THE PLAYGROUND COLLECTIVE
Founded and curated by Mads Middleton
The Playground Collective is a group of creative people from various backgrounds and disciplines who come together to explore their curiosities. The Collective congregates every two weeks with a different member facilitating at the helm, offering a wide-range of experiences into the creative process. Examples of past workshop topics include performance devising, dance and movement, nervous system regulation, and a scavenger-hunt. For the Playground Collective, play and discovery are not merely a means-to-an-end but central, all-encompassing goals.
If you're interested in learning more or in joining the collective fill out this FORM.
Madison “Mads” Middleton (they/them) is a non-binary theatre-maker, musician, and teaching artist based in New York City. Madison founded The Playground Collective in the summer of 2025 with the aid of co-conspirator Ryan Kirby. Originally from the DC area, Madison is a Middlebury College graduate. They are the Program Associate at Beyond the Page, a Middlebury College-affiliated program that brings theatre practices into classrooms and communities. Madison is a member of the Bread Loaf School of English Acting Ensemble and served as the Bread Loaf Theatre Manager in 2023. They currently support NYU’s monthly Verbatim Salon as a facilitation consultant. At the core of Madison’s work is a profound interest in queerness, generational healing, and the cyclical nature of time. They are particularly curious about stories that bridge history with the contemporary moment in playful, transcendent ways. Music and sound is a fundamental component of their artistry. Broadly, Madison is interested in how art can intertwine with justice, community building, and envisioning utopian presents and futures. Beyond theatre and music, Mads enjoys working on their visual art practice, reading, talking with their grandmothers, and basking in nature.
