Founded Houston native, Cristal Chanelle Truscott, Progress Theatre [PT] is a nationally and internationally-touring ensemble committed to using theatre as anti-racism engagement to encourage social consciousness, cross-community dialogue, healing and cultural awareness. Since 2000, PT has toured dynamic, original performances which Cristal has branded, Neo-Spirituals--a’capella musicals with a fusion of styles from Negro Spirituals to the Blues, Jazz, NeoSoul, R&B, hip-hop and spoken word. PT considers all of our initiatives as community-engaged, community-invested and community-necessitated. We are, at once, performers/creators of ensemble-driven theatre works, presenters and supporters of artists who share our mission and creative collaborators with the communities we serve. By engaging various communities onstage and off, PT strives to change the make-up of average theatergoers, encouraging audiences diverse in race, age/generation and spiritual background. The dream and intention of PT’s work is to explore the most compelling, honest, unflinching ways of approaching questions of humanity, and the social concerns and insights of our times inclusive of race, class, gender and spiritual identity— in the service of unity through diversity, cross-community healing and understanding. To learn more, visit: www.ProgressTheatre.com.