Connectivity
at Geva
Connectivity at Geva’s overarching objective is to connect more people and organizations with the productions presented on the theatre’s stages. Geva’s Connectivity programs include Geva Insights, Mondays at Geva, the Essie Calhoun Diversity in the Arts Awards, symposiums and more.
The goal of these programs and initiatives is to build more connected relationships with existing patrons and partners. To build new and meaningful relationships with people and organizations with whom we have traditionally had no or little connectivity, the kind of sticky connectivity that endures.
Geva Insights
Geva Insights is a series of post-performance conversations with thought leaders, experts, and members of the community who contextualize or provoke more in-depth consideration of the themes inherent to each play during the course of Geva’s season. These unscripted, unrehearsed chats are produced and hosted by Geva’s Connectivity department.
Next Event
Little Women Geva Insights Event
- Tuesday, February 4th, 2025, Post-6pm Performance
Event Details
Curator Brandon Brooks from the John L. Wehle Gallery at the Genesee Country Village & Museum will talk about fashions from the 19th Century and share more about their historic costume collection at the John L. Wehle Gallery, including what they call their “Jo March dress.”
Future Geva Insights Event Dates:
Pure Native
- Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
- Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025
Mondays at Geva
The stages are dark on Monday evenings at Geva, so the art and action shift to the lobby and café where brilliant local visual artists, performers, musicians, and speakers broaden our consideration of the onstage productions. Geva Theatre invites the community to join us for a free series of art openings and to party for a couple of hours each month!
Future Mondays at Geva Event Dates:
Pure Native
- Monday, April 28th, 2025
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
- Monday, June 9th, 2025
Little Women Book Club Series
About
In celebration of Geva Theatre’s production of Little Women, we are excited to offer a concurrent book club experience. Geva Theatre is partnering with Writers & Books, Flower City Noire Collective, and the Monroe County Library System to host a four-week book club series.
The book club will meet on Thursday evenings from 6:15 PM to 7:45 PM, running from March 6th through March 27th. Each session will feature a unique discussion of Little Women, led by different organizations, offering diverse perspectives on the novel.
Dates/Details
- Flower City Noire Collective – March 6 (Topic: “Challenging the Cannon” by Kristen Walker)
- Writers & Books – March 13 (Topic: “Gender and Class in the 19th Century” by Elizabeth Ambrose)
- Geva – March 20 (Topic: “Little Women: Adaptation From Rehearsal to Performance” by Fiona Kyle)
- Monroe County Library System – March 27 (Topic: “Life During the Civil War” by Mark Sample)
Location
Registration
Books for the series will be provided by the Monroe County Library System. Participation is free, but registration is required to secure your spot.
ArtsBloom Workshops
This year, Geva will launch a series of workshops, facilitated by locally and nationally renowned theatre artists. Professional enrichment workshops, in Geva’s Fielding Stage, are open to anyone ages 14 and up and include interactive instruction on topics such as: arts & activism, acting, embracing & celebrating difference, and more! These workshops are funded in part by the City of Rochester’s ArtsBloom grant with the goal of “enriching and expanding the experience of public art for all Rochesterians by reaching historically underserved residents, while increasing economic opportunities for local artists and small arts organizations in Rochester.”
Next Workshop
ArtsBloom Workshops
- Sunday, March 2nd, 2025, From 1-5pm
Workshop Details
Facilitated by Chicago based Actor, Director & Producer, Manna-Symone Middlebrooks. This workshop will offer an introduction to the foundational principles of Directing & Acting. Beginning with an exploration of artistic point of view and dramaturgy, participants will be encouraged to follow creative impulses and learn to engage a play with the fullness of themselves. In either the role of Actor or Director, participants will take a scene from page to stage.
Manna-Symone Middlebrooks (she/her) is a Chicago-based director, producer, and artistic leader specializing in new plays and reimagined classics. Her work is centered around emergence, identity, love, & healing.
Currently, she is an MFA Directing Candidate at Northwestern University. There she also serves as the Artistic Producer of the Black Graduate Artist Group and MFA Writing for Screen & Stage Reading series.
Tickets are $30. Student tickets are $25 with proof of valid student ID at door. A limited number of funded tickets available for members of the ROC Geva Pass program, for more details, click here
Future ArtsBloom Workshop Dates:
Embracing & Celebrating Difference – Indigenous Theatre
- Sun, April 20th, 2025. 1-5pm
Future Workshop Dates:
- Sun, May 11th, 2025. 1-5pm
- Sun, June 8th, 2025. 1-5pm
Engagement at Geva programs are sponsored, in part, by Volvo Cars Rochester 
ROC Geva Pass
Geva is excited to continue this partnership with the City of Rochester which provides two hundred complimentary tickets for each of Geva’s Subscription Series Production to city residents in specified zip-codes (14621, 14605, 14608, 14611, 14619, 14606, 14613, 14615, and 14616). Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis. Individual households may reserve up to 4 tickets per production. Restrictions will apply, such as: only valid for the first two weeks of a production, excludes Opening Nights, A Christmas Carol and other holiday or special programming, and cannot be applied to previous purchases. Once tickets are booked, no exchanges will be allowed.
Get Roc Pass Tickets
Residents wishing to obtain complimentary tickets through the ROC Geva Pass may call the Geva Box Office at 585-232-GEVA(4382) or visit the Box Office in-person at 75 Woodbury Boulevard, Rochester, New York 14607. For groups larger than 4, please email RocGevaPass@gevatheatre.org
Thank You!
We would like to thank our partner organizations for making the ROC Geva Pass a success and raising awareness of this incredible program with their constituents and communities:
- Beyond the Sanctuary
- Ibero-American Action League
- Baden Street Settlement
- Soulstainable Living
- Rochester Public Library system’s participants in the Safe to Be Smart teen program
- Center for Youth
Essie Calhoun Diversity in the Arts Award
Geva Theatre annually presents the Essie Calhoun Diversity in the Arts Award to an individual who or organization that promotes and encourages diversity in the arts. The award recognizes that art allows for the expression of truths and beliefs, and helps us gain an understanding of one another and our world. It further acknowledges that a mixture of cultures stimulates creativity, the sharing of ideas, and the building of a common collective future, which has always been close to Ms. Calhoun-McDavid’s heart.
The award was established in 2011 and named in honor of Essie Calhoun-McDavid, retired Chief Diversity Officer, Director of Community Affairs, and Vice President of Eastman Kodak Company. Ms. Calhoun-McDavid, a longtime advocate for diversity in the arts, was the first recipient of the award.
The award is designed by renowned Rochester glass artist Nancy Gong.
Past Recipients
- Dr. David Anderson (Sankofa)
- The Center for Youth Strings for Success
- Rachel Y. DeGuzman
- Shawn Dunwoody
- Garth Fagan
- Reenah Golden
- Delores Jackson Radney
- Tonia Loran-Galban (Akwesasne Mohawk, Bear Clan)
- Debora McDell-Hernandez
- Nydia Padilla-Rodriguez
- School of the Arts
- Seneca Art & Culture Center at Ganondagan
- David Shakes
- Dangerous Signs
- Thomas Warfield
Geva's Engagement Staff
Importance of Engagement
It’s no secret that the programming at Geva Theatre is evolving with the rest of the nonprofit theater world to begin to reflect the authentic creative expressions of more people, from multiple perspectives. As director of engagement programs, I ask myself, everyday, “How can engagement programs at Geva reflect the art on the stage and a strategic shift in vision and mission as well as contribute to building the meaningful relationships that are necessary to achieve equity and live up to our organizations anti-racism commitment?”
– Rachel Y. DeGuzman
Contact Information
Eritrea Haile
Connectivity Assistant – Engagement
EHaile@gevatheatre.org
