Mission and Vision

Mission Mariposa Theatre for Young Audiences

To create exceptional professional theatre for all ages in order to challenge, explore, educate and entertain.

Mariposa’s leading precepts are:
Theatre is and should remain accessible to all.
Theatre is essential at all levels of human development.
Theatre develops critical and creative thinkers.
That art for arts sake is a valid aesthetic concept.

Vision
Mariposa sees the arts as an integral part of the lives of all young people regardless of any barriers. It is a place that inspires them to embrace the diversity of their experiences through a creative outlook. We will utilize the power of theatre to stimulate discussion, touch lives and question accepted notions while nurturing, developing and promoting the artistic potential of our youth.

The Importance of Theatre for Young Audiences

Want to boost literacy? Teach your child to imagine the unimaginable?
Cultivate curiosity? Get thee to the theater, and bring your kids.

Many schools that used to round out reading, writing, and arithmetic with a yearly jaunt to see Shakespeare in action, or Jack ascending the beanstalk, have now scrapped these field trips in favor of spending more time preparing for standardized tests and drilling “fundamentals”. The question is, how can you, as a parent, pick up the slack?

Students who make time for the arts are also more involved in community service, and less likely to drop out of school. And we’re not just talking about upper middle class kids. These facts remain, regardless of a child’s socio-economic background.

If you inspire a love of theater early on, there's a better chance that your child will develop creative gifts, and maintain a lifelong appreciation for the performing arts. Kids brains are being hardwired and parents can help spark those neural pathways of creativity.
So come see a show! You never know what you might learn!

Executive Artistic Director; Caren Hearne

Caren comes to Pittsburgh after spending years touring the United States and Europe, and performing in Washington DC and NYC. She also taught theatre in Fairfax and Prince William County public schools in Northern Virginia as well as being on the founding team for the Workhouse Arts Center and their youth arts education programs and Theatre for Young Audiences Company. After years of the break neck pace in the DC Metro area, Caren and her husband decided to relocate to Pittsburgh and open a professional theatre for young audiences. Caren is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association and The Stage Directors and Choreographers Association.