Inner-City Youth: Access to Outstanding Professional Theatre

Shadow Theatre has been building a youth outreach program since 2024, offering professionally produced live theatre to local school groups, from junior high to post-secondary, at significantly reduced admission rates.

We want to continue this valuable program without increasing costs to participating schools, but we have hit a crossroads in our ability to fund it. 

The regular price of a Shadow Theatre student ticket is $25; however, through this program, we’ve been inviting school groups to attend for $12 a ticket. Despite a loss of revenue from last season of $7,308 from this initiative, we believe this is a valuable educational experience that is worth trying to save, as theatre plays a role in a well-rounded education. 

With cuts to education funding, we’ve discovered that local schools want to attend, but even with the $12 ticket price cost is still an issue. This is especially true for inner city schools that have very little extra funding for activities outside of the school walls. Last year, we further subsidized some of those groups by charging for only a portion of the actual attendees or allowing an entire group to attend 100% free of charge. Though we wish we could deliver free theatre to interested schools, we are no longer able to carry this financially. 

This season, we are producing two plays that present outstanding educational opportunities: The Revolutionists, a comedic portrayal of four brilliant women who lose their heads during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, including Marie Antoinette, and An Iliad, the modern-day telling of Homer’s classic, a treatise on Greek mythology and the tragedy of war. Students of literature, history, and drama will be enthralled.

The inner city schools we had in last season have expressed a strong interest in attending. However, due to the rising costs in producing, we are unable to accommodate them without charging the already reduced rate of $12 a ticket.   

Support from Field Law would help us bring live professional theatre to underprivileged students at no cost to them. As such, we are requesting $6,500 for the 2025-26 season, which would enable us to offer performances to both productions to any school that expresses an interest but can’t manage the $12 ticket fee.

Since launching our school matinee program in 2023–24, Shadow Theatre has engaged 19 school groups across three productions, building a strong foundation for youth outreach. In 2024–25, we expanded the program with The Two Battles of Francis Pegahmagabow and After Mourning, Before Van Gogh, seeing increased interest from schools, more bookings, and greater student participation. This growth affirms our commitment to making professional theatre accessible to young audiences and to expanding the program in future seasons.

Interest continues to grow - but our funding is not keeping pace.

The benefits of accessible arts and culture to younger people are vast. 

They include:
-Increased Access to Culture: Students from all backgrounds, regardless of income, can experience live theatre as part of their community’s cultural life. 

-Shared Cultural Literacy: More young people are exposed to the same stories, ideas, and art, strengthening collective understanding and conversation within the community.

-Youth Empowerment: Theatre offers students new perspectives and role models, helping them see themselves reflected on stage and expanding their sense of possibility.

-Civic Engagement: Early access to theatre fosters empathy and critical thinking, helping to develop more engaged, thoughtful citizens.

-Equity and Inclusion: Reducing financial barriers ensures that cultural participation isn’t limited to privileged groups, making the arts a shared community resource.

Tickets will be available at reduced or no cost, depending on the school’s means. The theatre will offer talk-back sessions following the performances. Teachers who have experienced this program have led discussions in the classroom following the field trip and expounded on the impact of the experience on their students.

For many of these students, this is their first live theatre experience; we are not only providing a show - we are offering a glimpse into a world that will inspire many of these youth in their future careers. We are also demonstrating that Edmonton’s theatre scene is a valuable and worthwhile outing for audiences of any age. The arts community itself will benefit from the exposure of new theatre-goers who have attended outstanding professional live theatre in their youth.