Who are the Moppets?
Moppets are a non-profit youth theatre company engaging youth in all aspects of theatre production, education, and engagement with classical theatre. Our programs introduce students to Shakespeare and other classical works, as well as to fundamentals of acting, script and character interpretation, writing, special effects, stage combat, stage intimacy, and technical theatre. We follow a mentorship model in which students are encouraged to take the lead in creating the experiences that are important to them with support and guidance from seasoned theatre professionals. All Moppets programs are offered with no-barrier sliding scale and full-scholarship options. Moppets performances are free to attend, creating accessible opportunities to engage with theatre for the wider WNC community. In addition, we serve our community as an organization by paying the theatre professionals who work with our students a living wage stipend for their time and expertise.
What are we trying to do?
Our goal is to make all of our 2027 programs tuition-free for all participants. Our current model as a youth program is tuition based, and the tuition total for each program forms the budget for that program. Sliding-scale fees and scholarships are reimbursed through donations to our scholarship fund. At our current full-tuition price and capacity, each production costs about $5500 and serves about 20 student actors, stage managers, and technicians. We have six productions scheduled for 2027 for an estimated program budget of $33,000. Our goal is to raise a minimum of $35,000 to cover this baseline for our programs.
Why is this important?
“A growing body of research, including a comprehensive literature review by RAND, shows that arts engagement can improve academic outcomes, emotional health, and community well-being. From middle school to adulthood, the benefits of arts ripple outward.” -The Wallace Foundation
As a society, pay-to-play culture has become the standard in youth activities, most notably sports and the arts, both of which foster critical aspects of youth development in the short term and community development over time. Removing financial barriers to participation not only increases access for underserved communities, it fosters an environment of equal support for youth of all backgrounds to come together to create and present meaningful work. These experiences should be available to all youth regardless of ability or financial status.
Why only a year?
Our long-term goal is for our programs to be tuition-free forever. Our Free for a Year program is designed to teach us how to make that sustainable. In order to be successful, we will need to seek larger donations, sponsorships, and grants than we ever have before, but every dollar of support increases our ability to secure more dollars going forward. Free tuition for the year will expand our student base and therefore our audience base and total reach, which also helps us secure more funding. We will build new programs over the next year that increase access for students with physical and developmental disabilities, and we want to be sure that those programs will always be tuition-free. We also want to be sure that we can maintain our scholarship fund so that no-barrier sliding-scale payments and full scholarships are always available to anyone who needs them, even if we aren’t able to reach our Free Forever goal immediately. Free for a Year is a path to discovering how to sustainably provide a youth theatre community that is truly accessible to all. You can underwrite an entire show for $5500. We will add your name to our “Moppets Present” billing, make sure you have seats for any performance, and thank you in our program and on our website. You may also make any donation toward a specific show or toward the entire season, just let us know in the notes when you donate.
