Everyone has the ability to change a life. Will you help?

Help us build a 200 seat theater and classroom space in North Andover, MA. Let's get kids off the screens, and into the spotlight! Everyone has the ability to change the life of a child. With “The Spotlight Initiative” ACT is trying to do just that … improve the lives of our local youth by offering programs that will build confidence and forge friendships. It’s a sad reality that in today’s world, the light we most often see illuminating our children’s faces is that of a computer, tablet, phone, or TV screen. ACT Theater Company wants to change this reality. We want to make our young people’s faces shine from a different light: the spotlight. To make this dream into a reality, we need your help. We need to raise $80,000, but need at least $22,000 to get us started. ACT Theater Company’s mission is to entertain, educate, and enrich the lives of our members, our audiences, and the community. We strive to perform professional-quality live theater that embraces diversity, fosters a passion for the performing arts, and touches the lives of the entire community. The ACT Theater will be a gathering place for young people and adults from all areas, to nurture their love of performing. In a time when arts education budgets are being slashed in our schools, ACT will keep theater alive for the next generation. We are not only building a theater, we are building a home for the arts. When children are engaged in the arts, it’s proven that they do better academically. But we don’t just want them to do better in school - ACT wants them to flourish in life and be the best they can be. The skills that are taught in workshops, classes and educational programs at ACT can be used in classroom presentations, college interviews, and in conversations with teachers and adults. When asked to describe ACT, our students came up with words and phrases like: confidence building, safe, family, commitment, accepting, fun, teamwork, passion, friendship, welcoming, and hard work. These are skills and lessons that students will carry with them for their entire lives … and it all begins by putting them in the spotlight. You might wonder if participating in theater can really do all this. It can. Being involved in theater is so much more than just getting up on stage and learning lines and music. It’s about being part of a team and making a commitment. It’s about taking part in something that is bigger than just one person and expecting excellence from all those involved. It’s about learning to work with different personalities and people of all types, and creating something that is not just about what is happening on stage, but what the people in the audience are seeing and feeling. In a world where our youth are often forced to grow up before their time, ACT seeks to surround them with a nurturing and fun environment that embraces their differences and helps them love themselves for who they are. By having a home base, ACT will be able to offer more programs for students and adults of all ages. We will be able to put our educational class plan and curriculum into action. Since we have never had a performance space of our own, we have been limited in the number of offerings we can provide each year. The Spotlight Initiative will change that. Our own theater will change everything and allow us to take our classes, workshops, and youth shows to the next level. Your pledge will touch every person that walks through the doors of The ACT Theater - not just the countless kids and teens, but the adults who mentor them, and the audiences that come to see their faces in the SPOTLIGHT. You can make this possible. You can change their lives. ACT Theater Company 1632 Osgood Street Suite 102 North Andover, MA www.acttheatercompany.com