ETC's Artist Statement
Eckerd Theater Company, Ruth Eckerd Hall’s professional theater company, creates excellent theatrical experiences for its immediate and extended community which surprise, delight, awe and entertain. ETC introduces new audiences to the unique experience of live theater and creates work that affirms the value of the individual and the beauty of the human spirit. ETC aspires to ignite the creative spark in young people and to inspire audiences of all ages to a greater understanding of the human condition. The Company strives to make a personal and individual impact on every person it encounters, instilling respect for the theatrical profession and an appreciation for the unique communication and relationship between actor and audience.

ABOUT ECKERD THEATER COMPANY
NATIONAL TOURING COMPANY FOR YOUTH AND FAMILY AUDIENCES
At The Marcia P. Hoffman Performing Arts Institute at Ruth Eckerd Hall

Eckerd Theater Company (ETC) is the professional theater company of Ruth Eckerd Hall, performing both in residence and on tour throughout the eastern United States and as far north as Canada. A team of professional artists, educators and administrators under the umbrella of the Marcia P. Hoffman Performing Arts Institute, the education center for Ruth Eckerd Hall, ETC seeks to provide the finest in performance and arts education experiences to family audiences of all ages.

Since 1988, Eckerd Theater Company has been a proud ambassador of Ruth Eckerd Hall, creating professional productions of original works, adaptations of classic literature and the finest of published scripts for the theater. ETC productions entertain while they explore such themes as diversity, multiculturalism, self-worth, loyalty and tolerance. Eckerd Theater Company has performed for more than a million young people and their families.

ETC began touring the state of Florida in 1991 and national touring began in 1993. Since 1996, the company has been on the Florida Arts on Tour roster, a state program providing funds to allow productions to travel to remote and underserved parts of the state. In 2005, an NEA grant allowed ETC to perform in Highlands County communities which had been devastated by three hurricanes. The following year, Tampa Bay area philanthropists provided funds for a post-Katrina tour to the children of Biloxi, MS.

In 1998, Julia Flood took the reins as ETC Artistic Director. In 1999, a State of Florida Challenge grant provided funds for The Florida Project, a collaborative process bringing national and Florida theater artists and educators together to develop a new theater-for-young-audiences play about the south. ETC’s commitment to creating new and challenging works for family audiences has resulted in many world premiere performances commissioned specifically for Eckerd Theater Company including The Snow Queen, by ETC Artistic Director Julia Flood and Tampa composer Lee Ahlin, published by Eldridge Publishing, Vote?, about the history of voting rights in America by award-winning playwright Eric Coble, and Battledrum, a musical about Civil War drummer boys by award-winning playwright and novelist Doug Cooney and composer Lee Ahlin, both recently published by Dramatic Publishing, Inc., and The Great Alphabet Adventure by Julia Flood, published in 2010 by Anchorage Press Plays.

ETC has commissioned, developed and premiered 35 new plays and launched the professional careers of dozens of Florida actors, writers, directors and teaching artists.