Culture & Community | Education & Youth | Music | Arts & Culture | Musical Theater | Theater | Shubert Theatre
Top: ASML's Brian Amero, Shubert Director of Education and Engagement Kelly Wuzzardo, ASML's Wilton-based Head of Development & EngineeringMark Schuster and ASML Director of HR Cynthia Houston. Bottom: Up On The Downbeat performs. Lucy Gellman Photos.
A beloved New Haven arts organization has received a $1.2 million gift to grow its education programming in the city’s public schools over the next three years. Now, the work begins.
That news came to the Shubert Theatre Thursday evening, during a 2025-26 season launch at the organization’s 247 College St. home. Amidst news of a jam-packed lineup — from SIX to The Sound Of Music to Dog Man: The Musical — staff also announced the transformative gift, which comes from the Dutch tech giant ASML. ASML, which is based in the Netherlands, has an office with 3,200 employees in Wilton, Conn.
Over the next three years, it will allow the Shubert’s education department to both expand and bring its work more directly to the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS), often to students who have limited or no access to arts education. The theater also plans to partner with students at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), where the school has been growing outreach efforts in both drama and arts administration.
In addition to Kelly Wuzzardo, the Shubert’s longtime director of education and engagement, the theater has welcomed Tracy Stratton on as its new education programs manager.
In their first months building out the program, Stratton and Wuzzardo plan to focus on kindergarten through second grade education at Barack Obama Magnet University School, Bishop Woods Architecture & Design Magnet School, and Hill Central Music Academy. They will expand their reach from there.
Tracy Stratton, who comes out of West Haven High School, where she was universally beloved by her students.
“It’s a dream come true to work at an establishment like this,” said Stratton, who grew up coming to the Shubert with her parents, and has for years taught and directed theater at West Haven High School. “When an opportunity like this comes up, you can’t say no.”
“It’s such a critical organization that is really driving education in our community,” added Brian Amero, program manager for society and community engagement at ASML and a board member at the Shubert. “We recognize that not every community has equitable access to arts education,” and this gift is meant in part to bridge that gap.
It’s an investment in the future of arts education that has been years in the making. In 2022—as theaters were still coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic—ASML began its partnership with the Shubert by offering Broadway series tickets to its staff members, who came out to the touring productions in force. Amero, for instance, still remembers a production of Come From Away in 2023 that he was both surprised and delighted by.
From there, the company began exploring other ways to support the theater, including in its educational programming. For years, the Shubert has worked to grow its educational footprint, from partnerships with CT State Gateway, NHPS and the Girls Scouts of America to free workshops it brings into the Mitchell and Stetson Branches of the New Haven Free Public Library. Last year alone, it served 17,000 students across the region.
Violinist Aidan Jordan (center), who is a junior at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School. When he plays, he said, "it just feels like you're connecting with the music." His mom, LaKisha Jordan, is the Shubert's outgoing board chair and the director of programs at the NewAlliance Foundation.
But Wuzzardo’s bandwidth as a single human was finite: there was only so much she could do in a department of one. So last year, ASML started asking her how to better serve more students.The best way, Wuzzardo told them, was to meet students where they were: to take more theater directly into the schools.
She loves it when students come to the Shubert, she said—and they will continue to do so this year, with offerings like TheatreWorks USA’s Dog Man The Musical next April. But the logistics that go into a single visit—ticket sales, adapted lesson plans, bus transportation—are often potential barriers to access for students and educators.
“But what if we could collaborate and remove those barriers?” Amero asked aloud Thursday. He nodded to the goals that Executive Director Anthony McDonald has brought to the Shubert during his tenure, which includes exposing every K-12 student in New Haven to the Shubert before they graduate from high school. That, the company decided, had the potential to be transformative.
Over the next three years, ASML’s $1.2 million gift provides the support for exactly that, with visits in classrooms like those the Shubert has been able to offer on a limited basis in the past. Stratton and Wuzzardo plan to begin those visits in late October or early November. Their first workshop will introduce students to the “puzzle pieces” of theater, including what it means to be backstage, onstage, and in the audience.
Executive Director Anthony McDonald and board member Karaine (Kay) Smith-Holness.
The timing feels serendipitous. Earlier this year, NHPS Superintendent Madeline Negrón announced a potential 129 student-facing staff cuts, including 29 arts instructors and 25 library and media specialists, for the 2025-26 school year. While that ultimately didn’t come to pass, many students in the district don’t have reliable access to arts programming in their schools, or have part-time teachers who come in for “specials” classes.
For the first time in the Shubert’s 110-year history, ASML is also a series sponsor for all of the Broadway shows coming through the Shubert. Those include SIX, A Beautiful Noise, Mrs. Doubfire, The Sound of Music, Kimberly Akimbo, and Les Misérables, which last played at the theater in 2018. Tickets and more information are available here.
“This is really an exciting moment for arts education,” said McDonald, who is both an arts leader and a doting dad to an almost two-year-old daughter. “ASML has also seen the importance of access to the arts for students … this is the kind of impact that could be felt for generations to come.”
Thursday also included an announcement of what McDonald called “an amazing season,” studded with not just Broadway performances, but also comedy, poetry and spoken word, music, dance, and intimate theater in the space’s new second-floor cabaret space.
True to McDonald's mission to welcome all New Haveners, the evening also featured local talent, from the groove band Up On The Downbeat to violinist Aidan Jordan, a junior at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School.
“Tonight is a celebration,” McDonald said. “This season of programming brings cultures and art forms from all over the world to our stage, reflecting the vibrancy and diversity of our city.”
Attendees Nick Hogan, Thabisa Rich and Dallas Davis.
In addition to Broadway phenomena like SIX, which has teched two tours at the theater and opens the season on Sept. 25, those include highlights like a visit from hometown hero and comedian Justin Silva (comedians Unc and Neph & Friends and Nate Jackson are also gracing the stage, all for what is slated to be a very funny October), a celebrated return of Ailey II on Oct. 18, appearances from the Grand Kyiv Ballet (Oct. 25), Thee Phantom & The Illharmonic Orchestra (Nov. 22) and Step Afrika! (April 11).
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, McDonald said. In November and December, the Shubert has jeujed up its holiday programming with a holiday trivia night to kick off the season, Miracle on 34th Street: The Musical, and performances from Engelbert Humperdinck (“I grew up hearing that name,” McDonald said to warm laughter when he described how excited his mom is) and Irish tenor Michael Londra, who helms the PBS show Ireland With Michael. This reporter is still waiting on a visit from the holiday armadillo.
For music fans in the audience, there is year-long programming that includes a concert version of the musical RENT (it last graced the theater in 2017, for the show’s 20th anniversary tour), an October 30 celebration of George Michael and return from The Choir of Man in February, The Great American SoulBook in April, and more intimate performances from Okorie “OkCello” Johnson (Jan. 8), the Metta Quintet (March 13), and Nicole Zuraitis (June 21) in the Shubert’s smaller cabaret space upstairs.
“We’re building bridges across generations, across neighborhoods, across lived experiences,” Little read. “That is the power of this place. That is the magic of this theater. So keep showing up. Keep sharing these stories. And let’s keep the heartbeat of our New Haven strong.”
McDonald said the theater is still adding performances to the season, some of which may be announced as soon as next week. For a full calendar of events, click here.