Highland Park Theater Arts - The Show Must Go On!!
Donation protected
Fundraiser to support Highland Park Theater Arts – The Show Must Go On!
The past year
So much can change in a year. At this point last year our students were home, their lives turned upside down, their spring musical canceled – but they had hope for the next year. As 2020 passed into 2021 it looked like a return to school was forthcoming and with it the potential to revisit our spring musical, Roald Dahl’s, Matilda the Musical. And then last week, with little warning, the school district announced it was canceling all in-person gatherings. The students were devastated. But we aren’t letting that stop the show - it must go on.
Who we are
Highland Theater Family and Friends (HTFF) is the parent booster group that supports Highland Park Theater Arts. The theater program at Highland Park Senior High has been growing, but the funding provided to the program by the district is not nearly enough to meet the program's needs. We help by fundraising and by providing countless volunteer hours – we build the sets, help with graphic design, make costumes, and run performances. We love this program and want to see it continue to flourish.
Why we are reaching out
Musicals are expensive, and we want this to be a musical for our students to remember. They deserve something wonderful to end their school year. We haven’t been able to fundraise in person for the past year, and with no performances the theater program has not collected ticket fees and is operating at a significant deficit. The funds the district would normally provide to support this musical are simply not there. That’s where your help comes in.
What we are asking for
In order to make this an extraordinary experience we are doing a few things that we normally don’t. For starters, we are hoping to hire a professional to create a high quality, archival video to send with the students ($2,000). We are lucky enough to be able to have a professional scenic artist design and paint our set ($2,000). Our lighting and sound is being supervised by a professional light and sound technician ($800), who is also teaching our theater tech students the intricacies of the craft. Due to the high price of lumber, we have blown through our typical material budget ($1100) - but it will be a beautiful set, and our students are worth it. And to put an exclamation point on it all, we are having an end of year gathering to send off our seniors, and celebrate the precious, albeit short time we’ve been able to spend together this year. Due to district restrictions it has to be off school grounds, and it will be in a facility that allows everyone to be able to gather and watch our spring performance together on a big screen ($900). All told, Matilda the Musical and the year-end celebration will cost nearly $7000.
As a booster group, we decided that if there was ever a year to spend a bit extra on our kids, this is that year. Your donation will be used to offset these extra costs, and allow us to start the next school with some money to support the theater program as it gets back to normal. Thank you so much for considering donating to our cause. Any donation you make will be a part of making memories for our wonderful theater kids that will last a lifetime.
The past year
So much can change in a year. At this point last year our students were home, their lives turned upside down, their spring musical canceled – but they had hope for the next year. As 2020 passed into 2021 it looked like a return to school was forthcoming and with it the potential to revisit our spring musical, Roald Dahl’s, Matilda the Musical. And then last week, with little warning, the school district announced it was canceling all in-person gatherings. The students were devastated. But we aren’t letting that stop the show - it must go on.
Who we are
Highland Theater Family and Friends (HTFF) is the parent booster group that supports Highland Park Theater Arts. The theater program at Highland Park Senior High has been growing, but the funding provided to the program by the district is not nearly enough to meet the program's needs. We help by fundraising and by providing countless volunteer hours – we build the sets, help with graphic design, make costumes, and run performances. We love this program and want to see it continue to flourish.
Why we are reaching out
Musicals are expensive, and we want this to be a musical for our students to remember. They deserve something wonderful to end their school year. We haven’t been able to fundraise in person for the past year, and with no performances the theater program has not collected ticket fees and is operating at a significant deficit. The funds the district would normally provide to support this musical are simply not there. That’s where your help comes in.
What we are asking for
In order to make this an extraordinary experience we are doing a few things that we normally don’t. For starters, we are hoping to hire a professional to create a high quality, archival video to send with the students ($2,000). We are lucky enough to be able to have a professional scenic artist design and paint our set ($2,000). Our lighting and sound is being supervised by a professional light and sound technician ($800), who is also teaching our theater tech students the intricacies of the craft. Due to the high price of lumber, we have blown through our typical material budget ($1100) - but it will be a beautiful set, and our students are worth it. And to put an exclamation point on it all, we are having an end of year gathering to send off our seniors, and celebrate the precious, albeit short time we’ve been able to spend together this year. Due to district restrictions it has to be off school grounds, and it will be in a facility that allows everyone to be able to gather and watch our spring performance together on a big screen ($900). All told, Matilda the Musical and the year-end celebration will cost nearly $7000.
As a booster group, we decided that if there was ever a year to spend a bit extra on our kids, this is that year. Your donation will be used to offset these extra costs, and allow us to start the next school with some money to support the theater program as it gets back to normal. Thank you so much for considering donating to our cause. Any donation you make will be a part of making memories for our wonderful theater kids that will last a lifetime.
Organizer
Joel Chirhart
Organizer
St. Paul, MN