Theater News
It was a fundraising gala to remember.
Posted by: Laura Dannen on Mar 08, 2011 at 04:00PM
ACT’s executive director gave big to Seattle Rep and struggling Intiman Theatre on March 4.
File this under Reasons To Love Seattle: In a classy move on Friday, the executive director of A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) donated big money to both Seattle Repertory Theatre and Intiman Theatre at the Rep’s annual gala fundraiser—a boon for Intiman, which needs to raise $1 million by September to stay in business. The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that during a Raise the Paddle live auction, ACT’s Carlo Scandiuzzi “leapt to his feet to say he [and wife Laile] would not only match every $100 donation, turning it into $200 for the Rep, but he would also give another $100 per raised paddle to Intiman…. At that point, almost every paddle at the gala shot up in the air.”
The Scandiuzzis ultimately donated $42,000—$22,000 split between Seattle Rep and Intiman—and prompted 5th Avenue Theatre board member Kenny Alhadeff and his wife Maureen to give money to ACT. I mean, where else does this happen?! When do competitors give so readily to each other? Would Starbucks bail out Dunkin’ Donuts? It gives me the chills, the good kind.
According to its website today, Intiman has raised $146,471.51 with a goal of $500,000 by the end of March. To find out more or to donate, go to intiman.org.
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Theater News
Local theater needs $500,000 total by the end of March to stay afloat.
Posted by: Laura Dannen on Feb 22, 2011 at 10:00AM
All My Sons opens March 25 at Intiman Theatre.
Thanks largely to a sold-out Valentine’s Day cabaret last Monday, Intiman Theatre is $120,000 closer to its looming goal: to raise half a million dollars by the end of March to keep the theater open. But the work doesn’t stop there. They’ll need another quarter-million by the end of June, the same by the end of September—and that’s in addition to their annual fundraising goal of $1.75 million. Put simply: The theater needs a lot of cash to bring you its 39th season, opening March 25 with Arthur Miller’s WWII tale All My Sons.
Intiman officially went into survival mode on February 11, when it issued an open letter to the arts community detailing the troubled story of its mismanagement: inaccurate accounting; months of bookkeeping backlog; unauthorized transfers of endowment funds to the operating budget by the managing director; lapsed payments to unions. Though managing director Brian Colburn resigned in November after 18 months on the job—citing personal reasons—it’s unclear how far back the problem goes. Intiman is conducting an audit of the 2009 and 2010 seasons that will be finished in June; they’ve since replaced Colburn with former director of development Melaine Bennett, and slashed the 2011 budget by 25 percent. The staff is working a four-day week. The rest, to a degree, is up to you. They need Seattle to go to the theater, and to donate.
Intiman will host a free season preview on Monday, Feb 28, at 7pm (cocktails at 6) led by artistic director Kate Whoriskey, associate producer Andrew Russell, community programs director Zaki Abdelhamid, and actor Daniel Breaker (star of the upcoming The Playboy of the Western World). Director Valerie Curtis-Newton will also be on hand to discuss All My Sons, which will star Broadway veteran Chuck Cooper as Joe Keller, a father whose mistakes during WWII threaten the stability of his family. Such strange parallels.
Read on for more on Intiman’s 2011 season.
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