OUR IMPACT.
Where the Endangered Species theatre Project stands, and where it’s going
ESP by the numbers:
July 2025 to June 2026
3,100+
AUDIENCE MEMBERS
38
PERFORMANCES
5
FREDERICK STAGES
158
ARTISTS EMPLOYED
PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN
ALWAYS!
Since 2018, Endangered Species theatre Project has been creating professional, adventurous and accessible theatre in Frederick, Maryland—bringing together established professional artists and emerging theatre-makers with audiences across generations.
We believe professional theatre belongs to everyone.
That means making all our performances Pay-What-You-Can. Our pay-what-you-can philosophy has also inspired other theatres in Frederick to do the same thing!
Robert Leembruggen and Deanna Kinzie in the 2025 production of The Canterville Ghost, performing here in the ESPloft.
Stories help us find each other;
Artists make those stories alive;
And everyone deserves to have a seat.
The Endangered Species theatre Project hires professional artists in a variety of plays throughout the year.
Now 8 years old, the Frederick Shakespeare Festival remains one of the most unique, remarkable and enjoyable theatrical experiences in Frederick.
Theatre being for everyone also means creating meaningful opportunities for artists whose voices have too often been left out. It means bringing forgotten plays and playwrights back to the stage. It means finding ways for d/Deaf and hearing artists to create together. And it means giving young theatre-makers the opportunity to learn alongside working professionals.
Most of all, it means gathering people together—in a theatre, under the stars, in an unexpected space—and sharing a story.
For ESPtheatre, accessibility isn’t an add-on to our mission.
It’s an intrinsic reason for everything we create.
Rachel Manteuffel and Jackson Peters-Mosere in the 2026 production of Macbeth, performing here in New Spire Arts.
WHO GETS TO BE ONSTAGE MATTERS.
ESPtheatre began in 2018 with a simple question:
Whose voices aren’t we hearing?
Our earliest work focused on women over 40 and forgotten plays and playwrights—artists and stories that had too often disappeared from contemporary stages.
Today, ESP actively works to create opportunities for women, older artists, d/Deaf artists, emerging theatre-makers and others historically underrepresented in American theatre.
Our goal isn’t simply to make our casts look different; it’s to make the room bigger.
ESP has included d/Deaf/hearing integration in our 2021 production of Romeo and Juliet (above) and our 2023 Twelfth Night. d/Deaf Director Richard Costes directed our 2025 production of The Tempest.
d/DEAF & HEARING ARTISTS CREATING TOGETHER
Accessibility can change not only who experiences theatre, but how theatre itself is made.
ESPtheatre has brought d/Deaf and hearing artists together as actors, directors and collaborators, exploring ways that American Sign Language and spoken English can coexist theatrically rather than one simply being added to the other.
Our 2021 Romeo & Juliet, starring Deaf Broadway actor Joshua M. Castille as Romeo, and deaf actor Jules Dameron as our Friar was created for mixed d/Deaf and hearing audiences after nearly a year of work adapting the production across languages. In 2025, we brought in deaf director Richard Costes to direct our production of The Tempest.
That work has continued through the Frederick Shakespeare Festival and other ESP programming, as we keep learning from the artists we invite into the room.
We don’t claim to have all the answers. However, we believe in continuing to ask how the room—and the work—can become more accessible.
THE NEXT GENERATION BELONGS IN THE ROOM.
A young artist’s first professional experience can change what they imagine is possible.
Through Riotous Youth and ESP’s other education and artist-development programs, young theatre-makers have opportunities to study, rehearse and perform while learning from professional artists.
Our approach is rooted in mentorship rather than simply instruction.
Our expanding youth programs build confidence, collaboration, communication and artistic skills while creating pathways for emerging artists to take their next steps.
Young people aren’t waiting somewhere outside the theatre until they’re old enough to participate;
They’re already part of it.
Young artists rehearsing Romeo and Juliet with Riotous Youth
SHAKESPEARE BELONGS TO EVERYONE.
The Frederick Shakespeare Festival brings professional and emerging artists together each summer to make centuries-old plays immediate, surprising and alive for Frederick audiences.
Our theatre founded the Festival and it has since grown to include three theatre companies working together to bring Shakespeare to our city.
Performances happen in various locations throughout Frederick and under the open sky, with professional actors working alongside emerging artists.
And like ESPtheatre’s other programming, Festival performances are Pay-What-You-Can.
Because Shakespeare doesn’t belong behind glass.
He belongs to all of us.
SOME STORIES DESERVE ANOTHER CHANCE.
The word ‘endangered’ in our name has always meant something. ESPtheatre began partly from a desire to rediscover plays and playwrights in danger of disappearing—particularly works by women whose plays once filled theatres but rarely appear on contemporary stages.
Our Forgotten Plays programming brings some of those voices back into the room.
We don’t revive these works simply because they’re old. We look for the ones that can still surprise us, challenge us, make us laugh—and help us see our own world differently.
Sometimes looking forward begins by asking: Who did history leave behind?
THEATRE ACROSS GENERATIONS
At ESP, a teenager may rehearse beside an artist with decades of professional experience, an actor may return to the stage after years away
or a senior performer may discover an entirely new creative community.
Theatre is one of the increasingly rare places where people of very different ages can create something together. These connections are not incidental to our work.
They are the work.
ROOTED IN FREDERICK
ESPtheatre was born in Frederick and has grown through collaboration.
Our work has included partnerships and collaborations with organizations throughout our community, including the Frederick Arts Council, Hood College, Maryland School for the Deaf, Frederick County Senior Center and other local arts, education and community organizations.
We have performed throughout Frederick—from intimate indoor spaces to professional stages and outdoor theatres—and continue looking for ways to bring artists and audiences together wherever theatre can happen.
Our work has also earned investment from local, county, state, foundation and national funders who believe in the value of arts access and a thriving creative community.
Frederick isn’t simply where ESPtheatre performs.
It is our home.
Snapshots from some of our venues: Hodson Outdoor Theatre, the ESPloft and New Spire Arts.
WHAT COMES NEXT
ESPtheatre has grown considerably since a small group of artists came together in 2018. Our next chapter isn’t simply about producing more plays. It is about building something sustainable.
A place where professional artists can work.
Where young artists can grow.
Where d/Deaf and hearing artists can continue experimenting and creating together.
Where forgotten voices can be heard again.
Where audiences can encounter extraordinary theatre regardless of what they can afford.
And where people across generations can gather in the same room and experience something that exists only once: this performance, this audience, this moment together.
HELP MAKE THE NEXT STORY POSSIBLE.
Ticket revenue alone cannot create accessible professional theatre.
Every donation helps employ an artist, mentor a young theatre-maker, build a set, create a costume, welcome a visiting professional artist, keep a ticket affordable or make it possible for someone to attend who otherwise couldn’t.
Pay-What-You-Can works because our community makes it work.