history
Notch is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in
2017 out of an Embark Fellowship Award for
Social Innovation in Entrepreneurship from
the Swearer Center for Public Service, in
partnership with the Jonathan M. Nelson
Center for Entrepreneurship.
Notch's programs and partnerships have presented at the Children’s Defense Fund Advocacy Conference, the National Performance Network Conference, the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture's Citizen Artist Salon on Creative Strategies for Commemorative Justice, the Ubumuntu Festival in Rwanda, Arctic Fest, the Tagiugmi Music + Health Festival in Utqiagvik, Alaska, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Lewis Prize for Music's Institute, The Appalachia Studies Conference, Chautauqua Institute, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, White Heron Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory Theater in partnership with Spectrum Theater Ensemble (a neuro-diverse company), Brown University, Live@Jacks in Denver, HB Studios, New Ohio Theater, The Tank, Hudson Guild Theater, La Mama Studios and as an Anchor Partner at the Flea Theatre in NYC.
“Paired with Ashley Teague’s inventive direction, this declaration of Notch Theatre Company’s visceral, scintillating point of view is a force to be reckoned with as even the best of current day Broadway’s appeal to address modern themes pales in comparison.”
Notch's work has been profiled by American Theatre Magazine, featured on HowlRound twice, including once in their Theater in the Age of Climate Change series, on Playbill, Monument Lab, Broadway World for Wild Home and Anna Karenina, on Hollywood Soapbox, in N Magazine, on the Stage Whisper and HB insight Series podcasts, and by the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture.
You can find Notch’s work reviewed on OnStage Blog, Theatre Beyond Broadway Blog Critics, Theater Pizzazz, Thinking Theatre NYC and Broadway DNA.
Notch Theatre Company creates community-responsive cultural work to drive change around the pressing issues of our time, offering communities nationwide a platform to tell their stories and be their own change makers.
Our work engages populations that brick and mortar theaters are not reaching, personalizes important social issues for people on all sides of a conversation, raises awareness in a compelling way, drives change on a national scale, and prompts meaningful, lasting engagement at a grassroots level.
Vision Statement
There is a cultural deficit in this country. When the civil liberties of historically underrepresented groups continue to face serious threats and our nation is stalled in an ever-polarizing inability to engage in productive dialogue, we artists and cultural workers must engage communities to which we might not normally find ourselves in proximity, excavate the barriers standing between us, address community concerns with artistic ferocity, with bold questions and daring choices, and provoke audiences with questions (old and new) about who is given access to our nation’s promise of opportunity and who is being
systematically shut out.
By collaborating with communities across the nation to tell real stories on stage, Notch engages the voices that brick-and-mortar theaters are not reaching, personalizes important social issues for people on all sides of a conversation, raises awareness in a compelling way, drives change on a national scale, and prompts meaningful, lasting engagement at a grassroots level.

anti-racism and
anti-oppression community guidelines
VALUES
-
We believe in creating and facilitating artistic spaces of BELONGING for our most disenfranchised residents, while acknowledging the trauma of dis-belonging and its legacies, which are embedded in our histories of oppression.
-
As our society changes at unprecedented speeds, we must work from a place of radical RESPONSIVENESS to address community concerns with artistic ferocity and meaningful contribution.
-
We are invested in embracing all identities, the multiplicity of cultures, and the fullness of what makes individuals human. In this way, we commit to practicing CULTURAL SPECIFICITY in all our work and to partnering with artists actively working in Anti-Racist and culturally competent modes, while at the same time holding ourselves accountable to rigorous analysis of our own cultural traditions and lenses.
-
We believe that ART can change the fabric of our society, that people are transformed by cultural experiences and exposure; and we believe in the power of telling your own story. Art can raise awareness of, question, and challenge long-held beliefs of social and cultural supremacy, and art empowers people to become advocates for disruption of those systems. We value the artist in everyone, and our work strives to offer a platform for the transformative STORYTELLING that unleashes true artistic excellence.
-
We hunger for a more just society. We acknowledge that the communities with which we partner have technologies toward liberation, which they have been practicing for generations, and that our work is the support, amplify, and walk alongside those efforts. Our organization and programs are not end goals in and of themselves but strive to be in service of the larger JUSTICE movement that began long before us.
-
We believe in the power of gathering in community. We strive to create spaces for grassroots, community POWER BUILDING and are committed to ETHICAL FUNDING that invests in the economic betterment of our communities. Our cultural work aims to encourage development of new networks, relationships, financial systems, and funding streams that catalyze alternative and regenerative economies to support our partners in achieving full financial freedom and autonomy. -
Our work must be built on a foundation of trust and of meaningful, equitable RELATIONSHIPS. We know that intimate, proximate, durational artistic collaborations can have both deep grassroots and larger systemic impact for our society. This includes bringing the theatre experience to geographically marginalized and rural neighborhoods and forging bonds between disparate and distant communities.
-
We lead from a place of CARE. We believe that artistic excellence is measured in personal impact and our processes must, above all else, offer participants grace, compassion, and a space for their full humanity. Our work will always put people first and prioritize CARE above urgency, efficiency, deadlines, or any one artistic product.
-
We believe art is inherently joyful. We believe in theater that talks back, that sings too loudly, that responds in the moment, that laughs uproariously, and that respects all cultural practices of audience engagement. Theatre is playful, enchanting, transformative, and when armed with a deep social consciousness, theatre is power. We center our power in that everlasting and invincible JOY.
AALUK EDWARDSON
ABIGAIL C. ONWUNALI
ANITA CASTILLO-HALVORSSEN
ANITA MARIE MAYO HARRISON
ASHLEY J HICKS
ASHLEY WALDEN DAVIS
ELI WASSERTZUG
ELINOR T VANDERBURG
GABRIELA SAKER
KATHLEEN MARY CARTHY
ISABEL PASK
KARISHMA SWARUP
LENNOX T. DUONG
LISA JAI
NAYIB FELIX
NIKOMEH ANDERSON
OCTAVIA CHAVEZ-RICHMOND
SAM KHAZAI
SERGIO MAURITZ ANG
SINAN ECZACIBASI
ALEXIS GREEN
Board of Directors
STAFF
SAVANNAH RITZ,
NOTCH ASSOCIATE
ASHLEY OLIVE TEAGUE,
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
RAQUEL MORRIS,
CULTURE AND IMPACT MANAGER
JACLYN BISKUP,
MANAGER OF DEVELOPMENT
“THERE IS NO GREATER AGONY THAN BEARING AN UNTOLD STORY INSIDE YOU.”
— MAYA ANGELOU
Producer’s Circle
Amy Aquino & Drew McCoy, Adlyn & Ted Loewenthal,
Wendy Vanden Heuvel, Maureen & Edward Bousa
Community Sponsors
Bob & Toni Teague, Shannon Morzov,
Ashley Olive Teague in memory of Toni Hahn Teague, who taught us to love the theatre,
Standford Smith, Josh Gordon, Sabrina Sikes Thornton,
Sandy Mailliard, Chloe & Bill Cornell, Jody Wagner, Cynthia & Bill Horr, Jim Grieger,
Artist Circle
Marina Bousa, Tracy Nayer, Caroline Parker, Moira Squire, Colin & Cathy Walker, Susan Khun,
Scott & Mindy Gillum, Krystin Weaver,
Ambassadors
Julie Nash, Sigrid Gilmer, Byron Gross & Ricky Tovim, Elizabeth Mixter, Kathleen Carthy, Bridget Akinc, Jimmy Holcomb, Mylan Stepanovich, Jennifer Miller, Lynn Stahl, Anne Scurria and Barry Press, Kim and Clay Clement, Isa D'Arleans, Audrey Nash, Charlie Palen, Christy and Pat Nash, Larissa Kokernot, Brian McEleney & Stephen Berenson, Jon Neustadter, Michele DeRosa, Paula Bailey, Elena Lopez Valero and Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors,
Patrons
Babs Dyer, Robert Morris, Mauricio and Cindy Salgado, Sharon Chin, Nikki Hyde, Marilyn Bagley, Thomas Jones, Av & Janet Posner, Larissa Kokernot, M. Scott Gibbs, David Kimball, Gregory Jones, John Winn Miller, Harry B. Miller III, Elaine Brett, Michelle Lema, April Sasso, JoAnn & Mike Grutza, and Melissa Kievman in honor of Morgan Jenness,
Supporters
Anita Castillo-Halvorssen, Michael Sazonov, Lennox Thuy Duong, Evan Horwitz, Prema Rose, Estefanía Fadul, Sergio Mauritz Ang and Mark Casino, Carlotta Harlan, Becky Feldman, Caitlin O'Connell, Regina Melzer, Gwen Aquino, Kate Bergstrom, Lucy VanAtta, Elizabeth Atwood, Collette Wilson, Dorothea Snyder, Marina Daiman, Daniel Stein, Jessica Kahkoska and Tom Casserly, Shirley Trincheria, Katie Miceli, Rebecca Rowe.