A new partnership with the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation will support TNB Young Company’s fundraising efforts, matching up to $20,000 in donations for the next three seasons.

(Fredericton, NB) Theatre New Brunswick is pleased to announce a new partnership between the TNB Young Company and the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation. Under this new agreement, the BCF will provide up to $20,000 a year for three years, to match all donations made in support of the TNB Young Company.

This generous financial boost arrives just in time to support TNB Young Company’s first online season. Faced with the inability to tour New Brunswick schools this coming winter, Theatre New Brunswick’s Young Company will introduce a new digital initiative in January aimed at teaming middle and high school students with young actors and playwrights to create a new work of theatre. Starting in early 2021, TNB Young Company artists will begin collaborating on two new initiatives: a student-led collaborative writing process and the creation of new theatre resources for New Brunswick teachers.

“It’s certainly an unusual year for us,” said TNB Artistic Director Natasha MacLellan. “Once we came to the conclusion that our Young Company would not be allowed to tour, we started working on creating new ways to engage with students on a digital level. If this past year has taught us anything, it’s that we shouldn’t feel bound by tradition. In the case of TNB Young Company, if we can’t bring theatre into schools through physical performances, engaging online is the next best thing.”

Theatre New Brunswick’s Young Company was founded in 1974 through a generous grant from the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation. Over the past 45 years, the Company has grown to become an important training ground for emerging artists and recent theatre school graduates who work to bring live professionally produced theatre to children in schools across the province each year.

Through our regular touring shows for elementary, middle and high school students, the TNB Young Company has now provided more than half a million New Brunswick students with their first exposure to live theatre, an incredible accomplishment by any standard. Over the years, TNB Young Company has always remained true to its founding mission by continuing to share theatre’s joy, magic and imagination with the children of our province.

All donations received before December 31, 2020 will be matched by the BCF in support of the company’s 2021 programming. Donations can be made online through Canada Helps, in-person at the TNB office or by mail to Theatre New Brunswick, 55 Whiting Road, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5Y5.