NTC Now Spans the Globe: Social Entrepreneurs on Opposite Sides of the World Join Forces to Do Well by Doing Good
Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) October 17, 2013 -- The National Theatre for Children (NTC) is partnering with Australia’s Echelon Productions -- two social entrepreneurs -- to create NTC Australia, a company whose mission is to make a real difference in the lives of students, their parents and teachers. Based in Melbourne, Australia, the new business will take live, educational theatre programs into schools – including professional actors, sets, props, costumes, digital and print curriculum – and provide all services at no charge to individual schools. The costs are completely covered by sponsoring organizations that want to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility by delivering healthy-living messages into their communities.
“It’s a truly unique business model that we have developed during our 35-plus years of business in the United States,” says Ward Eames, founder and president of NTC. “We’ve become the largest touring educational theatre company in the country by providing unique educational programs to schools – completely free. It’s a classic example of ‘doing well by doing good,’” Tobias Benn, Managing Director and CEO of NTC Australia agrees. “I’ve built our existing business by bringing educational ‘school pay’ theatre programs to Australian schools over many years. Now, we can take those same types of programs – teaching wise energy use, environmental stewardship, financial literacy, and so on – into schools at no cost to them because it’s being financed by sponsors. Yet it still provides a solid revenue stream.”
NTC Australia will be a mutually owned partnership. The terms of the deal include an investment of cash from both parties. In addition, the Australian group will provide production and touring expertise, as well as specific knowledge about the country’s schools and corporate market place. The U.S. group will provide its corporate marketing expertise, and license NTC’s vast array of intellectual properties (titles, scripts, characters, games, curriculum, etc.). Together, they will solicit corporate, governmental and non-profit sponsors who want to deliver important healthy-living messages to students and families, and demonstrate their corporate social responsibility to the communities they serve.
Over the next three years, NTC Australia’s objective is to reach over four million school-age students and parents throughout Australia with at least one program in health, financial literacy, science, environment or energy education.
About The National Theatre for Children (NTC)
In 1978, NTC dedicated itself to delivering entertaining and highly educational programs to positively motivate families, students and educators throughout the United States. We inspire young people – and their families – to explore important and timely curricular subjects including: wise energy use, STEM, financial literacy, health and nutrition and environmental literacy, among others. Originally focused on delivering its programs via live theatre, NTC is now an educational content provider whose repertoire includes print curriculum, digital classroom games and multiplatform educational media. We have developed the art of teaching through educational theatre into a science of its own, and are currently the largest in-school touring educational production company in the world: http://www.ntccorporate.com
###
Bob Beverage, National Theatre For Children, http://www.nationaltheatre.com, 612-677-2811, [email protected]
Share this article