Drama Beat
Long standing professional theatre company New West Theatre has fallen on tough times like a lot of local community groups and arts organizations, so they are reaching out the the community to “Save Our Stage.”
They have been providing family friendly entertainment and have given local performers a break on the big stage for the past 30 years, but lately veered off in to a slightly more experimental, more serious, issues heavy direction, which hasn’t been as successful as they hoped.
The September production of rock and roll musical “Next to Normal” and “Barvinok” weren’t as successful as they anticipated, so they are returning to what works, more mainstream shows like their family friendly music comedy revues.
With that “ course correction” in mind, they have set a goal of raising $150,000 in the next two months.
“Every little bit helps,” said New West board Chair Dawn Leite, after telling a story about her nephew Declan asking her why she was writing letters asking for help, and offering to donate five dollars.
“We expanded our offerings this year. We underestimated the community’s appetite for different programming,” Leite told a Nov. 18 press conference, noting they will be going back to programming that is a sure bet.
“ Audiences have not returned to pre-covid levels. So we’re returning to fun, family oriented theatrical selections,” she said.
“We need a little bit of additional funding to make that course correction,” she continued, adding they haven’t launched such a large fundraising campaign before, though they have done smaller campaigns.
New West Theatre’s next big show is their annual “Blockbuster” holiday show running Dec.14-31 to be directed by New West veteran Grahame Renyk.
Leite said there are some special live fundraising events on the horizon to help raise the extra money, which will be announced later.
She said the extra funds are essential.
“ It‘s critical. There is an urgent need,” she said acknowledging times are hard for a lot of people who have lost jobs and are just getting used to going out again after Covid.
“We have a number of reserves we can dip into,” she said, noting it is also national philanthropy week.
