New York, NY – The Stella Adler Studio of Acting has been awarded $150,000 by the prestigious Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation to create the Bob Hope Scholars Program at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. The funds will support the creation of scholarships for 50 students a year over the next three years to study with Adler Youth and Summer Shakespeare, two programs under the Studio’s Outreach Division.
“Bob Hope, legendary comedian, entertainer, humanitarian and American patriot, immigrated to America from England in the early 1900s, where he passed through Ellis Island with his mother and five brothers to join his father in Cleveland. From these humble beginnings, with a lot of hard work and perseverance, in the ‘Land of Opportunity,’ his ‘American Dream’ grew into becoming a reality.” said Tony Montalto, Executive Director, Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation. “This grant is in keeping with Bob and Dolores’ legacy in the ‘hope’ that it may inspire youth of today from similar backgrounds to experience the joys of the theater, now and beyond.”
“We are so honored and grateful to receive the support of the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation,” said Tom Oppenheim, Artistic Director, Stella Adler Studio of Acting. “This grant will allow us to continue to provide ambitious, talented youth in under-served communities with the opportunity to study the craft of theater and bring arts to the greater community.”
The Stella Adler Outreach Division has served nearly 5,000 people since its inception in 2004. Outreach currently reaches 1,500 students through 12 different programs, including Adler Youth and Summer Shakespeare. Adler Youth, an after-school program for high school students living at or below the poverty line, is a rigorous two-year program that mirrors the standards of the Studio’s professional conservatory programming. The students study the craft of acting, including classes in technique, voice/speech, physical acting, improvisation and Shakespeare. The curriculum includes a semester of each of the following: poetry and movement, great contemporary playwrights, Shakespeare scene study and the rehearsal and performance of a Shakespeare play.
Summer Shakespeare, a five-week intensive program for inner-city teens living at or below the poverty level, offers classes in voice and speech, physical acting, improvisation and scene study. The program culminates each year in an abbreviated performance by the students of a Shakespeare classic such as Romeo and Juliet or Julius Caesar.
The Stella Adler Studio of Acting was founded in 1949 on the principle that growth as an actor and growth as a human being are synonymous. The mission of the Studio is to create an environment that nurtures theater artists and audiences so that they value humanity, their own and others, as their first priority while providing art and education to the greater community. The Stella Adler Studio of Acting’s Outreach Division works with numerous under-served populations including inner-city students, drug and rehabilitation centers and inmates on Rikers Island.