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NTC Launches into Australia

Announcement posted by NTC Australia 15 Nov 2013

Social Entrepreneurs on Opposite Sides of the World Join Forces

(15 November, 2013) – The U.S. company ‘The National Theatre for Children’ (NTC) is partnering with Australia’s Echelon Productions 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 programmes 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 corporate organisations that want to be associated with delivering responsible healthy-living messages into their communities.

 

“It’s a 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 programmes 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 programmes to Australian and New Zealand schools over the last 15 years.  Now, we can take those same types of programmes – teaching energy efficiency, health & nutrition, environmental stewardship, financial literacy, and so on – into schools at no cost to them because it’s being financed by corporate sponsors.”

 

NTC Australia will be a mutually owned company.  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, educational games, curriculum, digital and online resources etc.). Together, they will work with 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 programmes 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, financial literacy, health and nutrition and environmental literacy, among others.  Originally focused on delivering its programmes via live theatre, NTC is now an educational content provider whose repertoire includes print curriculum, digital classroom games and multiplatform educational media.  NTC troupes perform approximately 7,000 times a year throughout the U.S., actively engaging 2.8 million students and parents. 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:                             www.ntccorporate.com.au