Support visual and performing arts
Guest opinion by PAMELA DOUCETTE
Pamela Doucette is the vice-president for the Sun Valley Performing Art Center at nexStage Theater in Ketchum.
I was in Perry?s waiting for a lunch take-out when I struck up a conversation with another group of women who were visitors to our valley. They had overheard my conversation about the wonderful Shakespeare play ?As You like It? that was currently running in Ketchum?s Forest Service Park. They said that they supported that, even though they wouldn?t be able to go. When asked how they support it, they responded that they supported the Wine Auction and the Wine Auction raised all that money for the arts and theaters in the valley. This hit home that this may be a common misconception that needs to be cleared up! The Sun Valley Center for the Arts is our valley?s great organization for the visual arts. The Wine Auction benefits the SV Center for the Arts- the visual arts. The nexStage Theater (also confusingly known as Sun Valley Performing Art Center) is a community-operated theater for the performing arts, which relies mainly on donations and grants as well as rental revenue from other community and private events, to keep its doors open. The nexStage is our theater place in Ketchum for the whole valley. Our local community players, Laughing Stock Theater, and our professional theater group, New Theater Company, as well as other theater groups such as Interplanetary, Larkspur, and Figgleaf all use this theater, often with the support of the nexStage. Also using this theater space are dance groups like Footlight and Ballet Idaho Academy, children?s theater classes and productions like Nancy Harakay?s and Bob Rais?s, musical groups such as our local and growing Conservatory of Music, as well as upstart bands, play reading series, ERC speakers, films, and special concerts and dances, etc. On top of this, it is also a reasonable rental for birthdays, special events, parties, trunk shows, and what ever else you can imagine in a black box that holds a few hundred people! Company of Fools, who utilize the Liberty Theater and are not related to either the SVAC or nexStage Theater, also provide live theater for the whole valley.
The nexStage Theater needs our community support if we are to maintain this space, and hopefully someday enlarge and enhance this space. People are confused by who we are and what we do. Do you think it is a business run to benefit some one? The theater building is leased to the nexStage Theater (SV Performing Arts Center). This nonprofit organizations purpose is to enhance the live theater experiences in the valley, provide theater education, and provide a gathering space to experience the performing arts, be it music, theater, or dance. So that some one who benefits is you.
We are in the fifth year of the pursuit of our mission for the nexStage. A portion of our budget goes to our local companies to help them get shows up. Together, we provided a ?season of theater productions? for you at the nexStage that included ?Sylvia? by New Theater Company, ?This is Our Youth? by Interplanetary, and ?Rumors? by Laughing Stock Theater Company, as well as our own production, The Shakespeare Festival. The Festival included this year?s Renaissance Faire, a free community event, as well as two weeks of ?As You Like It? set in the Forest Service Park. Also included were workshops and Shakespeare studios for young actors. We hope if you have attended any of these events you had a positive experience and will spread the news and attend again!
So next time you think of the arts in Sun Valley, please support all the arts, both visual and performing. Live theater can touch your lives in a way a film cannot. It also cannot exist simply on ticket sales. Please not only fill a seat, but also send a donation to the nexStage and your favorite performing group. We will all be the better for it.
