Stephanie Ansin

Founder and Creative Director of Miami Theatre Center
Social Entrepreneurship Bootcamp Cohort 1

Reach out to Stephanie on LinkedIn

The Leader

Stephanie Ansin, a Miami native, returned to her hometown after earning her MFA in Theater Directing at Columbia University, where she successfully co-founded the non-profit Stari Repertory Theater. The repertory theater moved to South Florida with her. That year, she founded The PlayGround Theater in Miami Shores. The company quickly earned rave reviews and developed into a well-respected theatrical destination, staging imaginative, beautifully designed original children’s theater that attracted national attention. In 2006, she bought and renovated a dilapidated former movie theater, running a popular children’s summer camp and regularly bussed in thousands of schoolchildren for performances that were often their first exposure to theater. In 2012 the organization became the Miami Theater Center, and now provides productions for adults in addition to shows for multi-generational audiences.

Recent Wins

Finalist for the Ellen Stewart International Award (2016)

The Bold Idea

Create transformative live arts experiences and educational opportunities for people of all ages, abilities, and cultural socioeconomic backgrounds, and provide affordable rehearsal, performance, and screening facilities for artists and arts organizations.

The organization

Miami Theater Center (MTC) is a cultural organization located in the heart of Miami Shores’ downtown district. While MTC is nationally recognized for groundbreaking adaptations of children’s literature and original plays, its profound commitment to community is the focus of their new mission of creating transformative live experiences and educational opportunities for people of all ages, abilities, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, and to provide affordable rehearsal, performance and screening facilities for artist and arts organizations. Stephanie has since left to pursue other creative endeavors.