Hello blog readers! Amelia, here. I know it’s been a while since we’ve posted a new blog, my apologies. We’ve been taking our hiatus quite seriously, going on vacations, enjoying wine festivals and just sort of generally taking some well-earned time off.
As was mentioned in our last post, we’ve got a super-duper fundraiser coming up on July 9th. Tickets will go on sale soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that. But I’m not here to plug the fundraiser today!
We’ve spent some time talking to local businesses about donating items for the fundraiser’s silent auction. I don’t know if you all know this, but generally, businesses ask for donation request letters to be put on your organizations letterhead, they ask for your EIN and they want to know more about what you do, who you are, etc. In putting together our whole spiel for these awesome businesses, we gathered and were surprised by the following information…
Last season:
We had Actors, Designers, and Directors who came to work with us from California, Virginia, Canada, West Virginia, and South Carolina. Neat!
We employed roughly 40 folks (actors, designer, directors, stage managers, builders, photographers!) each of who got paid for their work and time. Rad!
We had patrons come see our shows from all over the country including, but not limited to Texas, Kentucky, Michigan, Alabama, California, Wyoming, New Mexico (of course!), Virginia, Ohio, Arizona. Now we’re gonna start on all 50 so we can brag about having a full set!
Last season and moving into the future we have produced or will be producing plays that vary from adaptations of the classics (Taming of the Shrew and Oedipus) to works by modern, established playwrights (Trust by Steven Dietz, Oleanna by David Mamet, reasons to be pretty by Neil LaBute) to family friendly holiday fare (Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol) to newer works by newer playwrights (Phoenix by Scott Organ and Wooden Snowflakes by Catherine Bush) and even a musical! That’s the Last 5 Years by Jason Robert Brown, in case any of you were wondering.
We’ve been committed to color and gender blind casting and if any of you saw the fearless Colleen McClure and her portrayal of Scrooge in Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol or Frank Green in a tour de force performance as Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, you’ll know exactly why we play a little fast and loose with character types here at DCRT. Sadly, even though we are absolutely committed to promoting women in leadership positions in the arts, we can only count 1 female playwright among our chosen works throughout these 2 seasons. But don’t worry! We’re in the works to produce a show for Young Audiences by one of my absolute favorite playwrights, who just happens to be an incredible woman as well, sometime during this coming season. We’ll be keeping things multi-culti here at The Rep!
This isn’t even all of the awesome and crazy stats I have from our short history! I look at this data and I’m so energized and hopeful and optimistic about our future here in Albuquerque, this city that I love so much. I’m so honored that we’ve been able to serve our awesome audiences and we’re all working hard to continue serving you all into the future. And I’m especially looking forward to our Twilight Gypsy Bazaar Fundraiser because I know it’s gonna be a humdinger of a party!
Alright! Enough rhapsodizing for today, I’ve got to get back to work!
Off we go…