Our spring 2024 season was a busy one, full of some exciting new offerings and landmark events. As we gear up for our fall 2024 season — which you can support by making a donation here — we're taking a look in the rearview and celebrating some of the biggest highlights and milestones of our most recent season.

Get Rooted: A Community Showcase. Photos by Kade Alpers Photography.

1. We showcased! We presented Get Rooted: A Community Showcase, which included performances by three Forum Theatre Troupes — Breaking Ground, Red Hook Community Justice Center, and The Ali Forney Center — plus time for our community to mix, mingle, and discuss. We're incredibly grateful to Adrii's Kitchen for catering and MCC Theater for generously donating space for this landmark event. This was the first time we’d held three residency performances in a single day! Missed it? Check out the photos.
2. We joined cultural resistance. We partnered with ASHTAR Theatre, Friends of ASHTAR Theatre NYC, The People's Forum, and more to present From Shakespeare to Gaza: Performances for Palestine at The People’s Forum. Performances included butoh, modern dance, poetry, storytelling, and memoir. Onsite donations went to ASHTAR Theatre’s psycho-social relief intervention program and Gazan artists who had worked with Jewish Voice for Peace NYC on the art exchange program Tomorrowland. A recording of the event is available to watch on YouTube. Throughout the spring, we continued to advocate and demonstrate our support for Palestine. Among other actions, we endorsed Visions of a Free Palestine, Dancers for Palestine’s Gala for Gaza, and  Theater Workers for Ceasefire,. 
3. You went on not-dates and drafted policy with us. On World Theatre of the Oppressed Day, we hosted the very first iteration of This Is Not a Date: An Intimate Social Event For Radical Love! This smash-hit, sold-out, not-quite-speed dating mixer involved T.O. gameplay and one-on-one breakouts. It was so popular that we wheeled it back out in June as This Is Not a Date: Pride Edition. We also held two workshops to train housing and tenant organizers in the Stabilizing NYC Coalition, and we held two public Legislative Theatre trainings for artists and activists! Want to date us? Hire TONYC to facilitate This is Not a Date, a Legislative Theatre training, or another workshop for you or your organization here.
4. Drama therapy got extra dramatic. We partnered with the NYU Drama Therapy program and TO Practitioner Akhila Khanna to co-present a Forum Theatre presentation exploring health equity issues in New York City. Our Director of Pedagogy & Training, Liz, served as a consultant on this project and presented a keynote speech. The night brought together Creative Arts Therapists and medical staff for a lively forum about hierarchy and communication in the healthcare system.
5. You helped us get pretty. We hosted an office cleaning extravaganza event — affectionately dubbed "Fabuloso Day" — and spent the day organizing, redecorating, and overhauling our space with TONYC community members! The day included connection-making, pizza, and great music curated by our Program Coordinator, Tab Lopez.
6. We posted for roommates. We launched a space rental program allowing organizations looking for 24/7-accessible quiet midtown Manhattan office space to rent from TONYC! The ADA accessible space, located just four blocks from the 42nd Street–Port Authority station, includes 5G Wi-Fi, a projector and in-room monitor, storage cubbies, hand sanitizer and face masks, a self-care station with fidget toys and craft supplies, complimentary access to a shared pantry and gender-neutral bathroom, and much more. Learn more here!
7. Over 460 of you energized our work! Our Front of House Team welcomed over 460 audience members at five different venues around New York City, for Forum shows featuring a grand total of 69 community actors, ranging from teens to senior adults. Five of our fans stepped into new roles as members of our Board of Directors! Our brilliant new additions are Benjamin Solotaire, Eleanor Dickinson, Ellie Bell, Katy Rubin, and Vincent Iaropoli.

Energized by what you just read? Does this work excite or move you? Please help us keep fighting the good fight by making a donation today, and stay tuned for how to join us this fall.