FIRST FLIGHT THEATRE COMPANY INC

Dear Friends of First Flight Theatre Company,

Please consider a tax-deductible donation to First Flight Theatre Company enabling us to continue with our seventh season bringing quality and environmentally set theatre productions to New York City, New Jersey and Chicago. Funds raised will help pay for the company’s insurance and web site costs, rental for rehearsal and performance spaces, promotional costs and actor stipends. First Flight Theatre Company is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization producing plays by Maxwell Anderson and other playwrights who bring poetry to the stage. Our performances are made possible by our donors’ generous donations and our performers and staff’s tireless efforts.

Our fundraising goal to meet our production costs for 2025 is $8,000. Please help us achieve this goal; any amount of support will be greatly appreciated!

LIVE PRODUCTIONS in 2025

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain adapted by Frank Farrell, Saturday and Sunday, July 26 & 27 at 7pm at the Hermitage in New Jersey

Sea-Wife by Maxwell Anderson, AEA Showcase in late September or October in NYC

Sea-Wife An enhanced Play Reading in September or October in Chicago

Night of the Living Dead adapted by Lori Allen Ohm from the film by George Romero and John Russo, Saturday, October 25 at 7pm at the Hermitage

Scrooge and the Ghostly Spirits musically adapted by Douglas Post and based on A Christmas Carol, Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 3pm, December 13, 14, 20 & 21 at the Hermitage

With sufficient money raised, plans are for First Flight's NYC and Chicago ensembles to produce the world premiere of Maxwell Anderson's play Sea-Wife, written 101 years ago, in September or October in both cities.

First Flight Theatre Company is now publishing Maxwell Anderson’s plays from the 1920s that have entered into the public domain. These actor scripts have been “re-typed” from the original hard bound books that are out of print and difficult to find. Anderson’s What Price Glory was “re-typed” and published in December 2023 and is now available via Amazon. Since then, five other plays by Anderson have been re-published, First Flight, The Buccaneer, Outside Looking In, Gods of the Lightning and Sea-Wife. All are available at Amazon.

Let the Plays continue!

You can make a difference by donating today to FIRST FLIGHT THEATRE COMPANY INC.

We are raising funds to support First Flight Theatre Company's first post-Covid, live and in-person season! Frank Farrell, the company’s Artistic Director announced that more than forty members of the public have donated to the Go Fund Me campaign or have
mailed the company checks. The company recently received donations totaling $6,650.00 in addition to the $3,560 raised online for a recent donation total of $10,210!  Opening in July 2022, the season launches with a production of Maxwell Anderson's rarely produced, prescient, spectacular play VALLEY FORGE, followed in October with our original Halloween production of MINA based on Bram Stoker's "Dracula," concluding in December with our Holiday production of DICKENS BY CANDLELIGHT: A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Every dollar donated will help make First Flight's 2022 theatrical season a success; no donation is too small! As with many small, non-profit arts organizations, we managed to weather the pandemic storm for the past two years, but those years took a profound financial toll. We are ready to perform for live audiences again but need your help to restart our engine! So Come fly with First Flight as we begin by bringing to life VALLEY FORGE, a play that speaks for today, a theatrical cure for our country's current turbulence and uncertainties. This GoFundMe campaign culminates with First Flight’s first live-in-person benefit on May 5, 2022, at The Hermitage in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey featuring outstanding talent and a fabulous auction of fund-raising surprises! For tickets to our benefit visit https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/63301 .  Visit the First Flight Theatre Company Web Site.

GoFundMe Campaign Donor Level Titles (Titles are Maxwell Anderson Play Titles) BUCCANEER DONORS ($1-$20), JOAN OF LORRAINE DONORS ($21-$50), THE STAR WAGON DONORS ($51-$100), LOST IN THE STARS DONORS ($101-$250), GODS OF THE LIGHTNING DONORS ($251-$500), THE GOLDEN SIX DONORS ($501-$1,000), WHAT PRICE GLORY DONORS ($1,001-$5,000), ELIZABETH THE QUEEN DONORS ($5,001- $10,000) and KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY DONORS ($10,001 and above)

 

Welcome new friends and old!

How fitting the fireworks we’ve all just enjoyed! In addition to the birth of our nation, they also herald First Flight Theatre Company’s annual fundraiser!

In our sixth year, while continuing our mission to produce playwrights and plays which bring poetry to the stage, First Flight Theatre Company is focusing on presenting and publishing the public domain plays of 20th Century American playwright Maxwell Anderson. We need support from our audiences to do what we do, and we hope that means you!

A playwright will be forgotten if their plays are forgotten. Originally dreaming of being a poet, Maxwell Anderson turned to the stage bringing his love of verse and language with him. He wrote 55 plays and 40 of them made it to Broadway. In fact, from the 1920s through the 1940s, he averaged one new play a year on Broadway! No other playwright in their lifetime has ever achieved that feat! First Flight Theatre Company, like those artists who saved the plays of William Shakespeare, is dedicated to making Anderson’s incredible body of work available to future generations by publishing them as they enter the public domain. Free to perform by anyone, the First Flight Press acting editions are available both as paperbacks and eBooks. In concert with performances of the plays, First Flight has already published the following, all available at Amazon.com: Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings’ plays “What Price Glory” and “First Flight” as well as Artistic Director Frank Farrell’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s seminal “Little Women.” Plays soon to be published include “The Buccaneer” by Anderson and Stallings and Anderson’s own plays “Outside Looking In,” “Gods of the Lightning,” and “Saturday’s Children.”

Paired with live, streaming readings of Maxwell Anderson’s canon, First Flight continues its partnership with NJ’s premiere historical site, The Hermitage, producing and performing “Little Women,” “Poe Stories,” and a new adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” in 2024!

As First Flight continues to produce streaming readings and live theater in New Jersey, New York City and Chicago, we rely on our patron’s financial support for rehearsal and performing spaces, props and costumes, payments to actors and technical staff and the funds needed for marketing.

Visit http://www.firstflighttheatreco.com and discover what First Flight has been up to over the past 6 years! Check out the Blog section for programs from past productions!

First Flight Theatre Company is unique to American theater in that it’s resident company of artists are from all over the country allowing us to continue to share productions with the public on multiple platforms, in multiple states, both live and streaming! Please help support our efforts with your tax-deductible donation! Help us preserve the works of Maxwell Anderson whose plays capture the lived American journey through the 20th century as well as a mid-century modern perspective on history. His plays represent the immediacy of a bygone era embedded with potent universal human insights to illuminate future generations! With so many plays to be discovered, join us as we discover them anew with you!