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THEATRE LAB

EIN 52-1812095 WASHINGTON, DC

Revenue 2025
$2,346,492
Expenses 2025
$2,043,070

Program services were 86.6% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

As filed

Subsection
03
NTEE code
A250
Classification
1000
Street
900 MASSACHUSETTS AVE NW

These codes are the IRS's own and are shown exactly as filed. What each one means is in the Business Master File documentation (opens in a new tab).

Mission and programs · 2025

Mission

THE THEATRE LAB PROVIDES CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS TO ADULTS AND YOUTH IN THE AREAS OF ACTING FOR THE STAGE AND SCREEN, DIRECTING, PLAYWRITING, MUSICAL THEATRE, AND DRAMA CRITICISM. THE ORGANIZATION ALSO CONDUCTS EXTENSIVE OUTREACH PROGRAMMATIC AND EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE REAL LIFE BENEFITS OF THEATRE EDUCATION TO MEMBERS OF TRADITIONALLY UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS: SPECIFICALLY FINANCIALLY DISADVANTAGED YOUTH AND ADULTS, INCARCERATED AND SEVERELY AT-RISK YOUTH, SENIORS, AND HOMELESS WOMEN

Activities or mission (Part I)

THE THEATRE LAB SCHOOL OF THE DRAMATIC ARTS IS COMMITTED TO TRANSFORMING LIVES THROUGH THEATRE EDUCATION.

  • 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 honors program. The Theatre Lab's Life Stories outreach program reached 844 youth and adults. Most of The Theatre Lab's youth classes are available at free or reduced price for financially disadvantaged participants. In 2014, The Theatre Lab inaugurated the Life Stories Institute, a four-day intensive workshop designed to give theatre artists, educators, and service providers from across the country training in the Life Stories curriculum. The Institute served 21 students in 2025.

    Expenses $1,769,231 · Revenue $920,187

As filed on the 2025 return.

Officers and directors · 2025

As listed in Part VII of the 2025 return, in the order the filer printed them. Each return names its own; this is not a roster the organization keeps with us.

  • DEBORAH GOTTESMAN

    CO EXEC DIRECTOR

    Total calculated
    $181,298
    From this org
    $162,601
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $18,697
    Hours/week
    40

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $145,101
    Bonus
    $17,500
    Other
    not reported
    Deferred
    $4,889
    Nontaxable benefits
    $13,808
    Filer's total
    $181,298

  • FRANCIS BUZZ MAURO

    CO EXEC DIRECTOR

    Total calculated
    $172,134
    From this org
    $153,000
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $19,134
    Hours/week
    40

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $135,500
    Bonus
    $17,500
    Other
    not reported
    Deferred
    $4,498
    Nontaxable benefits
    $14,636
    Filer's total
    $172,134

  • Laura Einstein

    TRUSTEE

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Adrianne Marsh

    TRUSTEE

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • DENISE HANNA

    vice chair

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Alexis Ronickher

    trustee

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Dr Roberto Ifill

    TRUSTEE

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Rae Vann

    TRUSTEE

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • ibby jeppson

    trustee

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • ELLEN PERRY

    Chair

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • nia graham

    trustee

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Mary Mitchelson

    TREASURER

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Lisa Brown

    TRUSTEE

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • JULIE LLOYD

    TRUSTEE

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Elizabeth Davenport

    TRUSTEE

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • LIZ WHISNANT

    secretary

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Luna Samman

    TRUSTEE

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • tracy gray

    trustee

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Matt Bassett

    Trustee

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Megan Robbins

    trustee

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Will Tiao

    trustee

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • TERRESITA EDWARDS

    trustee

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.

Filings

  • 2025
    Revenue
    $2,346,492
    Expenses
    $2,043,070
    Contributions
    $1,254,875
    Grants paid
    $0
  • 2024
    Revenue
    $1,850,227
    Expenses
    $1,884,391
    Contributions
    $1,173,007
    Grants paid
    $0
  • 2023
    Revenue
    $1,719,858
    Expenses
    $1,759,964
    Contributions
    $1,132,854
    Grants paid
    $0
  • 2022
    Revenue
    $1,748,195
    Expenses
    $1,560,830
    Contributions
    $1,235,704
    Grants paid
    $0

The four totals the IRS asks for on Part I of the Form 990, as filed. A dash means the figure was not present on the return — not that it was zero.

Other returns filed

  • 2021 · 990

    Revenue
    $1,528,317
    Expenses
    $1,462,992
    Assets (EOY)
    $1,317,349

  • 2020 · 990

    Revenue
    $1,137,976
    Expenses
    $1,274,274
    Assets (EOY)
    $1,194,936

  • 2019 · 990

    Revenue
    $1,455,015
    Expenses
    $1,352,329
    Assets (EOY)
    $1,203,685

  • 2018 · 990

    Revenue
    $1,398,704
    Expenses
    $1,243,321
    Assets (EOY)
    $1,105,566

  • 2017 · 990

    Revenue
    $1,443,643
    Expenses
    $1,184,828
    Assets (EOY)
    $936,541

  • 2014 · 990

    Revenue
    $1,040,663
    Expenses
    $1,019,442
    Assets (EOY)
    $514,439

Nonprofiteer parses Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF, in a window of recent tax years. These returns are recorded from the IRS e-file index, so their figures were extracted by that index rather than read from the return here — treat them as a different source from the filings above, not as more of the same record. A dash means the index carries no figure; Form 990-T listings carry none at all.

Grants made

No itemized grants to organizations. Schedule I is filed only by organizations that granted more than $5,000 to a recipient, so most filers have none.

Grants received

The 10 largest by cash amount. The API serves every itemized grant.

Other IRS files

Auto-Revocation List

Not listed. The IRS publishes this list for organizations whose exemption was automatically revoked for failing to file for three consecutive years.

Publication 78

Listed as of 13 October 2026, under deductibility PC.

These are two separate IRS files on two separate schedules, shown as published and not reconciled with each other. Neither is a statement about whether a contribution is deductible today: 19,245 organizations appear in Publication 78 while the IRS's own revocation file lists them as currently revoked, more than half of those revoked before 2019. Absence from Publication 78 is evidence of nothing, and presence is not evidence either. Verify current status with the IRS before relying on it.

What this page reflects

The registration facts above come from the IRS Business Master File published 13 October 2026 and read 26 October 2026, for every organization at once. Returns through tax year 2025, the newest we have parsed for this organization.