The Front and Center Theater Collaborative was formed to sustain and increase theatre education in the Culver City Unified School District
The Front and Center Theatre Collaborative has offered a variety of assemblies, residencies, workshops, professional development and opportunities to experience professional performances for all elementary and secondary students as well as teachers throughout the district. In 2009 the Culver City Unified School District embarked on an unprecedented theatre collaborative with professional theatre a
rts organizations, plus stakeholders from the CCUSD learning community including district and school leadership, parents, and funders. Carl Weintraub once called the collaboration a perfect storm. With school budgets globally being less able to support curriculum that lies outside the bounds of basic 3 R curriculum, it is the arts community itself that has stepped up to the task of assuring that our children get the supplemental knowledge that is so crucial to their formation as complete individuals. The idea is not to make actors out of all these kids but to broaden their educational base and offer them different ways of processing the learning that they are getting in the rest of the curriculum. The collaborative includes stakeholders from the Culver City Unified School District’s learning community, The Actors’ Gang, Center Theatre Group, We Tell Stories, Young Storytellers Foundation, 24th Street Theatre, The Culver City Education Foundation, the City of Culver City and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Additional support is provided by the Carol and James Collins Foundation, Playa Vista, The Drown Foundation, Fineshriber Family Foundation and Culver City PTA/Booster Clubs.
