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Learning through an Expanded Arts Program, Inc. (LeAp); Fidelity Investments; and The Viertel/Frankel/Baruch/Roth Group; and Samuel French, Inc. have collaborated for the last three years to provide a unique comprehensive theatre program for middle and senior high school students in New York City. Fidelity FutureStage is an outgrowth of Fidelity Investments national Fidelity FutureStage, created in five cities supporting music and theater arts education.

The NYC program brings professional theater into the classroom of ten low-income, underserved schools, reaching more than 600 middle and high school students each year. The program includes playwriting/play production, visits to Broadway theater, mentorships, dramaturgy, celebrity visits, and performances by students of their plays in a Broadway theater. The program strengthens students' self-confidence, improves their literacy skills, helps them learn to set and achieve goals, exposes them to the business of theater, and ultimately experience the thrill of bringing their own creativity to life on a professional stage. 

LeAp, Fidelity Investments, and The Viertel/Frankel/Baruch/Routh Group, and Samuel French, Inc. each bring a unique element to the partnership while benefiting from the breadth and scope of the program:

• LeAp, a nonprofit organization, is committed to improving the quality of public education through an arts-based approach to teaching the academic curriculum. LeAp conducts the entire playwriting/ plays production components of the program and also created the playwriting curriculum for it.  Founded in 1977, LeAp was one of the first agencies to conduct academically focused arts programs in New York City schools. Beginning with four schools in Manhattan, LeAp now works with 8,500 teachers and over 200,000 students and their parents in about 300 public schools each year.
• Fidelity Investments, the sponsor, created Fidelity FutrureStage in 2006 as an outgrowth of its long-standing commitment to arts education in local communities including symphonies, Broadway productions, and community arts organizations. The program links critical resources to school music and theater programs to inspire students, enhance their learning experience, and celebrate their accomplishments. Fidelity's focus for the NYC program is to inspire young people to become engaged in the creative, professional, and business sides of theater.
• The Viertel/Frankel/Baruch/Routh Group, producers and general managers of a wide range of plays and musicals on and off Broadway, provides visits from Broadway luminaries and industry professionals who meet with students and act as mentors, and they provide tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway plays and talk-backs at the performances.
• Samuel French, Inc., the premier play and musical publishing company and licensing company, publishes the students’ plays and registers them with the Library of Congress.

The expertise from each partner has resulted in a program that is fully aligned with all of their goals. By exposing young people to the world of theater and introducing them to the many opportunities and careers related to theater, the program gives all the partners an extraordinary opportunity to reach their long-standing commitment to youth, the arts, and the local community.