- Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21)
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Collaborative Arts Project 21, known more commonly as CAP21, is a New York City professional musical theatre training conservatory and Off-Broadway theatre company. It has a large faculty and student body. The conservatory has produced multiple Broadway performers, as well as actors in off-Broadway, regional, and international theatre, television, film, and other performance media.
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Mission
CAP21 is dedicated to creating new work, developing new talent and building new audiences. CAP21 replenishes the American musical theatre by training the next generation of performers and infusing the entertainment industry at large with talent and source material. The goal is to create programs that achieve substantial and lasting contributions to the future of the arts.
Every CAP21 endeavor embraces the following values:
- Collaboration and exchange between emerging and accomplished artists
- A nurturing support system
- An infusion of the traditional with the innovative
- A commitment to serving and cultivating a diverse audience
History
As a producing organization, CAP21 began in 1994 and continues to provide programming for new works for production at CAP21 or to move on and be produced at venues in New York and around the country. Each season, three new works are produced for a two-week “work in progress” run. In addition CAP21 works in development with twenty new musicals and plays providing public and in-house readings. CAP21’s season features diverse offerings of new and classic plays and musicals for a multi-generational audience of more than 3,800 people from the greater New York metropolitan area. Nearly 200 theatre artists are engaged each year to create and present new and classic work.
The CAP21 Conservatory provides an in-depth actor training program specializing in musical theatre performance. The school, which began in 1994, is now an internationally recognized musical theatre conservatory. Currently, through its various programs, the Conservatory annually trains over 400 emerging performers who come from all over the United States and internationally.
Theatre company
CAP21’s professional theatre company began in 1994 with the Blackjacks Festival which showcased artists and new work to the theatre community. This Festival solidified CAP21 as a producer and launched its new works development wing which now includes readings, workshops, and professional performances. After nine Festivals, it was decided to allocate resources and talent to fully produce pieces that were initiated at CAP21 for the public as the next logical step in the developmental process. The Monday Night Reading Series was launched to take an initial look at new work and present classic plays and musicals. The classics provide an opportunity for actors to learn some of the great pieces from the canon and audiences to hear the language and the music.
Since 1994, over 190 new musicals and plays by more than 230 writers have been presented to the public and the industry through readings and productions. CAP21 provides a forum for shows to go on to subsequent productions and twenty percent have transferred to venues in New York and nationwide such as The Public Theatre, Theatre for the New City, The Goodspeed Opera House, Trenton’s Passage Theatre and LA’s Tiffany Theatre.
Conservatory programs
- 2 Year Professional Program
- Industry Practicum Showcase
- Summer Professional Program
- Summer Pre College Program
- High School Intensive Program
Notable alumni
Since 1995 over 85 CAP21 alums have been cast in more than 90 different Broadway shows. In addition hundreds of alumni have been in national and international tours, regional theatre productions across the country, television and film.
- Bradford Anderson
- Kristen Bell
- Justin Blanchard
- Natalie Cortez
- Anne Hathaway
- Jaime Lee Kirchner
- Lady Gaga
- Matthew Morrison
- Bobby Steggert
External links
Categories:- Theatre companies in New York
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