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The American Repertory Theater announced the launch of the Lavine Learning Lab late last month, a new program that connects local public high school students to theater through student workshops centered around A.R.T. productions.

The Learning Lab is supported by the Lavine Family Foundation — also called the Crimson Lion Foundation — founded by philanthropists Jonathan S. Lavine, Chair of Bain Capital, and Jeannie B. Lavine ’88. The pair are prominent Harvard donors, having previously given $12 million to Harvard Business School — their shared alma mater — to support fellowships for first-generation students.

In this program, high school students from six local schools participate in a series of three workshops meant to introduce them to professional theater.

Participating schools for the upcoming year will include Boston Green Academy, Boston International Newcomers Academy, Malden High School, John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics & Science, and Boston Latin Academy. The latter two are Boston exam schools.

The program comes as A.R.T. moves across the river into the Allston neighborhood of Boston. Its new home, the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance, is currently under construction at 175 N Harvard St., right next door to the Trader Joe’s location in Allston.

The theater’s expensive move represents another branch of Harvard’s broader expansion into Lower Allston, which it has faced significant pressure to offset by offering community benefits to the neighborhood. The A.R.T.’s executive director, Kelvin Dinkins Jr., previously said over the summer that the organization was working with the Boston Planning Department to create outreach programming to the city.

In a press release from the theater, the Lavines said they were “delighted to play a part in engaging Boston’s students and teachers in the essential questions sparked by A.R.T.’s world-class programming and in supporting A.R.T., whose work inspires people all throughout our city and this country.”

Leah C. Harris, the Artistic Engagement Associate at the A.R.T. and one of the program’s facilitators, said in an interview that the program would also better connect its students to adult theatergoers by avoiding the cheaper afternoon programming that school field trips typically attend in favor of evening shows.

“This is not a student matinee program. The program is intentionally in the evening slot,” Harris said, highlighting that high school students bring “a different kind of vibrancy” to the A.R.T.’s typically older evening audience.

Learning Lab students will sit in small groups throughout the audience, “next to our subscribers, our Board members, other Harvard community members,” Harris said, enriching the experiences of adult theatergoers who can “hear their opinions and see them laugh” during shows.

The A.R.T. hopes that the Lab will inspire other institutions around Cambridge and Boston. “Hopefully the Learning Lab can serve as a model for other theaters or arts and culture institutions to think about their audience and the kind of community that they want to cultivate within their audience,” Harris said.

There are no particular criteria for student participation, except that the selected students engage thoughtfully with “hard topics,” according to Harris.

Many participants “aren’t necessarily theater kids,” Harris added. “They’re just interested in seeing art and having conversations.”