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September 02, 2003Give the gift of theater, dammit!
I've moved in, but the settling in is taking its sweet time. I don't yet have my couch (the acquisition of which depends entirely upon the kindness and schedule of my friend Kristen), which I think will lock my living room/dining room area into some degree of finality by virtue of its size and presence. Of course, said presence requires it to be...well...present.
Along a similar vein, the unpacking of boxes has been abandoned for hanging up posters and buying frames for pictures and old book pages that I'd always wanted to display, but for which I'd never had enough room.
No, I don't pretend to understand my priorities, either.
The real purpose of this particular journal entry is to spread the word about The Company Rep's upcoming production of "The Fantasticks". My friend Jon Bastian is a member of the company, not to mention their webmaster.
The show opens Thursday, September 11th and runs through Sunday, October 19th. Tickets are $20 to $25, but there are discounts available for groups, seniors, and students.
In addition to talking up the show, I wanted to let my visitors know about The Company Rep's Angel Subscribers Program. The idea here is that, for as little as $60, you can have tickets for The Company Rep's four-show season donated to a student or senior organization of your choice (or theirs, if you're not picky). Thus, somebody who couldn't otherwise afford it has the chance to go to the theater.
I can't recommend this program enough, folks. I'm horribly biased, of course, but I think that theater can be an acutely moving experience. I forced my senior English students to go and watch a play or musical during the third quarter of my course, and the results were really gratifying. I wanted them to review whatever show they saw on a variety of criteria, applying some of the themes and ideas we'd been discussing in class. For quite a few of them, it was the first time they'd gone to see any sort of live theater, and many of the newbies enjoyed it a lot more than they'd expected. Nobody leapt through the door, fell to their knees and threw up jazz hands the next day, but I'd at least had a hand in enlarging their world a tiny bit. My girlfriend had a similar experience when she was teaching fourth grade and took a few of her students to see a local production of "West Side Story" as a reward for a class project well done. These were kids from families for whom getting by was enough of a struggle, never mind having the time, money or energy to enrich their children with theater.
Anyhow, I'm off my soapbox now. If you can support the Angel Subscribers Program, please do so. I don't yet know if the next two years will grant me the financial latitude to donate to causes like this, but I figured I could at least talk it up for free. I'd invite other po' folks and student-types to do the same.
Posted by patrick at September 2, 2003 01:33 AM
CommentsThank you, thank you for the plug. And for those who can't afford the subscription or the full ticket price, we have a special deal through September 28th -- ten dollar ticket vouchers. Now, in theory, I'm selling them in person, in advance, but that's a little difficult to do with complete strangers via the internet. So, if you're interested, email me and maybe I can coordinate an "at the door" thing.
It really is a fabulous show with a great cast -- and the original holds the record has longest running musical of all time, having played for more than forty years in the same off-Broadway theatre.
Posted by: Jon Bastian at September 2, 2003 09:39 AM
The longest running musical of all time?
Don't you think that's a statement that gets tossed around a little too much.
I'm sure you'll all do well, so break a leg.
Posted by: Phil at September 3, 2003 11:44 AM
Hey, Phil. The Fantasticks actually does hold the record for playing the longest continuous run in the same theatre. Shows like Cats>/I> or A Chorus Line may now or eventually hold the record for most produced or longest non-continuous run, but so far nothing else has even come close to The Fantasticks. It opened at the Sullivan Theatre on May 3, 1960 and closed in 2002 after 17,162 performances.
Quite a run, eh?
Posted by: Jon Bastian at September 3, 2003 11:56 AM
Well that shut me up, have fun on the first night then (Since its always the worst for a turnout).
Posted by: Phil at September 4, 2003 04:12 AM
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