What a gorgeous birthday present! A project of Desert rose Productions, Inc “For Family and Friends” TO: dirtylittleshowtunes@yahoo OUR OPENING SEASON WRAP-UP! We did it! Our Opening Season of five productions and several special events closed on Sunday, June 16, 2013, with the conclusion of the world premiere run of David Pevsner’s one-man musical play Musical Comedy Whore! It’s now time to catch our breath and tally our attendance and financial reports. We are very happy to tell you that we consider the Opening Season a tremendous success! We have been recognized and thanked many times by members of the theatrical community, members of our audience, and members of the press, for creating and operating an artistically adventurous non-profit stage company with solid business acumen, policies, and procedures, to serve LGBT and gay-friendly theatre-goers in the Coachella Valley. Because of his high regard and support of our mission, Will Page and DDG Media Group, publisher of The Desert Daily Guide, was our Producing Partner for the opening season, providing advertising throughout Southern California for each production. This season, we produced five mainstage productions, opening with Dirty Little Showtunes! which ran for a record-breaking 24 weeks from July 21 until December 30, 2012! Subsequent production were Stephen Sondheim’s chamber musical Marry Me A Little, followed by Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr. Sloane, an environmental production of The Boys in the Band, and the world premiere of Musical Comedy Whore. In addition we produced three cabaret shows starring Tom Orr – Palm Springs Awakening, The Devil Wears Nada, and Jingle Bell Jock. Tom wrote each show and all were very well received. We presented popular cabaret vocalist Francesca Amari in You Make Me Laugh – A Love Song to Gilda Radner, and produced local performance artist “Nicky” in Nicky as Carol Channing – An Affectionate Tribute. Both these special events were quite popular with Nicky as Carol Channing selling out days in advance. It was a very busy and productive season. During the season, we were involved with and contributed to the community in several ways: -- We donated more than $10,000 worth of show tickets to The Desert AIDS Project to enable their clients to attend Playhouse productions they might not otherwise afford to see. -- We were able to donate a portion of the ticket sales and donations raised during Francesca Amari’s You Make Me Laugh cabaret performance to Gilda’s Club Desert Cities. -- We hosted a preview and development event for the new documentary film about equal rights and gay marriage titled Legal Stranger. -- We participated in the Palm Springs Pride Parade and our cast of Dirty Little Showtunes! performed at the 2012 Palm Springs Pride Festival, at Tuesday Night Social Club events, and made several appearances at Bella da Ball’s Cabaret Revue at Azul Restaurant in Palm Springs. -- We provided a number of tickets to the Desert Theatre League so Star Award judges could attend our shows and evaluate our actors and designers for award consideration. -- We produced an end-of-season event to honor the wonderful volunteers who have worked with us as ushers, set builders, prop and costume assistants, musical associates, and have covered the myriad details inherent in producing live theatre. Phil Murphy was honored as “Volunteer of the Year” for his endless assistance and expertise in all aspects of stage lighting, and Mary Switt was singled out as “Hostess With the Mostes’ on the Ball” for her enthusiastic work as an usher/greeter/concessionaire. All in all, we performed for 4,770 patrons this season. Based on this solid year, we have now leased The Commissary for two additional years and are currently hard at work during our summer hiatus to make the Playhouse more attractive and efficient for future seasons. Season Tickets for our 2013/14 Season will be available in early August so patrons can purchase tickets to our mainstage productions at a reduced rate. The 2013/14 Season runs from September 27 until June 1, 2014, so seasonal residents can see the entire bill of productions before leaving for cooler climes. The 2013/14 Season of Shows and the opportunity to order Season Tickets will be emailed to you by August 3. Ticket sales alone don’t cover the cost of bringing all of this to our audiences. We rely heavily on donated income to make up the difference between the cost of producing shows and ticket sales revenue. This past season, we fell far short of our fundraising goal, generating less than 7% of our total income through donations. That percentage needs to increase to 30% for our fiscal stability. If you believe our company is a valued member of the Valley’s cultural community, we need your donation in any amount. We must raise $20,000 in donated income by the end of 2013 to retain our firm financial footing. We need to raise at least $5,000 in the next 60 days to finance pre-production and maintenance costs. To help reach this goal, we’ve added a $50 Friends level to our donation program to make supporting The Desert Rose Playhouse affordable for everyone. Please make a donation today so we can continue our mission to bring new exciting and diverse entertainment to the LGBT and Gay-Positive audiences in the Valley. You can contribute by clicking on desertroseplayhouse.org/Pages/Sponsorship.aspx or by mailing your check to The Desert Rose Playhouse, P.O. Box 2256, Cathedral City, CA 92235. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Thanks so much for making our Opening Season a success! We count on your continued support! Best Wishes, Jim Paul Jim Strait Paul Taylor Artistic Director Managing Director Desert Rose Productions, Inc. P.O. Box 2256, Cathedral City, CA 92235-2256 760-202-3000 P.S. – Comedian Shann Carr and Dirty Little Showtunes! creator Tom Orr are coming to the Desert Rose Playhouse in August for evenings of Comedy and Cabaret. Details are forthcoming!
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 07:36:13 +0000
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