The Theatre Lab Inc

What it reported doing in 2025

The Theatre Lab offers theatre training to children, adults and seniors across the Washington, DC area. Since inception, The Theatre Lab has taught thousands of students at all levels of experience. The Theatre Lab's faculty has grown to include more than 50 of the area's most accomplished professional theatre artists. Major segments of The Theatre Lab's programs are as follows: "Life Stories" outreach - free drama outreach programs for seniors, incarcerated and at-risk youth, veterans and military families, people in addiction recovery, low-income DCPS students, homeless women and children, and other historically underrepresented populations. "Life Stories" participants receive the acting and storytelling training necessary to create original dramatic works for the stage and screen from their life experiences. In an atmosphere of collaboration and creativity, participants develop advanced communication, problem solving, and teamwork skills that translate into success at home, at work, and in the larger community. Most important, they build confidence in themselves as people who have a story worth telling and a voice that deserves to be heard. Youth programs - The Theatre Lab offers popular summer acting camps and musical theatre institutes for kids and teens. The kids' camp is a unique two-week actor training program for children in 1st-6th grade taught by some of Washington's top theatre professionals, and is designed to immerse young artists in the creative process- from learning the basic techniques of realistic acting to developing mime and improvisational skills. The Theatre Lab also offers four-week programs in musical theatre and Shakespeare, culminating in full productions, for children in 7th and 8th grades. The teens' acting institute is a four-week intensive training program for young adults aged 13-19. The program is designed to help teens build fundamental acting skills through classwork and participation in a public performance. The curriculum includes audition seminars, improvisational workshops, voice and movement training, and scene study, as well as special programs designed to give interested students insight into the working of the professional theatre community. The musical theatre institute for teens is a program for 13-19 year-olds, which culminates in a full production of a full-length musical. The program is an intensive four-week training program in which participants rehearse and perform a full musical production. The musical theatre institute is offered twice each summer. The institute provides young artists with intensive voice, movement, and acting training as they explore challenging, socially relevant material from the contemporary musical theatre world. In 2025, The Theatre Lab introduced the Advanced Musical Theatre Intensive, a program for older high school, college-age, and early career students (ages 16-26) in which they spend one week rehearsing and performing a staged reading of a complex musical. The Theatre Lab also offers a series of afterschool and weekend scene study and TV/film classes for kids and teens year-round. Adult classes - The Theatre Lab offers approximately 80 6-week courses/year for adults in the general population in acting, musical theatre, directing, film and tv acting, playwriting and more. Since 2020, The Theatre Lab has also offered adult 6-week synchronous classes online, approximately 8/year. Honors program - in 2006, The Theatre Lab launched a year-long intensive training program for students interested in a professional acting career. The Honors Conservatory serves 10 students each year. The Theatre Lab is a key partner in the Arts Institute for Creative Advancement, a collective impact initiative of the DC Arts Education Alliance, in which young adults receive training and apprenticeships in technical theatre. In 2025, The Theatre Lab served an enrollment of 1,715 students in its adult curriculum, 860 students in its youth programs, and 10 students in its hon

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 76.4%; rating input score 76
• Program expense ratio: 86.6%; rating input score 87
• Fundraising efficiency: $17.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 12.9%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.22; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.42; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 17.3%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 12.8% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings