receive at least 90 hours of instruction culminating in a performance or exhibition of their work. The goal is to create rigorous, challenging arts education programs that not only enhance students' art skills but also their study habits and group interaction skills.  Each of the selected sites will use national or state standards in the arts to assess the degree of learning.