Chautauqua Institution today announced The Roe Green Foundation has made a transformational $4.5 million commitment to advance the completion of the new Roe Green Theater Center, a state-of-the-art, centralized facility for Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC). This gift, which consists of a $3 million outright contribution and a $1.5 million matching challenge gift, comes after a long history of supporting theater arts at Chautauqua, including the New Play Workshop series. 

The new Roe Green Theater Center will complement Chautauqua’s beloved Bratton Theater, adding a black box/flexible space, rehearsal studios, offices for CTC leadership and other support spaces to ensure that CTC remains one of the nation’s leading accelerators of theater artists in the nation. It will replace the former Brawdy complex on the Chautauqua grounds and return CTC artists to a centralized space for theater creation versus the dispersed conditions that currently have Chautauqua’s artists rehearsing off the grounds and other areas not on its main campus. 

“Chautauqua Theater Company is extremely lucky to be among the many performing arts organizations Roe has supported,” Institution President Michael E. Hill, Ed.D. said. “Her commitment to supporting new work incubation is not only elevating the work we are doing here for Chautauqua’s audiences to enjoy, but it is also advancing the artform across the country and world. I am thankful for Roe’s friendship and know that our entire community is grateful for her astounding commitment and contributions to Chautauqua.” 

Chautauquan Roe Green is the CEO of The Roe Green Foundation, which she founded after her mother’s passing in 2003. Since then, she has used her philanthropic passion to make remarkable improvements to the cultural arts scenes in Cleveland and Kent, Ohio; Jupiter, Florida; and at Chautauqua. 

With bachelor’s degrees in theater and communications from the University of Colorado (CU), a master’s in theater and an honorary doctor of humane letters degrees from Kent State University, her experience in stage and business management includes Cain Park, the Cleveland Opera, and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. She is responsible for the Roe Green Visiting Director Series for the School of Theatre and Dance at Kent State and the University of Colorado, the Roe Green Theater at CU, and Green House, a domestic violence shelter in Geauga, Ohio. She is also sponsoring the construction of the new Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Roe Green Medical Education and Research Building in Kampala, Uganda. Green, an avid theatergoer and traveler to more than160 countries, was a competitive ballroom dancer for more than 12 years. She believes that “art is what makes us human. Art gives us our humanity — if people can’t create any longer, we’re in trouble.” 

She is the president emeritus of CAVORT, Inc., the Conference About Volunteers of Regional Theatres; a member of Kent State University School of Theatre and Dance Advisory Board; the foundation board of Kent State University; the board of Porthouse Theatre; the board of the Cleveland Play House; and the Governor’s International Council of the Shaw Festival in Canada. 

In November 2012, Green was recognized with the University of Colorado Alumni Recognition Award for, “her generosity of spirit, her allegiance to learning and her passionate advocacy for the arts.” In 2004, she established the Roe Green Visiting Theatre Artist Residency, which provides funds to annually bring to campus an accomplished theater professional to work alongside CU students. Green has also pledged $2 million to establish the Roe Green Endowed Chair in Theatre, the first endowed faculty position in the arts at CU Boulder. 

“What an honor it will be to have CTC’s artistic and creative home housed in the Roe Green Theater Center,” said CTC Producing Artistic Director Jade King Carroll. “While CTC will continue to have our beautiful and large performance space in Bratton Theater, we have not had our own usable rehearsal spaces since 2019, and we have never had the flexibility of an intimate black box theater. This gift and the new theater center will allow us to create deeper roots and to be an even more integral part of the American Theater. This new center will offer an artistic home for our conservatory and young theater makers learning and working alongside professionals and create a hub for audiences to see plays at every stage of development. Roe Green’s philanthropy inspires us all, and her matching gift doubles the impact of future donations, encouraging community support. The Foundation’s visionary gift sets a strong foundation for building future growth and forging new memories. My colleagues and I are elated for how this gift will allow CTC to grow and cannot thank Roe and the directors of the Foundation enough for this transformative gift!” 

Those interested in helping Chautauqua meet the dollar-for-dollar match to realize the $1.5 million challenge should contact Amy Gardner at agardner@chq.org or 716-357-6393. 

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA THEATER COMPANY
Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC) produces high-quality, live theater in a vibrant nine-week summer season. We are committed to the development of new work, the next generation of theater artists, producing galvanizing world premieres as well as exceptional modern and contemporary plays, and infusing fresh insight into the classical canon. CTC is dedicated to becoming a national home for exciting new plays: commissioning, developing and producing new and established American playwrights. We are where the finest artists of tomorrow bridge the gap between their training and the professional world. CTC is actively building the future of the American theater.

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION
Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a nine-week season, and a total of more than 100,000 attend scheduled public events and even more engage online via the streaming channel CHQ Assembly. Chautauqua is dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through a program that explores the important religious, social and political issues of our times; stimulates provocative, thoughtful involvement of individuals and families in creative response to such issues; and promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance and teaching of the arts. The Institution launched its 150th Summer Assembly June 24, 2023, and celebrates its Sesquicentennial in 2024. 

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