Accomplishments

2024

• Melynda Burdette Wintrol transitions to the Board of Directors, and Adventure welcomes new Managing Director, Sarah Chapin.

2023

• Adventure appoints Mitchell Herman as Board Chair. 
• Adventure’s Board of Directors appoints new Executive Director, Melynda Burdette Wintrol. 
• Adventure welcomes Kurt Boehm as new Aristic Director in May of 2023. 
• On June 6, 2023, Adventure Theatre MTC resumed theatrical productions on its mainstage after a 1 year strategic pause. 

2019

• Adventure welcomes Chil Kong as its new Artistic Director on August 1, 2019.
• Adventure embarked on a multi-year consensus organizing process to tell the story of Huckleberry Finn removing racial insensitivity and microagressions through the process of Consensus Organizing. The result was the world premiere of Huckleberry Finn’s Big River, a musical for social change.
• Adventure Theatre partners with the Montgomery County Police Department to donate over 100 plush bears to the Family Justice Center of Montgomery County. Plush will be distributed to children who are in domestic violence situations.

2018

• On March 2, 2018 at 1:30am, Adventure endured an electrical fire at its theatre in historic Glen Echo Park above its office entrance lobby. No personnel were on site at the time, and there were no injuries as a result of the fire. There is no damage to the theatre itself but the offices and rehearsal hall were devastated.
• Adventure Theatre’s Summer Musical Theatre Camp celebrates 40 years of introducing young children to the joy of theatre.
• Managing Director, Leon Seemann is accepted into the prestigious Leadership Montgomery program, designed to gain a deeper understanding of local issues, connect with other key decision-makers, and explore ways to collaboratively strengthen our community.
• Adventure Theatre is the first-ever recipient of the Maryland Department of Commerce’s NIMBL loan program.
• Adventure undertakes an unprecedented 7-theatre nationwide co-commission between Oregon Children’s Theatre in Portland, Ore.; Bay Area Children’s Theatre in Oakland, Calif.; Orlando Repertory Theatre; First Stage Children’s Theater in Milwaukee; Adventure Theatre MTC in Glen Echo, Md., the Rose Theatre in Omaha, Neb., and Children’s Theatre of Charlotte to bring Judy Moody & Stink: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt to the stage.
• Adventure produces the world premiere play Tinker Bell adapted by local DC playwright, Patrick Flynn.
• Adventure produces the world premiere, all-female musical, Blueberries for Sal, based on the bestselling children’s author and illustrator Robert McCloskey’s book.

2017

• ATMTC Academy launches its Conservatory program for aspiring musical theatre performers.
• Adventure Theatre MTC exceeds its wildest dreams with the highest-attended show of all time, Frosty The Snow Man.

2016

• Adventure Theatre MTC is the honored recipient of the Community Impact Award at Montgomery County’s 15^th Annual County Executive’s Awards for Excellence in Arts and Humanities.
• ATMTC Academy is honored with an award from the Junior Musical Theatre Festival for its 31-person cast of Legally Blonde Jr.
• Adventure produces the world premiere acclaimed musical, Ella Enchanted, written and directed by an all-female team and a world premiere play based on the bestselling book, Jumanji.
• Adventure Theatre partners with Make A Wish Mid-Atlantic for the duration of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp donating 75 tickets and raising enough money to make one child’s wish come true.

2015

• ATMTC produces four world premieres: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Caps for Sale, and Lemony Snicket’s The Lump of Coal, and Garfield: A Musical with Cattitude, which was developed with Garfield creator Jim Davis.
• The Academy brings a group of 20 students to the Junior Theater Festival to perform Into the Woods Jr. The cast received the Excellence in Music Award, and two of the actors were awarded Outstanding Performer Male and Outstanding Performer Female.
• ATMTC produces its first two-act family-friendly musical Oliver! at Roundhouse Theatre in Bethesda, MD.
• Caps for Sale tour wraps its production schedule in Glen Echo and goes on a national tour, performing in 20 cities.
• TYA/USA honors ATMTC with the Harold Oaks Award for excellence in the field of theater for young audiences.

2014

• ATMTC produces the world premiere of Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol by Broadway playwright Ken Ludwig and Jack Ludwig.
• The Academy debuts the Pre-Professional Program designed to prepare students for college or a career in the performing arts.
• Big Nate is remounted as a national tour, reaching an audience of over 30,000.
• ATMTC remounts it production of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds Off-Broadway at the New Victory Theater in New York City.

2013

• ATMTC premiere’s Big Nate based on the comic strip by Lincoln Pierce and Three Little Birds based on the music by reggae artist Bob Marley. This is ATMTC’s 13th and 14th World Premiere since 2009.
• ATMTC Academy awards nearly $25,000 in scholarships for its inaugural Summer Musical Theater Training Program.
• Diane Hamilton and Barry Hamilton, longtime ATMTC Artist retire.
• ATMTC Student Ensembles perform at DAR Constitution Hall, The Reagan Building, Newseum, Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Children’s Inn at NIH.
• ATMTC Student Ensembles celebrates its 30th Anniversary year.

2012

• Adventure Theatre and Musical Theater Center merge to form one entity called Adventure Theatre MTC (ATMTC).
• American Theatre Magazine features Just a Dream: The Green Play in its April 2012 issue
• ATMTC’s play, Mirandy and Brother Wind selected as a finalist in the New York Musical Theatre Festival’s Next Link Project.
• Producing Artistic Director, Michael J. Bobbitt name Library Super Hero, by the Friends of the Library, Montgomery County.

2011

• ATMTC’s Ensemble performed on The Millennium Stage, of the John F. Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts.
• ATMTC’s In-School Players travels to Singapore and Malaysia to perform Just a Dream to over 14,000 students, sponsored by the Tony Wining Singapore Repertory Theatre.
• ATMTC’s Ensemble performed in three (3) youth festivals in Ireland on goodwill tour and cultural exchange.
• ATMTC receives a National Endowment for the Art Access to Artistic Excellence Award for $30,000 for a co-production with African Continuum Theatre Company for Mirandy and Brother Wind.
• ATMTC named the 14th Most Exceptional Place to Work in the State of Maryland by The Gazette of Politics and Business – Exceptional 53.
• ATMTC’s Autism/Sensory Friendly Performances are emulated in Broadway’s The Lion King.  With ATMTC’s help, this was the first ever Broadway performance to be adjust for children with autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and other sensory issues.

2000’s

• ATMTC, as Lead Partner with two other non profit organizations: Project Change and Conflict Resolution, receives a two (2) year $150,000 grant from the Trawick Foundation for a performance arts camp for at-risk middle school students.
• ATMTC’s production of If You Give a Pig a Pancake is featured in American Theatre Magazine.
• ATMTC Ensembles perform for The International Children’s Festival at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.
• ATMTC’s Producing Artistic Director, Michael J. Bobbitt receives the County Executive’s Award for Excellence in the Arts – Emerging Leader.
• ATMTC partners with Montgomery College to co-produce, Harry Connick, Jr.’s The Happy Elf, featuring the work of Tony-winning artists John Rando and Michael Rupert.
• With the support of The National Endowment for The Arts, ATMTC presents a Student Production of The Stephen Schwartz Project, a musical revue of the Broadway and Oscar winning composer.
• ATMTC completes the renovation of the theatre in Glen Echo Park.
• ATMTC receives the Maryland State Arts Council’s Cherry Adler Award for Excellence in Children’s Theater.
• ATMTC Ensembles perform at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World.
• ATMTC Ensembles perform in Celebrating Sondheim Concert at the Millennium Stage at the John F. Kennedy Center.

1990’s

• ATMTC Ensembles perform as the children’s choir in the national touring company of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC.
• ATMTC Ensembles perform at the Verizon Center, the Australian Embassy and at a U.S. House-Senate Dinner.
• ATMTC’s Wintergreen Plaza studios open in 1998.
• ATMTC Ensembles perform aboard the Royal Caribbean’s “Sovereign of the Seas.”
• ATMTC Presents 100 Years of Musical Theater at Mazur Auditorium at National Institute of Health to benefit Metro Teen AIDS and Children’s Inn at NIH.
• ATMTC Ensembles perform in Wolf Trap Salutes Victor Borge: An 80th Birthday Celebration.
• ATMTC Ensembles perform at The White House Christmas Concert.
• ATMTC Ensembles tour the former Soviet Union.
• ATMTC Ensembles perform with Barry Bostwick at A Capitol Fourth, nationally televised on July 4th from the U.S. Capitol Mall.

1980’s

• Young Americans of Washington was founded in 1984 by Richard Hartzell (later to be renamed the Musical Theater Center)
• The County Council of Montgomery County proclaims June as “Adventure Theatre Month,” for 35 years of service.
• ATMTC Ensemble perform with Grammy Award-winning composer, David Foster.
• New Plays Book published, Six Adventure Theatre Plays, which was distributed to bookstores and children’s theaters around the country.

1970’s

• ATMTC expands programming by partnering with the Junior League of Washington to create The Picture Book Players, a performance troupe for pre-school and early elementary-aged children.
• ATMTC creates a puppet division, now The Puppet Co., another resident of Glen Echo Park.
• ATMTC receives The American Alliance for Theater and Education Award for Outstanding Theater Project of the Year Award.
• ATMTC moves into its space in Glen Echo Park in 1971.   

1960’s

• ATMTC’s In-School Players, a traveling troupe, is launched as a result of a request by the Director of Language Arts for the District of Columbia Public Schools.

1950’s

• ATMTC begins commissioning plays by award-winning, nationally-recognized children’s theater playwrights, Flora Atkins and Helen Avery. Both are recipients of the prestigious Charlotte B. Chorpenning Award from The Children’s Theatre Association of America.
• Adventure Theatre is founded in 1951 by a group of women from the Community Arts Association’s drama classes.