The Coterie, a professional Equity theatre, is among the top five theatres serving families and young audiences in the United States, according to TIME magazine. Travel+Leisure magazine's top ten list of children's theatres described the Coterie as "a theatre that resolutely refuses to talk down to its audience." The mainstage season consists of six full productions: three for older students ( junior high and high school ) and adults, and three for younger audiences and families. The emphasis is often on new or recent works. In 2008, the Coterie launched its Coterie At Night series, which performs exclusively at night at venues other than the Coterie, targeting ages 17 to 21. Through ingenious programming, the Coterie plays a vital role in the greater Kansas City area developing new generations of audiences for the performing arts with plays that reach a variety of age groups. In 1995, the prestigious Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Award was given to the theatre for its world premiere of Alicia in Wonder Tierra, a great success for the theatre involving actors in the Latino community in that production and many others. In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, the Coterie's world premieres included: Sheldon Harnick's Dragons, Edward Mast's Wolf Child: The Correction of Joseph as well as The Very First Family, Across the Plains, Nate the Great, Gatherings in Graveyards, Oz and numerous premieres from the Little House series. Further, the Coterie mounted the professional American premiere of Lord of the Flies in its Great Books/Banned Books season, and the first staging of the opera Green Eggs and Ham, after its concert premiere. Regional premieres have included Athol Fugard's My Children! My Africa! and Valley Song. In 1999, the Coterie world premiere commission of The Wrestling Season went on to be produced around the country after it transferred to Kennedy Center for New Visions 2000: One Theatre World. The play was featured as the published play in American Theatre Magazine in November, 2000. Several of the Coterie's premieres were developed at the Kennedy Center's New Vision/New Voices new play festival NYU's Educational Theatre Program at Provincetown Playhouse In the fall of 2002, The Coterie underwent a tremendous renovation of its facility. This renovation added a kinetic new lobby, a theatre lab for onsite classes, and an improved stage. The Coterie believes innovative set staging, set design, lighting and costuming allow children to visualize life in unique and personal ways. Shortly after this, the Coterie purchased new seating with a distinctive color scheme. The Coterie still seats small children on the floor for its Elementary/Family Series, for an up close and personal theatre experience. For its Preteen/Young Adult series, every audience member has a traditional theatre seat. In 2004, Producing Artistic Director Jeff began the Coterie's Lab for New Family Musicals by working with Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty to create a Theatre for Young Audiences version of Seussical adapted from the Broadway full-length. It has since become one of the most produced plays for eduational theatre in United States. The Coterie's Lab for New Family Musicals has hosted new work by musical theatre artists Stephen Schwartz ( Geppetto & Son ), Willie and Rob Reale ( The Dinosaur Musical ), and Harry Connick Jr. ( The Happy Elf ), and other works by Ahrens and Flaherty ( Twice Upon a Time and a TYA version of ( Once On This Island ), Douglas Parker and Denver Casado ( Life on the Mississippi ), as well as Henry Krieger and Bill Russell ( Lucky Duck ) In addition, the mainstage season includes the Young Playwrights' Festival, which features the works of teen playwrights fostered through the Young Playwrights' Roundtable, facilitated by Artistic Director Church. The Dramatic AIDS Education Project is a collaborative program between The Coteri