A Note from the Director…
The theatre…where art comes to life, or in this case, where a literary classic comes to life! This season we are conquering one of the hardest genres there is, fantasy and fairytales. Why is this difficult? The answer is simple, anyone can dream. As a child (and even now) we dreamt of worlds beyond our own, we created fantasy places for us to escape, we imagined lives for the fairytale characters of our bedtime stories. I don’t know about you, but I hold strong ownership over my dreams. And when other people try to imagine them…then get them wrong…I don’t necessarily like that.
The Hobbit has gained masses of fans since its first publication in 1937. These fans have been thrilled over the years through the various re-releases of the books, the creation of the animated film, the epic live action films that cost hundreds of millions of dollars and now, to fulfill all of these dreams and expectations in a stage production.
Throughout the design process we tried to include as many opinions as possible in order to create a blended world of dreams. This world of dreams also symbolizes the assortment of dreams we have used to build the program. Last year our goal was to build the foundation of our “city” with Godspell; to create a black box experience with The Winter One Acts; and lastly to work as a team to build a mansion and burn it down (multiple times) with God’s Favorite. What a better way to continue to build our dream legacy than with the epic world of The Hobbit?
This season we will build dreams and bring fairytales to life, not just for our usual audience members but also our guests with special needs and disabilities by adding our first ever sensory friendly matinee for both mainstage productions this year. Our dream is that theatre should be for everyone and that everyone should have access to experience the performing arts. Along with our sensory friendly shows we have also added Pay if You Can or Pay with a Can shows which will not only allow our audience to receive a great deal on the ticket price but also raising canned food donations for a local food bank.
In the past year we have grown our program from twelve students to over sixty five! As Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…” we hope that you allow us to be your players this evening, and if by chance we receive the honor of taking the show to the Missouri State Thespian Conference in January may we continue to grow and learn as a company. Thank you for supporting our program as we continue to grow and try new things in the name of art!
I have a feeling by this time next year you may be hearing calls of, “I’m not dead yet!”
Tag,
W
