Thanks to all who attended We Players 5th Annual Gala! We had a fantastic Saturday evening, celebrating our mission of connecting people with place through site-integrated theatre.
Sharing delicious, local food is at the heart of connecting with people and place. (That’s why we have food incorporated into most of our theatre projects!) Each year for our gala, we prepare a multi-course feast – most of which is sourced from area farmers yielding succulent seasonal, local and organic dishes. Of course we also share performance highlights from the past and ticklers of what’s to come, and shape characters specifically for this special evening.
We rely almost exclusively on volunteer support to pull this event off each year, and every bit of the proceeds goes directly to funding We Players site-integrated programming in the year ahead. The gala is a fixture of our annual fundraising efforts, without which we would be unable to realize many of our wildly ambitious projects.
The feast and festivities were fantastic! We’ve received many reports of 2014 being the best gala yet. Unfortunately, we did not meet our fundraising goal, and are just beginning to process what that means for how we use our time in this final month of our fundraising season, as well as potential impacts on our 2014 program schedule. Some years we are more successful than others. This is the life we have shaped for ourselves, forging ahead creating what we believe in, relying on community support amidst a society that largely undervalues art and the environment.
Yes, We persevere! And remain inspired.
In fact, we had such a great time at the gala, and so thoroughly enjoy looking around the room at all the bright and beaming faces of our guests, that we’re excited about starting a new We Players’ tradition – an End of Year party! Let’s gather just as the fall is settling and shifting into winter, to acknowledge the challenges we’ve faced and all the hard work throughout the year, and to celebrate our unique site-integrated theatre practices and captivating storytelling. We’ll share a toast and of course, a bite to eat. More details soon!
— Ava Roy and Lauren D. Chavez