
Spring 2020 Appeal
Oddfellows Playhouse celebrates 45 Years!!
Hello Friends and Neighbors,
We really hope that you are safe and well wherever you may be, and that you are finding some joy among the stress and disorientation. We know that this past month has been an unprecedented challenge for everyone.
On March 13 we closed our doors to the public at Oddfellows, after one beautiful, “families only” performance of Carlo Gozzi’s The Love of Three Oranges by the Junior Repertory Company. It was a fantastic evening of family, fun, fellowship and hand sanitizer for all, and then we took down the set and headed home.
That was over a month ago. The theater remains empty, but we have been finding ways to stay connected and look towards the future. Posting juggling tutorials on our Instagram and Facebook pages. Last week all the Junior Rep kids gathered on Zoom for a check-in and decided that we will start a virtual play reading group this week. Online hip hop dance class with Felicia Goodwine starts up next week. Allison McDermott has been connecting with the teens in Circophony and giving them weekly fitness challenges. In May we will be collaborating with Russell Library and ARTFARM to produce a serialized virtual performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Kids in our Musical Mentoring program are receiving one-on-one music lessons from Wesleyan students online. We were able to put urgently needed cash into the hands of over 40 teaching artists by re-purposing funding that we had received from the CT Office of the Arts to serve as a Resource Center for CT Teaching Artists.
Things are continuing, connections are being sustained, independent artists supported, and we are all still hopeful that there will be a Children’s Circus this summer, and that kids and families will fill the building next fall once again.
An event like this pandemic reminds us of how delicate and fragile everything is, and how much we depend on each other for so many things. As tuition income has completely evaporated at the Playhouse, we depend on your support now more than ever.
We ask you to give now if
you are able.
A big help at this time has been sustained support from those of you who have chosen to schedule a monthly gift to Oddfellows. Please consider becoming a “Playhouse Subscriber” by making a recurring donation – even a donation of $5 or $10 per month helps us look to the future with optimism and enthusiasm.
As you know it takes a village to keep a mission-driven organization like Oddfellows going for all these years therefore your support at any level makes a HUGE difference. So many lives have been changed by Oddfellows over the past 45 years, and the work (and the play) continues!
We couldn't do it without YOU for the past 45 years so a HUGE THANK YOU from the ENTIRE ODDFELLOWS FAMILY TO YOURS!
We will be back. We will all be back together.
Perhaps not in time for our 45th Birthday Party scheduled for June 20, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.
Stay
safe, and find ways to maintain your personal joy.
Thanks,
Dic
& Liz