Childsplay Timeline
1977 - Childsplay name coined at a company potluck
1977 - Childsplay founded by Artistic Director David Saar as a nonprofit professional touring theatre, performs its first play Sense and Nonsense during the year for 6,000 children at such places as the Phoenix Zoo
1980 - Move to first formal offices on Mill Avenue
1981 - Zeta Phi Eta Winifred Ward Outstanding New Children’s Theatre Company Award presented by CTAA, the national children’s theatre association
1981-82 season - Jon Gentry joins the company performing the part of Ivan in The Overcoat
February 1983 - First Childsplay tour outside Arizona under the auspices of the Utah Rural Arts Consortium
1982-83 season - Debra K. Stevens joins the company playing the part of the Princess in Fool of the World
1983-84 season - Only Arizona theatre company on the 1983-84 touring roster of the Western States Arts Foundation
1984 - Move administrative offices and gain of first resident main stage theatre at Rural School Theatre, Geneva Drive, Tempe
1984-85 - First major collaboration with the Arizona Theatre Company (week-long residency in Tucson)
1985 - Creation of new logo - the Childsplay Minstrel
1986 - Debra K. Stevens, The Belle of Amherst, Best Actress in a Drama, Max McQueen Best in Valley Theatre Award
1986 - Special Recognition Citation from AATY, national children’s theatre association, for continued excellence and effectiveness in the field of children’s theatre
1987 - The Masque of Beauty and the Beast, Best Production for Young Audiences, Max McQueen Best in Valley Theatre Award
1987-88 season - Expansion into two separate ensemble-based acting companies, touring two shows
1988 - Senators’ Cultural Award, East Valley Cultural Alliance, for contributions to assure audiences today and for the future
1988 - Appointment of a Director of Development
1989 - David Saar recipient of Governor’s Arts Award for his contributions to the arts in Arizona
1989 - David Saar 6-month sabbatical; Jon Gentry Acting Artistic Director
1989 - Inaugural meeting of the Childsplay Auxiliary Guild
1990 - The Benjamin Færoy Saar Memorial Ticket Fund established
1990 - Move to new Tempe Performing Arts Center, corner of Forest and Sixth Streets, Tempe
April 1991 - By invitation performance of The Masquerade of Life/La Mascarada de la Vida, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC
1991 - David Saar recipient of Distinguished Achievement Award from ASU College of Fine Arts
1991 - David Saar recipient of National Winifred Ward “Dare to Dream” Fellowship presented for development of the The Yellow Boat
1992 - David Saar recipient of Phoenix Futures Forum’s “Dream Weavers” Vision Award
1991 – The Yellow Boat, first Childsplay participation in New Visions/New Voices Playwriting Development program, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC
1992 - Receipt of one of the first eight grants awarded nationally by the Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Fund for theatre for young audiences for development of Hush: An Interview with America
May 1993 - By invitation performance at the Seattle International Children’s Festival, Seattle, Washington, and at the first International Youth Festival at ASU
1993 - David Saar invited to serve as a site reporter for the National Endowment for the Arts, a position still held today
1994 – The Yellow Boat, Best Production for Children, Best Production of a New Work, Best Script by an Arizona Playwright, and Dwayne Hartford Best Male Supporting Performance, Greater Phoenix Theater Critics Circle awards
1994 - 12 AriZoni Awards, the most of any Valley company
May 1994 - By invitation, week in residence at the La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla, California
1995 - Sara Spencer Artistic Achievement Award from AATE, the national children’s theatre association, for “artistic theatre practice of long duration and wide recognition . . . for sustained and exceptional achievement in the field of theatre for young audiences.”
1995 - Named Arts Organization of the Year by the Phoenix Business Volunteers for the Arts
1996 - Achieved Basic Aid status from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, as one of the ten leading arts organizations in Arizona
1998 - David Saar recipient of Distinguished Play Award from AATE for The Yellow Boat, published by Anchorage Press
1998 - One of 12 professional theatres receiving Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights grants and one of 15 chosen for the National Theatre Artists Program grants from TCG
1998 - Even Steven Goes to War, second Childsplay participation in New Visions/New Voices Playwriting Development program, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC
1999 - United States nominee for the President’s Award of ASSITEJ, the International Theatre for Young Audiences organization
2000 - April cover story of American Theatre magazine features Childsplay as one of the top four theatre companies for young audiences in the United States
2000 - Salt & Pepper, third Childsplay participation in New Visions/New Voices Playwriting Development program, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC
2000 - Recipient of the Shofar Zakhor Award of the Phoenix Holocaust Survivors Association for And Then They Came for Me
2000 - New Plays Program receives multiple-year foundation grants from The Flinn Foundation and The Whiteman Family Foundation
2001 - Arizona Governor’s Arts Award for Arts-in-Education
2001 – Multi-year grant awarded by The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust for infrastructure to support increased marketing and development efforts
2002 – Grant from Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust for Childsplay’s production of Eric & Elliot in conjunction with the Mental Health Association of Arizona
2002 - David Saar recipient of ASU Herberger College of Fine Arts Notable Achievement Award
2002 - Telemeca: Stories My Mother Told Me, fourth Childsplay participation in New Visions/New Voices Playwriting Development program, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, more invitations to participate than any other theatre for youth company in the world has received.
2004 - Inaugural Pied Piper Award given to Mayor
Neil Giuliano. Subsequent recipients include Harry Mitchell, Shelley Cohn,
and Carol DuVal Whiteman
2004 - World premiere production of The Imaginators broadcast on KAET
(Arizona's PBS station)
2004 - Selected for the New Generations/Future Leaders Program, receiving a
two-year grant to mentor Chicago director Adam Burke
2004 - Received a TCG National Theatre Artist Residency Program grant for
José Cruz Gonzolez, who spent three months in residence at Childsplay
working on Tomás and the Library Lady and partnership outreach activities
with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State
University
2005 - Eric and Elliot - written by Associate Artist Dwayne Hartford and
premiered at Childsplay - received the Distinguished Play of the Year Award
from the American Alliance of Theatre and Education
2006 - Childsplay performed its world premiere production of Tomas and the
Library Lady for First Lady Laura Bush. The play was also invited to the
national conference of the American Library Association
2006 - Childsplay received a four-year grant from the U.S. Department of
Education to implement, evaluate, and disseminate a model for integrating
theatre arts across the middle school curriculum
2006 - Roseneath Theatre of Toronto, Canada in-residence for a three-week
run of Danny, King of the Basement and partnership education and new play
development activities.
2007 - Company receives the Tempe Chamber of Commerce's Business Excellence
Award
2007 - Inaugural season at the new Tempe Center for the Arts
2007 - Childsplay launched its first national tour. Tomas and the Library
Lady traveled to 40 cities in 17 states
2007 - Construction began on the Sybil B. Harrington Campus for Imagination
and Wonder at Mitchell Park, the result of a successful $4.75 million
capital campaign
2007 - Selected for the New Generations/Future Leaders Program, receiving a
two-year grant to mentor Portland director Andres Alcala