Incite/Insight Spring-Summer 2019 Incite_Insight—Spring_Summer 2019 Final | Page 8

An Exit
Interview with the
Godmother of
Theatre for the
Very Young
Rosemary Newcott, The Sally G.
Tomlinson Artistic Director of Theatre
for Youth & Families at the Alliance
Theatre in Atlanta, is retiring at the end
of this theatrical season. Incite/Insight
spoke with this visionary of the regional
theatre about her career.
The Alliance has become a center for
the development of Theatre for the
Very Young (TVY). How did the theatre
find this passion?
Early in my 20-year stint as Alliance
Artistic Director of Theatre for Youth and
Families, I received a travel grant. Part
of that grant took me to an international
children’s theatre festival in South
Korea. There, I saw highly-immersive
theatre from all over the world that was
designed to be performed for the very
young and their caregivers. This exciting
exposure—plus encouragement from
both Kim Peter Kovac at the Kennedy
Center and Carol Jones, then Director
of the Alliance Institute for Educators—
prompted me to include a request for
funding for Theatre for the Very Young in
a Goizueta Education grant.
We received the grant, and the work
exceeded all my expectations in terms
of its unique ability to engage young
ones in a truly transformative creative
experience—and provide caregivers
with the opportunity to see their children
captivated in surprising and artful ways.
It also fits perfectly into the Alliance’s
mission to serve all members of the
community.
INCITE/INSIGHT 8
WRITTEN BY ALEX ATES
“My advice is to find
brilliant like-minds.
They will inspire others.”
– Rosemary Newcott