Our Mission
To increase the self esteem and unleash the creative voices of inner-city children by uniting them with professional artists to create original theater.

About the Project
THE MANTON AVENUE PROJECT works with children living in Providence's Olneyville neighborhood. We are a replication of New York City’s 52nd Street Project, which has been working with kids in that city’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood since 1981. We team the kids up with adult theater artists and together they create original theater. The vast majority of our plays are written by kids and acted and directed by adults. And even when the kids put on their acting shoes, they still have a major hand in the writing... and their onstage co-stars are adults. These high adult-to-kid ratios are a vital part of what makes us really tick!

And everything we do is free for the kids.

They begin working with us when they are in at least third grade. Each year a new group of children will join the Project, while the existing MAP Kids stay on, as writers (using more advanced playwriting skills), as actors, as members of the backstage crew and so on, until age fourteen. In the future the Project will also have a teen program, for MAP Kids in their high school years. Which means the kids could potentially be part of the Project from third through twelfth grades!!!

For us, the theater is the means not the end. It is the journey, not the destination. We are really all about using the theater to show the kids that what they have to say is important. And that they can do ANYTHING they set their minds to as long as they are willing to work for it! And that they can have a blast while doing it!!!

All of the incredibly talented and dedicated adult artists and playmaking class assistants who work with the Project are volunteers. We are deeply indebted to them and to all of the people and organizations that help us in so many ways. They know what we know: Getting involved with the Project on ANY level is fun. And electric. And more than a little bit magical.

Our Programming
We currently have five pieces of regular programming in place (please click on the programming name below for more information):

PLAYMAKING

PLAY-IT-AGAIN

DIALOGUE

TAG TEAM

WILD CARD!

Our annual BENEFIT

Interested in more? Please join our mailing list!

Who's Who in The Manton Avenue Project

Founder and Artistic Director
Jenny Peek

Board of Directors
Patricia A. Dugan, MAS, Chairperson
John M. Benevides, Vice Chair
Matthew R. Plain, Esq., Treasurer
Michael M. Woody, Immediate Past Chair

Steve Aveson
Heather Florence
Donna Lee Gennaro
Aaron Guckian
Danielle Kemsley
Erin Kennedy
Jenny Peek
Joe Wilson, Jr.