OUR VISION

Nashville Children’s Theatre aims to be recognized as an accessible and inclusive haven empowering all young people in Middle Tennessee through cultural literacy and creative exploration.

OUR VALUES

Nashville Children's Theatre believes in the following enduring values:

• We acknowledge every young person’s creative and personal potential.

• We recognize the expressive and emotional power of the theatre.

• We practice mutual respect.

• We celebrate community.

• We embrace the unexpected.

• We exemplify leadership.

• We implement ingenuity.

• We maintain a playful sense of wonder.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Nashville Children's Theatre grieves the senseless and unjust killing of George Floyd, and countless others who lost their lives to injustice and police brutality. Black lives matter…and children need to be included in the conversation in order to make change in our theatre and the community.

We recognize that we play a vital role in shaping the narrative through the stories we tell to our young audiences. In our society, young people of color have been consistently underrepresented in content created for kids and families. While it is a key tenet of the mission and vision of the Nashville Children's Theatre to represent diverse audiences and expose all children to transformational theatrical experiences and cultural literacy, we want our audiences to be clear that we will redouble our efforts on our journey to lift up children of color.

We will invest in and champion more artists of color, reflect the diversity of our communities in our organizational staff and boards, and use the stage to demonstrate our values. Our young people deserve better than the world we are offering them, and it is our job to help rewrite the story.

WHO IS ONSTAGE?

Nashville Children's Theatre employs some of Nashville's finest professional adult actors on stage to bring the highest quality performances to student groups during weekday performances and to families on evening and weekend public performances.

Kids age 3 - 18 try on their own acting skills through NCT's Drama Classes, with older students performing in full-length student productions during the summer months.

HISTORY

In 1931 Nashville Children’s Theatre was formed by the Junior League of Nashville as an amateur theatre, opening with a production of “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp.”. At that time, the Junior League was fulfilling a commitment to establish children’s theatre in many U.S. cities. For years, NCT performed in numerous local landmarks, including Belcourt Theatre, and at Vanderbilt and Belmont Universities. In the late 50’s, Ann Stahlman Hill undertook the monumental task of creating a permanent home for NCT. Hill had designed sets and costumes for NCT and also served on the theatre’s board for years in the various positions of secretary, treasurer and president. She organized a collection of like-minded individuals, and with her leadership they petitioned legislatures, talked with families in the neighborhood, and persistently fundraised, until NCT had a home beside the Howard School building and Lindsley Hall, opening in 1960.

In the wake of Nashville’s desegregation of schools, NCT was asked to consider programming during school hours so that children could have a shared space to explore what they had in common. NCT’s volunteers decided to reinvent the institution as a professional company in order to serve that need. By the late eighties, it became obvious to the now professional theatre company that further reinvention was required to meet the needs of a family audience. That change called for a more ambitious approach to programming, and eventually, a reconfiguration of NCT's space to facilitate that programming. Aside from the addition of a scenery shop, a black-box theatre called the Ida Cooney Playhouse, and the rearranging of some office space, NCT’s building had remained much unchanged since its creation in 1960. 

In 2005, NCT launched its first-ever Capital Campaign to renovate and expand the theatre. Mayor Bill Purcell and the Metro Council were encouraging, providing leadership and support to NCT's efforts. Our Board of Trustees, lead by Capital Campaign co-chairs Monica Flynn-Urness and Julia Polk, (who both displayed the same passion and dedication that Ann Stahlman Hill had carried decades prior), rose to the challenge and raised more private money than anyone at NCT might have thought possible only a couple of years before. With those resources, we were able to redesign, reconfigure and expand our facility to make it possible for us to better serve the community. A renovated NCT was opened with a celebration in December of 2007.

NCT’s story is one of continual reinvention to meet the expanding needs of the community that it has consciously endeavored to help build.