Welcome back to The Front Row blog, Encore fans! I hope you’ll pardon the lack of posts last week; you may be aware that we were busy preparing for our first-ever virtual Benefit Breakfast! The Breakfast is Encore’s largest fundraising event of the year and our staff was not going to let social distancing stand in the way of spending a fun morning with our Encore family and sharing about the mission we hold so dear. If you’ve been feeling down because you missed out, today is your lucky day: we’ve got a recap of the Breakfast, complete with videos from many of our amazing speakers!
Our virtual event kicked off with a live feed of Sara Duke, who shared her appreciation for our community and Encore’s staff as we all made the rapid transition to socially distanced online learning. She also expressed the need to continue to look forward to and plan for the future, beyond this crisis. With donors’ support, Encore will continue to offer quality theatrical programming for all children, both virtually and in-person.
“Encore is a safe harbor for our students – a place where they can be themselves and, through theatre, learn empathy, responsibility, and resilience.” – Sara Strehle Duke
The Encore family at large was also introduced to Sara’s Encore family: husband Kevin, young son Thomas, and new baby Emily, born March 19th. Congratulations to the Duke family!
Consider the Script Flipped
This season, Encore was both proud and excited to bring attention to historical African American voices in our community. This student researched and devised program produced a performance entitled The Day That Nothing Happened, based on the true-life stories of the first students to integrate an all-white school in the state of Virginia. Benefit Breakfast attendees had the pleasure of hearing from one of the Flip the Script participants first hand on what the experience meant to her.
Here’s to the Seniors
Here at Encore, we live and breathe theatre and the chance to share those experiences with our talented students. It’s always a special joy to hear how each individual has learned and grown from his or her experience creating “Theatre by kids, for kids.” This year’s senior speaker, Lindsey Gradowski, was no exception. We appreciate all of the time and passion that she has dedicated to Encore’s productions over the years and look forward to welcoming her back whenever she is able to join us!
The Award Goes to…
Encore alumna Isabel Tate was kind enough to lend her voice to announce Debra Leonard as the winner of the 2020 Celeste Groves Award for exceptional volunteer service. For over 20 seasons, Debra has designed, constructed, and managed hundreds of costumes for every participant that crosses Encore’s stages. Thank you, Debra!
Please enjoy just a few of the numerous beautiful costumes Debra has created over the years.
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- Rap-punzel
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- Cinderella (2015)
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- The Enchanted Bookshop (2019)
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- Medda Larkin played by Shannon McCarthy. Photo by Cindy Kane Photography.
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- Narnia (2020)
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- Disney’s Frozen Jr. (2019)
What Encore Means to Me
Here at Encore, we work with our students to develop a host of important skills: public speaking, teamwork, self-reliance, and more! Some of the amazing kids in our program put those skills to use to tell us a bit about what Encore means to them and we honestly couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
From Our Family to Yours…
Thank you. With your support, we were able to raise over $20,000 in our first-ever virtual Benefit Breakfast!
The work, however, is not yet over. These funds are important to Encore, especially during the current pandemic. Your support will allow us to expand our current online classes and camps so we can continue bringing theatre to children as an outlet for their creativity throughout this difficult time. These donations also mean that our high-quality, age-appropriate theatre education and outreach programming throughout the community will flourish in the fall.
If you are able, please consider supporting Encore Stage & Studio during today’s special Giving Tuesday event. Your help in supporting “Theatre by kids, for kids” during this global day of giving allows our staff the opportunity to share the joy of theatre with every child, even these confusing times.
Photos by Larry McClemons, Aileen Pangan Christian, and Cindy Kane Photography.
Video editing by A.K. Nell, Rebecca Pfeil, and Aileen Pangan Christian.
Blog contribution by Shannon McCarthy.
Additional reporting by Scott McCaffrey.