Our Story
Hands Together Theater Academy was born out of a deep hunger to somehow repay incredible kindness. The Christensen family experienced some unexpected and profound health challenges, and the loving response, help and love shown to them was astounding. Their neighborhood rallied to finish an apartment in their basement so they could keep their home. They received an anonymous box of food every single week on their porch for an entire year. Volumes will only tell the depth of food, clothing, love, help, mercy and compassion shown to this family in so many ways.
While pondering how the Christensen family could ever even begin to repay the love that has been poured into their lives, they considered creating a humanitarian charitable organization of some kind. Out of this yearning and coupled with a deep love of children and teens, Hands Together Theater Academy was born! We give awesome kids a chance to get off their phones and sing, dance, build confidence, forge friendships and conquer new personal growth territory and share their talents to better the lives of others. We prepare theatrical productions that we then perform for public audiences inviting donations to a charitable project that the students get to help select, design and create. Thus far we have sponsored three students who could not afford school to attend in Rwanda, donated hundreds to Operation Underground Railroad and took $958 to Mexico and helped build a home and a library and participated in a food drive. In our third season, our two teams are growing into four and include more than 70 kids. In addition to our public performances we take our shows and songs to care centers, homeless shelters, schools for those with differing abilities, and are excited that we are now scheduling performances at the juvenile prison, state mental hospital and the Christmas Box house. The Christensen family wants to deeply thank the parents that have shared their kids and have gone on this delightful and meaningful journey with us, thank those who loved us so much that we had to find a way to give back, and thank the incredible youth that light up all kinds of places and faces with their love, talent and energy!