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Major Grant Brings Newington Children’s Theatre Company Closer to Its Own Stage
December 8, 2024
Newington’s legislative delegation – Sen. Matt Lesser, Rep. Gary Turco, and Rep. Kate Farrar – has delivered a $300,000 grant to help the Newington Children’s Theatre Company, Connecticut’s longest-running nonprofit children’s theater program, build its own performance space.
First announced in May along with funding for the town of Newington and the Deming-Young Farm Foundation, the grant for NCTC comes from $372.5 million in unspent funding the state had left under the American Rescue Plan Act, allocated for investments in organizations and municipalities throughout Connecticut.
“Newington Children's Theater Company has been an institution for decades, and provides an outstanding experience for area children,” Sen. Lesser says. “It’s truly rewarding to see how these resources are bringing creativity, education, and joy to young minds, and I look forward to seeing the continued impact they’ll have on the community."
“NCTC is a treasure for our youth, and these capital improvements will allow them to educate and entertain for many years to come,” Rep. Turco says.
“Residents of all ages in Newington and across the region will benefit from the Newington Children’s Theatre Company improvements,” Rep. Farrar says. “I’m proud to work as a team with Senator Lesser and Representative Turco to deliver for our community.”
NCTC relocated from North Mountain Road to 136 Day St. in 2020, shortly after the pandemic had shut down its operations. Since resuming regular live performances in the summer of 2021, NCTC has been performing off-site, in most cases, renting the auditorium at John Wallace Middle School.
“We are enormously grateful to Senator Lesser, Representative Farrar and Representative Turco for their advocacy and recognition of NCTC’s value to the community,” says Chris DeFrancesco, NCTC’s board president. “When we moved four years ago, out of space we had outgrown years earlier, the plan was to raise money to add to our savings and start building a performance venue of our own. But that plan never got off the ground because of the pandemic, and like many organizations, we had to switch to survival mode.”
“Now, thanks to Senator Lesser and Representatives Farrar and Turco – and also of course to our amazing Executive/Artistic Director Claire Van Cott, Assistant Director Shae Killoh, the extraordinary volunteers who serve or have served on this board with me, and the other extraordinary volunteers who have helped us along the way – we are getting closer to realizing our dream of having our own stage again.”
“We have shown tremendous growth since coming out of COVID, but the limitations of our physical space have been stifling,” Van Cott says. “This support from the state will go such a long way toward getting us back to having a performance space of our own, one that accommodates how far we’ve come and how much further we’ll be able to go. Theater brings so much joy to children, while cleverly sneaking in important life lessons about responsibility, teamwork, discipline and building self-confidence.”
Programs run year-round for children aged 5 to 19. Visit www.nctcarts.org for more information about the Newington Children’s Theatre Company, including tickets, upcoming productions, and how to support the theater by volunteering, sponsoring, or donating. You can also follow NCTC on Facebook at @NCTCArts and Instagram at @nctcarts.