The Future Fund for EST
A multi-year campaign as we celebrate our 55th anniversary!
A year into our job as Co-Artistic Directors, we get to walk into work every day and experience EST – crowded, noisy, alive. Performances, rehearsals, gatherings, in every nook and cranny. Art and creation and community, everywhere you look.
It’s a joyful thing to see, and a testament to how much the EST community can do with very little. That indomitable spirit built a beautiful foundation for the theatre’s first 55 years, thanks to the hard work and imagination of our artists, staff, and audiences.
We have enormous hopes for EST’s future, both immediate and long-term (including the long-cherished dream of a new, accessible theatre on the ground floor of our building). To get there, first we need to meet the realities we face today: rising costs and fair wages, the importance of centering equity and justice, and the investments needed for true hospitality and care. We need to strengthen the foundation of the work we do, to reach a place where EST is doing more than just getting by.
We are excited to launch The Future Fund for EST - a multi-year campaign to help secure this foundation.
With your support, we will:
Cultivate the artistic growth of the member artists and programs of the company
A key part of EST’s unique identity is its 600-strong Membership - playwrights, directors, actors, designers, and more. We are committed to supporting these exceptional artists (current AND future!) throughout their careers by creating opportunities for exchange and learning, building community, and supporting their artistic development.
Invest in our audiences through partnerships and community engagement.
We put a lot into developing the work we present on the EST stage. We're determined to invest just as deeply in the invitation to our audiences, the other key scene partner in our work. In our first year, that's meant hiring a Community Engagement Manager to spearhead efforts like community nights, post-show events, and sustained follow-up. It will take time and resources, but we've seen already from the response to these first efforts that it's the surest way to grow EST's world.
Build staff capacity and infrastructure to better support artists and their individual processes.
The EST staff is small but mighty, supporting the development of new work at all stages, and aiming to create a personalized approach for each process. We are committed to supporting them in doing this work, by hiring more positions to spread the workload, raising salaries to meet the NYC living wage, and investing resources into evolving our processes and systems, centering anti-racist practices.
Upgrade the experience of physically being at EST for all who come through our doors.
A necessary step for our plan is some key improvements to the EST space, where we all work every day – basic elements like floors, chairs, wiring - to ensure a safe, accessible and welcoming theatre. That’s the stability that EST and the people who fill it need and deserve. It’s the solid ground we need to build the future.
Your support is how we get there.
We have already raised $50,000 towards the Future Fund, and thanks to a donation from our Board Chair, we have a $25,000 1:1 match now through 6/30. We hope you will consider making a contribution and join us in kicking off EST’s future.
Donating online is the easiest and fastest way for you to support EST, but if you prefer to donate by mail, please use our secure post office box:
Ensemble Studio Theatre
P.O. Box 1584
New York, NY 10101
If you have any questions about making a gift, please contact developmentmanager@estnyc.org.
Good To Know: If you or someone you know is over the age of 70 ½ and has an individual retirement account (IRA), you can take advantage of the significant tax benefits associated with making a rollover gift to a non-profit like EST.
Hear more about your effect from those who directly benefit: the artists.
