Known for its exemplary artistic standards and national role in creating significant theatrical works, the Alliance has premiered more than 100 original productions, professionally launching important American musicals with a strong track record of Broadway, touring and subsequent productions, including the Tony Award winners The Color Purple, based on the novel by Alice Walker; Aida by Elton John and Tim Rice; and Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Recent musical premieres include Sister Act: The Musical, Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away, Bring It On: The Musical, Stephen King and John Mellencamp’s Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, Harmony – A New Musical by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman, Tuck Everlasting, Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story, The Prom and, most recently, Janece Shaffer and Kristian Bush’s Troubadour.
The Alliance also creates and nurtures the careers of emerging writers through the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, producing the world premiere for the competition winner as part of the regular season. The Alliance is deeply committed to Atlanta artists, showcasing locally based artists on a nationally watched stage, and sustaining Atlanta’s artistic community through the Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab, providing developmental support and production resources for an annual roster of locally sourced performance projects.
The Alliance’s dedication to providing access to the arts is reflected in its commitment to creating new work for all ages, and to bringing that work into classrooms and communities across Atlanta and throughout the region. More than 80,000 students each year experience age-specific professional performances and participate in acting classes, drama camps and in-school initiatives through the Alliance Theatre Acting Program and Education Department. The Alliance’s groundbreaking Kathy and Ken Bernhardt Theatre for the Very Young performances offer professionally produced, fully interactive theater for infants and toddlers; the Palefsky Collision Project invites high school artists to create and perform new civic-minded theater based on a classic text; and community acting classes and skill-building workshops engage professional artists, young actors, business leaders and curious learners of all ages. Twice recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for leadership in arts education, the Alliance Theatre Institute equips classroom teachers with theatrical techniques that link directly to school curriculum and have been empirically proven to improve student learning.
