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Friends of The Rep Newsletter Archive | |
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Friends
of the Rep October 2001 Newsletter
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| Willamette Repertory Theatre |
Eugene,
Oregon
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Volume
2 Issue 1
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October
3, 2001
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"Willamette Repertory Theatre Announces Third Season!" by Kirk Boyd, WRT Artistic Director |
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| Willamette Repertory Theatre's
third season will feature three popular events chosen for their healthy
amounts of laughter, tears and wonderment. The area's only Equity professional
theatre is presenting a three-show season that includes Love Letters,
A Midsummer Night's Dream and Steel Magnolias. During our 'intermission' the board and staff have been working diligently creating a strategic plan, surveying our audience, and taking initial strides towards longevity. As we embark of this most crucial season we have made many changes that will enhance our ability to succeed. Our third season is of particular importance because three seasons of production history is the final milepost to achieve to be considered a Resident Company of the Hult Center. We have achieved all of the other requirements. The Oregon Arts Commission also requires three years of operation before an application can be made for support. In addition to the planning work that has been done we have chosen shows that we believe will allow us to share our work with the greatest number of people. I hope you agree and will join us for these very special events. Love Letters, (December 14 - 16) A.R. Gurney's unique and imaginative theatre piece will feature former Eugene actress Priscilla Hake Lauris and Oregon Shakespeare Festival Associate Artist James Edmondson. The play is comprised of letters exchanged over a lifetime between two people who grew up together, went their separate ways, but continued to share confidences. This special event will perform three times over one weekend. Ms. Lauris is well known to the Eugene theatre community having appeared with the Eugene Festival of Musical Theatre, Oregon Repertory Theatre among others. After stints with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, television and movies, Priscilla now lives in Seattle. Mr. Edmondson is well known to travelers to Ashland. As the Associate Artist at OSF he has directed and acted there for nearly thirty years. Most recently his portrayal of King Lear highlighted the indoor season two years ago and his production of Fuddy Meers this season in the Black Swan is the surprise hit of the season. (a surprise only because most people don't know the play.) Hans Christofferson (The Miracle Worker) will direct. A Midsummer Night's Dream, (March 14 & 15, 2002) a collaboration with the Eugene Symphony, will be performed in the Silva Concert Hall. Composer Felix Mendelssohn created his famous incidental music to accompany Shakespeare's fantastical tale of dreams and love. Our actors will share the Silva stage with the Eugene Symphony in an exciting co-production that will feature all of Mendelssohn's music and the Bard's text. Steel Magnolias, by Robert Harding (April 10 - 28) is Harling's first play and it was met with immediate critical and popular acceptance in its premiere production by New York's WPA Theatre. Concerned with a group of gossipy southern ladies in a small-town beauty parlor, the play is alternately hilarious and touching - and, in the end, deeply revealing of the strength and purposefulness which underlies the antic banter of its characters. New York director Clinton Turner Davis will join Willamette Rep for the first time. |
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Ashland
Supports Willamette Rep
Join us for a very special evening of entertainment featuring company members from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to benefit Willamette Rep. As many of you know, I spent most of the last two decades in Ashland working for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Many of you, our most loyal audience, also travel to Ashland annually to see the work of that amazing Tony Award winning company. Some of those actors have become familiar to you over the years. Here is your chance to see them in Eugene! One night only! The company members from OSF want to show their support for Willamette Rep and here is the opportunity for them to help in a way that will entertain the entire community. The evening will be filled with the spoken word, songs and 'what you will'. For those of you familiar with Ashland, some of the people who have agreed to come perform are Barry Kraft, familiar to Eugene audiences for his work with the Eugene Symphony, Todd Barton, resident composer of the Shakespeare Festival and creator of some of the world's first Genome Music, Ray Porter, who burst into leading roles with his amazing performance in La Bete in 1992. Ray has gone on to roles on television, movies and continues in Ashland, this season playing Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Please join us for this special event on November 1st at 8pm in the Soreng theatre. Call the Hult box office at 682-5000 for tickets. |
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An Update
by Michael Peterson, General Manager During the past six months we have been actively working with local corporations and individuals to help us get through our "intermission" as well as to secure their support for our upcoming season. Our deepest gratitude goes out to these corporations and individuals for their support and understanding during this period of transition and planning. In terms of corporate sponsorship for our 2001/02 season the following corporations have made commitments to help support the Rep: The Register-Guard, Sony Disc Manufacturing, Symantec, Weyerhauser, Molecular Probes, Centennial Bank, Merrill Lynch, Bi-Mart, Donald K. Armstrong, P.C., Brad's Cottage Grove Chevrolet and Journey Tree Financial Planning and Investments. We also have received a grant from the Lane Arts Council. In terms of the $25,000 matching grant from the Kelly Family Foundation we are currently only $2,000 from reaching our goal. So we are in the final stages of making one last push to secure the last bit of money and thus match the grant and receive our matching money. So if you haven't already donated to this grant now is the time to help us reach our goal. For those of you that have already donated towards this matching grant we thank you for your continued support in helping us meet our contributed income goals for our upcoming season! |
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Change
and Progress
by Robert Boyt Foster, Board President My mother once suggested to me as only mothers can "suggest," that change and progress cannot be rushed. Since Willamette Repertory Theatre took its "intermission" and suspended theatre productions until we could gain long-term financial stability, change and progress have markedly occurred, but, oh, so slowly! Gathering community folks to participate in a visioning session took over a month to organize, as did surveying a representative portion of our audiences. Sifting through all this data with the board of directors, setting priorities, designing strategies and implementing them progressed slowly, primarily because most of the participants have been volunteers with jobs and families. Finally, searching for individuals to help us finance the costs of a lengthy campaign has taken the most time. Happily, because of the dedication of our small staff and our board of directors, and with the efforts of individuals who have given us invaluable suggestions, we approach the time when our financial campaigns will be launched. |
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Help!
Now, with endless detail ahead of us, we need all kinds of help. If you have any time to spare, we can use it. Phone Mike Peterson, our General Manager, and he'll put you to work Thanks for your support. |
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Become a Member of Willamette Rep The truth is that because of the way we produce in the Hult Center, there are fewer opportunities for volunteering with us than with other companies. Our 'Friends of The Rep' volunteer organization was formed to assist us in utilizing volunteers. Now over 100 strong many of our 'Friends' have expressed frustration about not being called to help. In most companies the help can be utilized around the production efforts: ushering, help with the set and/or costumes, and office assistance during peak production times. Our situation is different and while we have used our 'Friends' for some of these things it is difficult (because of the paid staff at the Hult) for us in the production areas. One tangible way to help Willamette Rep is by demonstrating your support for us and expressing your desire for our success. Ambassadors in the community are vital for our continued success. By becoming a Member of Willamette Rep you can receive benefits while benefiting the organization in a most visible way. Word of mouth is still the strongest marketing tool any organization can have. Positive word of mouth compounds. For a nominal charge you and your family can be good will ambassadors for Willamette Rep - that is the best and most effective way to volunteer. You will be receiving information about this exciting program soon and we hope you will take advantage of this very real opportunity to 'help'. |
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Friends
of the Rep April 2001 Newsletter
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| Willamette Repertory Theatre |
Eugene,
Oregon
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Volume
1 Issue 6
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April
25, 2001
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Willamette Repertory Theatre Collaborates with The Eugene Symphony
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"Beware The Ides of March" by Kirk Boyd, Producing Director Sprites among the strings; Fairies amidst the French horns; Royalty around the brass! |
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| Imagine, if you will, the Silva
stage filled with the magic of Shakespeare AND Mendelssohn. Such will be
the case next March 14th & 15th when we will share the stage with the Eugene
Symphony for a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Composer Felix Mendelssohn composed incidental music for the great Shakespeare comedy in the 19th Century, over 200 years after the play was penned. Now, nearly 200 years hence, we will perform the pieces together. This special event will be Miguel Harth-Bedoya's penultimate concert as he leaves for Fort Worth at the end of the 2001-2002 season. We sat down last week to begin our creative discussions for this exciting and dynamic evening in the theatre. There will be three performances: a student matinee performance the morning of Thursday, March 14th; the evening Symphony performance (a regular performance in their series) that evening at 8:00; and another performance (which will be a subscribed performance for our season ticket holders) on Friday the "Ides of March" at 8:00. All three performances will feature both Willamette Rep and the Symphony sharing the Silva stage. Joining the 14 actors and 70+ musicians will be a female soloist and a 30-member chorus. I know of at least four other productions like this and was able to attain the scripts for each of those performances. We will mount a complete production of Shakespeare's play, cut so that the entire evening of story and music lasts less than 2½ hours (with intermission). We will utilize our raked stage (that we had built to use for our shows in the Soreng) and the orchestra all as part of the setting. The new orchestra shell should be in place by March. Details of the design are being worked out and final cutting of the script and placement of music will be decided in the coming months. In the meantime it is safe to say that we are all excited by the possibilities. The project is being supported by a grant from the Hult Endowment. |
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A Dream
of a Different Sort
by Robert Boyt Foster, Board President-Elect |
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| Before anyone else thinks
of it, let me be the first to belie any notion that I have any kinship with
Bottom. Our dream is of a different sort from Shakespeare’s and not
nearly as fantastical as anything Bottom might imagine! First, Kirk Boyd’s dream of a professional, Equity theatre in a town that already supports professional-level symphony, ballet, opera, and concert choir certainly is not just a fancy of his mind. For the very reasons that Eugene currently supports these performing arts is argument aplenty that professional theatre can operate here as well. Second, the number of patrons who have attended Willamette Rep’s first 5 productions suggests a desire and therefore a need for professional theatre. Attendance at the first 5 productions averaged over 2,500, not counting 3,690 Theatre Alive! students. Other theatre companies in town, when successfully attracting capacity crowds, produce very similar statistics - about 2,500. Therefore, as one board member suggested, Willamette Rep has accomplished much attraction in such a short time and deserves accolades. However, professional Equity theatre, not unlike other professional performing arts groups, costs money, much more than the income produced by 2,500 patrons. So, we’re back to the first argument: can Eugene support a professional theatre company in such a competitive market as exists here? Statistical analysis of Willamette Rep audiences suggests an absolute answer of “Yes!” Here’s a simple explanation of why. The approximate 2,500 individuals who attended each of the 5 productions differed with each production. In other words, generally speaking, a different set of individuals came to each of the 5 productions. Simply stated, Willamette Rep has not an audience of 2,500 individuals, but rather something approximating 7,000 individuals! One statistic, for instance, suggests that of the 1,844 individuals who bought tickets during 1999/00, only 405 or 22% purchased tickets to a 2000/01 production So, one conclusion must be that potentially Willamette Rep’s audience could be 2 to 3 times larger. That’s the good news. The obvious concern with these statistics is the question they force us to ask: why did only 22% of last year’s patrons return this year? If you have any suggestions as to why, please contact by phone or e-mail Kirk, me, or Greg Foote, or any board member. We earnestly want to hear any explanation you might have. Why? Because with the current attendance at approximately 33% capacity for each show, our costs exceed income by such a degree that we decided to suspend operations until a solution can be found to bring the two into a healthy balance. We need to find a way(s) to increase attendance per show from 33% to 65%. Because Willamette Rep has already attracted enough individuals to meet that goal, such an increase is certainly possible . . . if you will help by sharing with us how we might better appeal to all of the 7,000. See you next season! |
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Statistics That Suggest Optimism
The following statistics reflect the 5 productions since fall of 1999: Total Attendance of 5 shows = 13,495  A 29% increase of season tickets from 442 to 572 3,600 students attending Theatre Alive! matinees Tickets purchased by patrons from over 80 towns 74% of the audience of Comedy of Errors were new patrons Except for ticket sales, Willamette Rep’s income has met expectations: 
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Electronic Newsletter Only? |
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Chairs! Chairs! Chairs!
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Willamette Repertory Theatre and Lord Leebrick will work together to claim nearly 500 theatre
seats that are being donated by Arlie and Company. They purchased the closed cinema on West
11th and offered the seats to various arts groups Thanks go to Board President Greg Foote
for arranging the deal. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS to help us remove the seats and load them onto trucks to be taken to storage (donated by Bi Mart) on SATURDAY, MAY 19 at 9:00 am. It is likely to take all day. If you can help all or part of that day please contact Michael Peterson at Willamette Rep offices at 343-9903. |
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Friends
of the Rep March 2001 Newsletter
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| Willamette Repertory Theatre |
Eugene,
Oregon
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Volume
1 Issue 5
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March
26, 2001
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Hop Aboard WRT's Financial Drive!!
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| With the announcement that The
Rep will take an intermission until next season, we begin an immense project
that will require the backing and active energies of everybody who supports
Willamette Repertory Theatre. This issue of Friends of The Rep News
begins the first of many attempts to publicize in some detail the strategies
and their rationale of a fund-raising drive that will continue for approximately
8 months. At its conclusion, WRT hopes that financially we will not only
have stabilized our financial underpinnings, but will have prepared the
ground for financial stability far into the future. Our most urgent
need during this crucial period of time is the active support of Friends,
Donors, and Volunteers. Please stop and think for a moment how you
can best help us become a permanent part of the performing arts community
in Eugene. Give Producing Director Kirk Boyd a call at 343-9903. And thanks
in advance for your personal and financial contributions. |
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The Rep's Future by Kirk Boyd, Producing Director |
| You may have heard
by now that at the last board of directors' meeting we made the decision
to take an 'intermission' from producing shows. Chaps!, the final
show of this season, will not be produced. The decision not to produce Chaps! was, in fact, not a decision at all. It was a realization. A realization that we simply did not have enough money at the time we needed it. The most expensive time for The Rep is when we are in production. We pay 'living wages' to the actors, craftspeople and designers who create and build our shows. It is a strange situation to experience. The long-term future for The Rep looks so bright and yet the day-to-day survival is a challenge. This time the challenge got the better of us. This temporary setback will give us the time we need to build a stronger financial base, one that can weather the ebbs and flows of our season. With your help we will return with another season filled with surprises, variety and stories of the human heart. Michael and I are in the final stages of planning our third season and we will announce those shows very soon. We know that we will co-produce A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Eugene Symphony in March 2002. When Miguel Harth-Bedoya and I worked together on Shakespeare: Love & Tragedy in 1998, we agreed to find another project on which to collaborate. The marriage of Shakespeare and Mendelssohn is exciting and dynamic. We will share the stage with the Symphony in a full production of one of Shakespeare's best scripts. I will direct the Shakespeare and Miguel will conduct what will be one of his last concerts before he leaves for Fort Worth. Our goal of creating quality, memorable theatre for the citizens of our community is very much within our reach. We have played to over 13,000 people and our audience base continues to grow. In addition our Theatre Alive! matinees have provided a live-theatre experience to over 3,500 of our children. Our fund-raising efforts need more focus and our board of directors is in process of re-organization. All of this is very healthy. Please keep us in mind for any support you can provide and help us let people know that this 'intermission' is just that. There will be a third act and a fourth and a fifth! Rumors at times like this are rampant. If you hear misinformation please correct it or let us know so we can. Thank you so much for your interest in and support of our endeavors to date. Here's to the future! |
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Dear Friends
of The Rep
by Greg Foote, President-Board of Directors |
| As you know by now, much is
happening with The Rep. The Board made the decision to postpone production
of shows until next season—the operative words being "next season,"
because we fully expect there to be one. We decided that, besides money,
what we needed now was time. We found ourselves constantly having
to react to challenges rather than getting out ahead of them. We view our
decision as the most responsible thing to do in order to insure the long-term
health of The Rep. In the months ahead, we hope to stabilize our financial
picture, reorganize our board and administration, and fully promote our
next season. We've come a long way since we formed the theatre three years ago! We have enjoyed the support of many donors, large and small, foundations, and businesses. We have a group of Friends numbering over a hundred. We have a growing and committed Board. Our season ticket subscriptions have steadily increased. And, most importantly, we now have a track record of producing five excellent shows that have been well-received by audiences and critics alike. We've played to over 12,000 people. We need your help now more than ever. We have some ideas for marketing The Rep that will involve personal contact with our audiences. We're adding members to our committees. We're organizing a major fund-raising campaign. All of these things will require human power. That's you! Right now, you can help us most by staying positive and talking up The Rep in the community, and by listening to what people are saying. What do they know about The Rep? What do they like? What kinds of shows would they like to see us producing? And then give us your ideas. Later we'll be coming back to you with some specific projects we'd like your help on. In short, we're still here. We're still committed to bringing quality professional theatre to our community. We still believe we will succeed. And, we continue to be grateful for the support of people like you! |
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The Dream
Continues
by Stan Boyd, Past-President-Board of Directors |
| Professional theatre in Eugene
has proved itself in quality, thanks to Kirk Boyd (Producing Director) and
Mike Peterson (Managing Director). They have fulfilled their job and now
we need to give them the tools to continue this great adventure. With our Board I will certainly continue to work where I can and I know there are still many areas to pursue. Cindy Armstrong (Marketing Committee) and Jonathan Brandt (Finance Committee) are well launched and I know that all of us will support their ideas and projects with our time, effort, and dedication. There will be knocking on doors, spreading the word and mobilizing our 100+ Friends. So—here we go!! |
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Great Ideas
by Cindy Armstrong, Chair-Marketing Committee |
| Everyone has an opinion, and
ideas, and connections. Bring them all to the weekly Marketing Committee
Meeting. This fun group meets every Wednesday from 5:15 to 6:15 PM at the
Citizens Building, 975 Oak St. (Johnson, Clifton, Larson & Corson law
office, suite 1050). None of us are marketing professionals, but some of us do have experience in marketing arts organizations. We're all interested in getting more people to come to the theater. Your ideas could be immensely helpful, and you are welcome to drop in and see what we're up to. Our goal is to raise The Rep's visibility to support our fund-raising efforts. We also want to develop a marketing plan for next season. If you liked the plays you saw and think others would enjoy professional theater, help us find effective ways of telling the community about The Rep. These ideas could be as simple as where to hang a poster, or as complex as designing corporate partnerships and advertising campaigns. Can you think of a company newsletter where we might get a mention, or a business that would enclose an advertisement in their monthly statements? How do we get the people who have bought one ticket to buy a season ticket next year? What kind of an event would attract our ticket buyers and donors? For more information, contact Cindy Armstrong, 344-4192, or marchhare@nu-world.com. |
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How Can You Help?
PHONE 343-9903!!! |
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