OUR STORY

In 2017, the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, reached out to Ryan Nelson and Aaron Thielen and asked them to create a cultural exchange program using the American art form of musical theatre to bring together artists in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The program, called BiH Broadway, created a series of workshops and productions over two years in Bosnia that connected young performing artists from across the country. We produced two shows in Sarajevo, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in the National Theatre and Moja Pjesma ("My Song") in the historic Kamerni Teatar 55. Both productions toured the country and were seen by thousands of people.

The success of BiH Broadway prompted the U.S. State Department to support expansion of the program to Poland for ten days in June 2020, and to return in September 2020 to produce another music theatre project.

Covid-19 unfortunately put the program and any travel on hold. Rather than wait a year, we decided to pivot and pitched a new "virtual" collaboration project to the U.S. State Department. We came up with the idea of bringing artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Serbia, Germany and the United States together on one project…an online production of the musical SPRING AWAKENING.

The idea of Broadway Across Borders was born! Cross-cultural collaboration between artists from multiple countries is at the core of Broadway Across Borders's mission. SPRING AWAKENING premiered in October 2020 and due to its popularity is receiving a second stream in late November 2020. New in-person projects in Poland will resume in 2021. We are also in the planning process for another virtual musical in Winter 2021 with artists from additional countries.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

After three years of creating projects and connecting artists on our own, we decided to make this official and created Broadway Across Borders. Through the collaboration of musical theatre, we are creating a GLOBAL COMMUNITY of ARTISTS. 

If we are to successfully expand and grow, we need to create a solid financial foundation to build this organization. We are now in the initial phase of building our “start-up” fund. Our goal is $50,000 and we have three specific goals:

• Develop our Digital Infrastructure​

website and digital content development, continued international "virtual" programming

• Expand our Marketing and Development

​expansion of international partnerships, projects, and sponsors

• Support our initial ​Administrative, Accounting, and Legal costs.

general foundational and start-up costs

If we are able to exceed our goal and reach a total $100,000, that additional $50,000 would be able to fund a ten-day international musical theater workshop in Berlin, Germany in 2021. This workshop would be scheduled as soon as all Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. The additional funding would pay for travel, transportation, food and lodging expenses, local resources and support, and fees for the Broadway Across Borders staff. Most importantly, it would help fund our core mission - to bring together artists from several different countries for an artistic and cultural exchange.

Dziękuję! Hvala! Danke! Спасибо!

Thank you for your support and interest in Broadway Across Borders.

Please visit broadwayacrossborders.org to see what we are up to!