Seacoast Repertory Theatre

As you all are likely very aware, Sean has become very involved with the Seacoast Repertory Theater, a regional professional theater in Portsmouth NH. It has become a very special place in his life.  All of the artists and staff have been exceedingly supportive and nurturing of him and he would be devastated if they were unable to continue operations but, as most theaters across the country, Seacoast Rep is really struggling.

Despite the pandemic, Seacoast has been able to accomplish quite a bit in the last few months. Within days of shutting down, they converted their stage into a sound studio and began producing livestream content.  Seacoast was the first theater in the country to livestream a fully produced musical and continued its mission of enriching the culture of the community by providing free livestream content to seniors, healthcare workers and other essential workers.  It kept staff and many independent contractors employed and worked with the State of NH to put together policies and procedures for the safe reopening of arts venues. During this time of struggle they were even able to launch a new Sol Series to help elevate BIPOC stories.

They are now in the process of producing a series of smaller shows in rep such that if any one show finds itself affected by COVID the other productions will remain unaffected.  These shows, however, are open at only 30% capacity. Although Seacoast did receive a PPP loan, it has now run out. They applied for an Economic Industry Disaster Loan as well as a New Hampshire Nonprofit Emergency Relief Fund loan, but were denied for both.  Both of these rejections are currently being appealed but they find themselves running out of funds.  
To that end, Sean has made a goal of raising $5,000to sponsor a block of three small shows either this fall or this winter . 

I know times are incredibly challenging for many people right now and several of you have already donated to the theater at my request, for which we are exceedingly grateful!! 

If you know other people who are interested in supporting live theater, please feel free to share.

On June 24th, the City of Portsmouth Task Force voted to release $50K of their special projects budget to help fund the Pop Up Rooftop at the Foundry Garage project!! We need your help to match it, and this is an urgent, time-sensitive request.

Pop Up Rooftop is a grassroots collaborative of business-people, designers, and other community leaders working to use one particular piece of city-owned property to help mitigate COVID-related financial losses to local businesses, and thus workers and the tax base, by turning it into a socially distanced pop up market and performance space. We recognize the Foundry Place Garage as both an underutilized space, not close to meeting its revenue goals for the city, and as a space where community can safely gather - where food, drink, and alcohol can be safely served, and where performance can be enjoyed with social distance and with minimal impact to the surrounding neighborhood. We intend to use this unique space at the Foundry Garage equitably, safely, and conscientiously to serve as a community asset, preserve a portion of the tax base in conjunction with other efforts, protect workers, and do our part to undo some of the damage the pandemic has done and will do to our community.

The City has released $50K to be put into escrow, and these funds will be released when our working group is able to match these funds. All matching donations or sponsorships will also be put into escrow, and if we are unable to reach our goal, all funds will be returned to donors, and no spending will have happened.

Your donations or sponsorships are tax-deductible.

There is an urgency to our ask, as each day we go without expanding our capacity is loss to our businesses and organizations. Our goal is to have a July 15th opening, which leaves us with a lot to do, all at once. There will be one restaurant that is our anchor restaurant, which will be run by Evan Mallett of the Black Trumpet. The rest of the restaurants will be rotating in and out, as they are available. We need to start building our restaurant sheds, our stage, and purchasing commercial grade restaurant equipment. We need to start making purchases of sanitation equipment and supplies. And we need to be putting out job postings, yesterday.

Because of this ambitious timeline, we're hoping to match the $50K challenge by Sunday June 28th, so we can have access to funds next week, and then be able to put our team to work.

Another way you could help is by sending this to your network of friends and businesses who might want to pitch in. This is going to take a small army of support in many ways. It seems daunting, but I know we can do this. This project, and the way the community has come together to make it happen, will go down in Portsmouth's history.

Together with other efforts we can play no small role in preserving not just life, but lives and livelihoods in Portsmouth by giving space for our community to do what it does best - create community.