Annual Appeal Letter

Dear Friends,

With the end of the year in sight, we are called to both reflect and to look forward. As I reflect on this past year, I am reminded that artists are collectors of life’s moments and images. Our art condenses and amplifies the world, the result is always much more than the sum of its parts. Playwrights, actors, directors, designers, and audiences bring together our collective imaginations to create living art. Each performance is a living being; present while we are together and then gone. Theatre’s traditions are ancient, magical, and transformative.

For the past twenty-six years, The Actors Studio of Newburyport has provided a meeting place for the curious. Together with our audiences, we have visited countless worlds. We have shared passionate dialogues as world events have alternately shocked and delighted us. We have invited visiting artists to perform and to teach, encouraged playwrights (new and experienced) to present their work, presented celebrated classics and quirky new takes on the human condition.

Three different playwriting groups are feeders for our North Shore Readers Theatre Collaborative and Stage Three presentations. This season, Stage Three offers two original one act plays as our workshop production. Both deal with sophisticated and complex themes. I could not be more proud of the forum we have provided for both established and emerging talents within our community. Most recently, in our Glass Ceilings production, we presented four well-crafted plays by local playwrights, which reflect the maturity of our play development program.

Each season, the majority of our productions is supported by either grants or directed donations. When the budgets allow, we extend honorariums to our artists, but the truth is everyone works in the spirit of volunteerism, because no one is ever paid equal to their worth. From our board of directors, our events committees, backstage, box office, marketing, graphics, designers, actors, and directors – everyone comes together offering freely of their skills and talents.

Looking forward engages both our visionary capacities and practical demands. We work always in the knowledge that none of this vital artistic expression would be possible without the consistent, generous support of you, our greater community. It is with deep gratitude that I acknowledge the historic support from so many of you and ask that you continue your support or add your support if we have not been on your giving list. With your help we will continue to explore the sometimes funny and sometimes tragic complexities of the human condition as we present our 2018 program.

Marc Clopton

Executive Director