About
Imagination Stage is the largest and most respected multi-disciplinary theatre arts organization for young people in the Mid-Atlantic region. We offer a year-round season of professional shows (adult actors performing for families and classes), after-school programs and summer camps for ages 1-18, and arts-integration professional development training for teachers, students, schools and families. All of our programs are informed by our core belief in making the arts inclusive and accessible to all children, regardless of their physical, cognitive or financial status.
Mission
Imagination Stage produces theatre and arts education programs which nurture, challenge, and empower young people of all abilities.
Vision
Imagination Stage envisions a future where theatre experiences are a fundamental aspect of children's lives, nourishing their creative spirit, inspiring them to embrace the complexity and diversity of their world and helping them overcome their challenges with hope, courage and, above all, creativity.
Background
Imagination Stage was founded as BAPA (Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts) in 1979 in response to the urgent need for arts education for young people. The company was renamed Imagination Stage in 2001 in anticipation of its move to its downtown Bethesda theatre arts center in 2003. Imagination Stage has grown from a handful of children in a single classroom to a full-spectrum theatre arts organization, with theatre productions by professional actors and artists. Unlike most children's theatre companies, Imagination Stage commissions two new works for children every year. These productions have been recognized with productions by other companies around the world.
Imagination Stage's education program includes the nationally recognized arts integration residencies and professional development model: Imagination Quest, expansive after school education programs based in a unique pedagogy expanding from the multiple intelligences theory of Howard Gardner, and nationally-acclaimed programs for children with disabilities.
Brief History of Highlights
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2009
Bonnie Fogel recognized as a top woman entrepreneur by Washington Business Journal.Imagination Stage celebrates 30 years of "serious fun!"
Jim and Carol Trawick donate $2,500,000 to Imagination Stage to fund the arts center.
Imagination Stage is selected to participate in the New Generations Program. The grant will allow Imagination Stage to expand it's programming that engages children ages 2-4. In addition to professional productions and storytelling, Imagination Stage will create intimate participatory plays and installations for this age group. -
2008
Bonnie Fogel recognized as a top woman entrepreneur by Washington Business Journal.
Imagination Stage becomes one of five organizations across the country to partner with Kids Included Together in order to become a model institution for inclusion and a training site for the future. -
2007
Imagination Stage recognized by INC Magazine as one of the top 50 fastest growing small companies in the USA.
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2005
Imagination Stage receives two Helen Hayes Award nominations, including a nomination for Charles Way, writer of Merlin and the Cave of Dreams for the prestigious "Charles MacArthur Award for Best New Play or Musical."
Imagination Stage Founder and Executive Director, Bonnie Fogel, is named a "Montgomery College Arts Star."
U.S. Department of Education awards the Deaf Access Program a third consecutive grant, this one in the amount of $330,000.
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2004
Imagination Stage Founder and Executive Director, Bonnie Fogel, is named a "Washingtonian of the Year" by the Washingtonian Magazine.
AccessAbility Theatre Program is awarded a $278,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Education.
Imagination Stage receives its first-ever Helen Hayes Award nomination when Toni Rae Brotons is nominated for her performance in Junie B. Jones & a Little Monkey Business.
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2002
The Deaf Access program is awarded the 2001 VSA Arts/MetLife Cultural Access Award and is featured in Best Practices for Innovation in the Arts published in spring 2002.
The U.S. Department of Education commissions a paper on the IQ professional development initiative for teachers.
Construction begins on Imagination Stage in downtown Bethesda.
Strange Intelligence, the third play in the biotechnology series, is piloted in area high schools.
Working Wings!, an advocacy play focusing on issues faced by the employable disabled, is presented on Capitol Hill by the Wings Company of the AccessAbility Theatre program.
Dreams to Sign, a book chronicling the development of the Deaf Access Company, published and available in a book/video package.
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1997
The Maryland State Department of Education awards a contract to provide professional development training in Maryland schools and to keynote MSDE's Summer Institute of Arts Integration Practices.
Biotech initiative is started and BAPA commissions The Cutting Edge, a play which focuses on the issues surrounding genetic testing, The Cutting Edge begins touring regional high schools and other community venues.
BAPA awarded the Lockheed Martin Award for Excellence in Arts Education.
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1995
Deaf Access Company featured on CNN "Headline News" and in The Washington Post.
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1993
Woodbine House Press publishes Wings to Fly: Bringing Theatre Arts to Children with Special Needs, a book written by BAPA staff.
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1992
Imagination Stage professional children's theatre opens at White Flint Mall.
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1989
Deaf Access Program is started for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
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1987
Arts Access program is started for children with physical and/or cognitive disabilities.
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1985
BAPA begins offering summer programs at American University, Washington, DC.
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1979
Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts (BAPA) is founded and 17 children enroll in the first class.
Imagination Stage is a 501(C)(3) not-for-profit, tax-exempt, cultural and educational organization which does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic or national group, gender or disability.
Summer Camps
