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Community Arts, Community Theater
People ask how "the arts" are important to a community. Folks do art all the time —they sing in church and in smaller rooms, they write poems to say to loved ones, their little kids put on skits and draw dinosaurs, the older ones play in bands and orchestras. It used to be that an aristocrat could employ a Mozart or a Michelangelo and keep the music or the paintings to himself. Today art takes a more direct route to the people and looks more directly to them for support; ordinary people help pay for the arts every time they buy a CD, go to a movie, rent a trombone, or choose a painting to hang on the wall. We aren’t talking about "public" (i.e., government) support but about private efforts to sustain what communities already treat as a vital part of their life. Community theater is just one of many branches of art seeking help from individuals and businesses that want to promote these popular and necessary activities.
We Town & Gown members want you to know about some things we’re proud of:
- We’ll celebrate half a century of community theater just three years from now.
- We put up more productions and have more participants than most community theaters.
- Our shows achieve excellence at low cost.
- We sell enough tickets to pay production costs and operate the company.
- We’re a not-for-profit [501(c)(3)] company with no paid staff.
- We’ve created a renovation plan to make the playhouse safer and more comfortable.
- Half of the planned renovations are done and paid for.
This package describes what we have done and what we plan to do in the next year and a half.
Because Town & Gown ticket sales pay for production and overhead costs, what the Players seek in 2000 is support to complete the renovation.
Our main need is cash, of course. Gifts can be designated for the Renovation Fund or, by arrangement with the board of directors, for specific renovation activities.
Town & Gown can also accept gifts in kind (goods or services) that accord with our renovation needs. The nature, scope and timing of such gifts must also be arranged with the board of directors.
Donors to the Renovation Fund will be recognized by listing on a permanent plaque to be placed on the wall in the lobby. Names will be classified by size of gift. Identification of corporate supporters can include logos of suitable size.
Multi-year support is always welcome, of course, but current plans call for the completion of renovation work by mid-2001, and gifts received after that time may not be designated except by special arrangement with the board of directors.
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