On August 25 we launched an Emergency Campaign to raise over $90,000 by October 10 to keep Wayside Theatre alive. A few days later we opened a production of Steel Magnolias that quickly became an audience favorite. As the early returns for the Emergency Campaign came in, it became apparent that we were going to find our community willing to step up and graciously help the theatre out of the current cash crunch. Bolstered by those early returns ($30,000 in the first week of the campaign) we launched rehearsals for The Woman in Black on Sept 20. As we all worked hard to keep the early momentum of the campaign going and began rehearsing this spine-tingling two-hander, there was this odd sense of impending success married to an even odder sense of not knowing what the future will bring.
Well, the Emergency Campaign is over. Our community stepped forward and the total amount donated is over $104,500. We've paid back the bills we had accumulated, we've opened Woman in Black, and now we begin preparations for our annual Christmas Show, the world premiere of Glory Bea! A Shenandoah Christmas Story by Richard Follett and Larry Dahlke.
In the interim we had to let some staff members go, reducing our team even more. That put stress on an already stressed organization, but it also opened up an opportunity for each member of the team to step up. And step up they did. The opening night performance of The Woman in Black, like the Emergency Campaign, showed what a group of determined individuals can do if they care and if they want to create their own success. We had a great performance by our cast, Jody Lee and David Millstone. Rebecca Calkin stepped up big time in every aspect of the theatre proving that she can indeed do it all. Our tiny admin staff pumped out an amazing level of work, and our production team did did an outstanding job. They usually do, but they exceeded what, by any rights, they should have been capable of, given all we were facing with the demands of the show, and the Campaign running.
I've always been proud to be a part of the team that is Wayside Theatre, but at Sunday night's opening that sense of pride was eclipsed by the weight of the knowledge of what these few individuals had accomplished. Our community should be very proud of the way it rallied to Wayside Theatre's cause in these recent weeks. That community should also be very proud of the amazing group of artists and adminstrators that it has within its bosom at this tiny little theatre with a big heart called Wayside Theatre.
Like the show they just created, they have the power to take your breath away.
