With support from the California Arts Council, Lower Bottom Playaz will maintain its Oakland venue and produce a 22nd theater season, train community members in stagecraft, employ actors and continue service to underserved communities. CAC funding will allow us to team-build and focus on creating infrastructure that supports sustainability.
Summer Theater Day Camp (founded 2007): Offers enrichment programming to underserved youth ages 5-18. Employs an original curriculum that focuses on literacy through the arts. Hires troupe members and community youth as instructors. Ends in free community performance.
New Works: An open reading period for new work by playwrights of color.
● Works in Development: Selected New Works go into an extended development process providing playwrights with dramaturgical support, script refinement, a public reading process and production.
● Reading Theater Salons: Curated groups are invited to ‘adopt’ Works in Development, follow the work’s progress, attend readings, offer feedback and act as supporters/advocates.
BAMBDFEST: An annual month long multi-venue arts and culture festival produced in collaboration with the Black Arts Movement Business District Community Development Corporation (BAMBD CDC).
SEASON OFFERINGS: A minimum of two mainstage productions per annual season.
● Free in the zip: Set aside tickets for specific zip codes considering the reality of turfed communities. Connects participation and outreach to specific neighborhoods and populations, creates safe passage, and removes barriers of inter-group conflict and lack of disposable income.
● Community Based Organization Deep Discount Targeted Groups: Target and develop specific pools of audience – i.e., women, girls, homeless, formerly incarcerated – to remove barriers of inclusion and price.
● Off Season: Tour mainstage work locally in community and college circuits and annual community festivals.
*Janga’s House: A three year program to nurture Black Female playwrights, recognizing their marginalization within the industry. Seeks to offer resources in a targeted fashion that allow for the creation and production of theater works by Black Women.