Creating a world where all children can see themselves on stage.

Founded in 2011, Talespinner Children’s Theatre creates inclusive, accessible, and meaningful professional productions and educational opportunities that engage, empower, and inspire.

Talespinner Children’s Theatre aspires to be Cleveland’s theatrical home from birth through adulthood. By honoring the experiences, wisdom, and imagination of the young people in our community, we strive to be leaders here and beyond.

Talespinner Children’s Theatre was founded in 2011 by Alison (Ali) Garrigan. After many years of dreaming of a professional children’s theatre for the young people and families of her community, the moment that put things in motion came about at a Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) artists’ meeting, when Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan, asked what was missing from the theatre world of Cleveland. “A professional children’s theater” was the resounding response. Ali knew it was time to go to work, creating “something that was smart and unique, a place where children would be honored and engaged, as well as a place where artists could have a voice, stretch and grow.”

Talespinner’s first season included two productions: Tale of the Name of the Tree, and the Magic Flute. For the first ten years of Talespinner’s existence, we produced exclusively world premiere, original works, all by playwrights from Cleveland and its surrounds, creating a space by which we have been able to intentionally foster local talent and artistry. Talespinner has been the home for more than 40 new plays in the ten years since, both on our main stage and in our touring productions, and we look forward to continuing to support amazing contributions to the world of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) as we enter our second decade.

We are also excited to begin producing existing work from the field of TYA! As Cleveland’s only dedicated professional children’s theatre, we are honored to be able to bring some of the excellent, vital, transformative work that is happening in artistic communities both nationally and internationally right here into Cleveland’s theatrical home for young people and their families, beginning this season with our production of The Snowy Day and Other Stories by Ezra Jack Keats, which originally premiered at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis.

Our Core Values

Accessibility

We believe that theatre is for everyone. And we believe that this is a value that must be shown through action.

At Talespinner, each and every one of our performances is Pay-What-You-Choose. We want to be part of creating a world in which cost is not a barrier to accessing high quality, vibrant, meaningful live theatre. Through generous sponsors like the Ohio Savings Bank, we are able to ensure that every family can come see a show at TCT.

Through our accessibility programming, we partner with organizations and experts to ensure that individuals who represent a diversity of access needs are part of designing the tools we provide. We believe in the “nothing about us without us” approach to accessibility. All of our performances are designed to be sensory friendly, and for each production we offer a variety of access tools, including American Sign Language interpreted performances, open captions, noise-reducing headphones, sunglasses, fidget kits, a quiet space, and more.

Education

We have an endless dedication to curiosity, exploration and knowledge and we use stories and theatre to explore big ideas, connect and express ourselves. We believe every child brings wisdom and wonder to the theatre, and to the classroom, and we create spaces in which children can become leaders and dreamers.

Children are Smaller People, not Lesser People

We respect and value children as fully-fledged individuals. Our works meet children where they are and our space is always child-friendly.

Artistic Value

We believe art has true value and we compensate our artists for their creativity and contributions.

Our Staff

Get to know our Executive and Admininstrative leadership and our amazing Teaching Artists!

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Our Board

Learn more about our incredible group of directors, creatives & specialists.

View our Board