Summary
Organization name
Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble
other names
BTE
Tax id (EIN)
23-2066731
Address
226 Center StreetBloomsburg, PA 17815
About
Testimonials
Ensemble Driven. Professional Theatre. Arts Education. Rural Pennsylvania.For Everyone. With Everyone.
Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble has strived to ‘raise the region’ through our high-quality and affordable live performances, fun events, and enriching educational programs since our start in 1978. Our ensemble has produced over 280 shows, written over 40 original plays and adaptations, hosted over 20 world premieres, and staged over 5,100 performances. While based in Columbia County, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble also serves the six surrounding counties of Montour, Luzerne, Northumberland, Union, Snyder, and Lycoming.
Thanks to our generous donors and patrons, people across the Susquehanna River Valley can regularly experience nationally acclaimed professional theatre without driving two hours to Philadelphia or New York City. As we draw closer to our 50th season, that support grows more important.
Please consider donating to Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble during this year’s Raise the Region. Your support not only helps us keep the ghost light on but also endows our educational and community programs like Theatre in the Classroom and Theatre School. Our annual TreeFest fundraiser has been the backbone of Bloomsburg’s holiday festivities for nearing 37 years.
We pride ourselves on bringing excitement and variety to the Great Susquehanna Valley throughout the year, even drawing in theatre lovers from New York and New Jersey. Together, we create a vital, dynamic community. Thank you!
If you want to learn more about our season and programs, you can visit us at bte.org or call 570-784-8181.
Giving Activity
Mission
Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble (BTE) was founded in 1978 by recent graduates of Northwestern University, who relocated to Bloomsburg for two years of master classes with legendary acting teacher Alvina Krause (1893-1981).
Under Krause's inspiration, we established a resident ensemble of actors, directors, writers, and teachers who are empowered to articulate the theatre's mission and determine its artistic programming. Our goal was for a theatre that would, in Krause's words, be "as important to its community as schools and churches."
Nationally, BTE is a leader in the ensemble theatre movement as a co-founder of the Network of Ensemble Theaters. Since 1995, NET has grown into an over 160-member organization to promote ensemble theatre practice, and generate interest in ensemble as a sustainable model for community-based work. Through NET, we toured Letters to the Editor in California in 1998.
For a company based in a small town, BTE is surprisingly international. In 1991, the US State Department selected us to tour The Voice of the Prairie and Along the Susquehanna to five African nations. Two years later, African actors and musicians collaborated with us on a TIC show Under African Skies.
In 2016 Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble was presented the Outstanding Theatre Award by the National Theatre Conference.
Since its founding in 1978, BTE has welcomed and nurtured many new influences to complement the original dream. The successes we have yet to create and risks we have yet to dare are our sustenance.
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Organization Data
Bloomsburg, PA 17815