For Immediate Release                            Media Contact: Liz Conway, Board of Directors Chair

August 22, 2019                                      info@talespinnerchildrenstheatre.org

(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.

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.