[NEohioPAL] TCT Founder to Step Down at End of 2019 Season

[Media]

 For Immediate Release                            Media Contact: Liz
Conway, Board of Directors Chair
August 22, 2019
info at talespinnerchildrenstheatre.org


*TCT FOUNDER ALISON GARRIGAN TO STEP DOWN FROM *
*EXECUTIVE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR POSITION AT THE END OF 2019 SEASON*

(Cleveland, OH) Talespinner Children’s Theatre Board of Directors Chair Liz
Conway announced today that Founder and Executive Artistic Director Alison
Garrigan will step down from her executive leadership position with the
eight-year-old organization in December 2019.

Garrigan, well-known within the Greater Cleveland theatre community as a
multifaceted artist, founded Talespinner Children’s Theatre (TCT) in 2011.
In its inaugural season, the professional company produced two world
premiere plays exclusively designed and developed for children. The
organization quickly earned a strong local and regional reputation for
producing high-quality, intelligent and inclusive original works that
provide young audiences and their families with a passport to other lands
and cultures. Garrigan’s whimsical puppetry have been highlights in each
TCT production since inception. Under Garrigan’s brave leadership TCT
expanded its theatrical programming to five mainstage productions,
groundbreaking world premiere plays, a unique program for playwrights,
creative classes and workshops, residencies for schools and family centers,
and a flexible Pay-What-You-Can policy. In 2019, TCT secured a two-year
grant from The Cleveland Foundation as well as additional funding from
Cuyahoga Arts & Culture to create the TCT Exceptional Inclusion (EI)
program. This generous financial support has allowed TCT to add four new
uniquely designed productions to the mainstage season for young people and
adults living with disabilities, thereby making theatre accessible to all.

Board of Directors Chair Liz Conway says, “We are so grateful to Ali for
giving life to this incredible theatre. Over the past nine years, it was
her vision, her passion and her devotion which has made Talespinner the
vital community resource it is today, opening up the world to children and
families throughout the region.” Conway continues, “Our community is a
better place because of her compassion and leadership. We look to honor her
dedication by continuing to provide creative, joyful and accessible arts
programming to families throughout Northeast Ohio for the next decade to
come."

Garrigan bows out of her leadership position with the company in December
2019 and will redirect her focus on her family. She will remain an active
member of TCT’s talented company of artists, lending her unmatched artistic
and creative abilities to production design and direction whenever
possible. Garrigan also looks forward to continuing her artistic work
within the Northeast Ohio theatre community as a professional freelance
artist.

Garrigan says, “TCT is a strong, vibrant, magical place that has grown and
thrived unbelievably for nearly nine years. I am excited to see what it
creates and becomes.” Additionally she adds, “I am forever grateful and I
am still in awe of the support we have received from the very beginning. We
are so proud to be a part of this community.”

The TCT Board of Directors will begin a search for Garrigan’s successor in
September 2019 and will secure a qualified candidate by November 2019.

*ABOUT TALESPINNER CHILDREN’S THEATRE*
Talespinner Children's Theatre is a Cleveland-based company that develops
and produces highly imaginative, original, collaborative and interactive
professional works for children that also stimulate creative growth in its
artists. TCT's aim is to bring theatre to the community in its fullest form
providing excitement, growth and joy for all who are involved in and/or
touched by its work. TCT strives to reach across socio-economic, cultural
and traditional boundaries to help awaken and bring better understanding by
opening eyes, ears, hearts and imaginations in the young people (and
artists) of Cleveland and its surrounds. TCT creates work that remembers
that children are smaller people, not lesser people.
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