history

Notch is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in


2017 out of an Embark 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 productions and partnerships have presented at the National Performance Network Conference, the Children’s Defense Fund Advocacy Conference, the Appalachia Studies Conference, the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture's Artist Salon on Creative Strategies for Commemorative Justice, the Ubumuntu Festival in Rwanda, Arctic Fest, the Tagiugmi Music+Health Festival in Utqiagvik, Alaska, the International Human Rights Festival, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Chautauqua Institute, the Lewis Prize for Music's Institute, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, Civic Ensemble, White Heron Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory Theater, Brown University, New York University, Live@Jacks in Denver, HB Studios, New Ohio Theater, The Tank, Hudson Guild Theater, La Mama Studios, the Center for Performance Research, Playwrights Horizons Downtown, the Flea Theatre and New Georges Jamboree and with St. Ann's Warehouse and The Walk Productions, among others.

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.
— Natalie Rine, New York Associate Critic

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 BlogTheatre 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.​ 

anti-racism and
anti-oppression community guidelines

VALUES

ANITA CASTILLO-HALVORSSEN

ANITA CASTILLO-HALVORSSEN

ANITA MARIE MAYO HARRISON

ANTHONY ADU

ASHLEY J HICKS

ASHLEY WALDEN DAVIS

CALYPSO MICHELET

ELI WASSERTZUG
Elinor T Vanderburg

ELI WASSERTZUG

ELINOR T VANDERBURG

GABRIELA SAKER

GABRIELA SAKER

ISABEL PASK

KARISHMA SWARUP

KARISHMA SWARUP

KAT GUERRERO

KATHLEEN MARY CARTHY

KATHLEEN MARY CARTHY

LENNOX T. DUONG

LISA JAI

LIZ APPEL

LOUIS REYES MCWILLIAMS

NADIRA SIMONE

OCTAVIA CHAVEZ-RICHMOND

NAYIB FELIX

OCTAVIA CHAVEZ-RICHMOND

ORLANDO HERNÁNDEZ

SERGIO MAURITZ ANG

Aaluk Edwardson

ALEXIS GREEN

AALUK EDWARDSON

SINAN ECZACIBASI

Board of Directors

STAFF

LIZZY BROOKS,
DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE

MIKE SPARA,
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

DIEGO LANAO,
CULTURE & IMPACT EXECUTIVE

ASHLEY OLIVE TEAGUE,
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

RAQUEL MORRIS,
CULTURE & IMPACT MANAGER

“THERE IS NO GREATER AGONY THAN BEARING AN UNTOLD STORY INSIDE YOU.”

— MAYA ANGELOU