Community Access Initiative

As we actively challenge how we produce our work on stage and in the classroom, the Community Access Initiative serves to simultaneously challenge the makeup of our audiences and program participants to ensure that underrepresented people and stories have equitable presence not only on the stage but also in our seats.

The Community Access Initiative ensures ASP can achieve its vision of:

  • A more unified Greater Boston that can embrace differences
     
  • An inclusive community where theatre artists of all ages and identities are empowered to express themselves
     
  • A theatre landscape that offers audiences exposure to a wide range of powerful writing in intimate, accessible settings
     
  • A more sustainable, diverse, and inclusive space for our community, with clear pathways for theatre artists to advance their careers.

The Community Access Initiative directly sponsors these ASP programs:

  • Professional Productions:
    • 20 seats for $20 at every performance
    • Select Pay-What-You-Will performances starting at $10, including BlackOuts and Teacher Appreciation Nights
    • $10 Tickets through Mass Cultural Council’s EBT Card-To-Culture Program
    • Free tickets for select local community groups
       
  • Education Programs:
    • Full and partial scholarships available for all youth and adult programs
    • Expanded student matinees for local middle and high schoolers, including talkbacks and in-school visits
    • $0-25 tickets to student matinees with transportation assistance when necessary
    • Deepened access to in-school programs for schools that can’t afford workshops or residencies
       
  • General:
    • Paid internship positions on all productions
    • Paid year-round college co-op internship
    • Fair compensation and reasonable expectations for all who work for Actors’ Shakespeare Project

In 2024 the Community Access Initiative allowed ASP to …

  • Provide 1,700 $20 seats to our professional productions so that everyone could attend who wished to 
  • Maintain the lowest midsize professional theater ticket price in town
  • Host an entirely pay-what-you-will BlackOut performance to King Hedley II and offer pay-what-you-will Teacher Appreciation tickets to Romeo and Juliet
  • Provide 298 complimentary and 867 $25 or less student tickets to student matinees, and transportation assistance for two schools
  • Provide 1,962 complimentary and discounted $10 or less tickets to community members for all of our productions, for an average of 450 complimentary tickets per production
  • Provide 17 full and 8 partial scholarships to our education programs
  • Stipend 5 young people to participate in our Summer Youth Intensive
  • Provide 10 workshops and 4 extended residencies at no cost to the schools
  • Provide competitive compensation and reasonable work expectations for all staff, actors, production team members, and teaching artists

With your support matched by the generosity of the Parker Family Foundation, this initiative will help us to continue to grow access to our productions and education programs!

Thank you!