The board of directors of the nexStage Theatre is in its last legs of a capital campaign to buy the performing arts center from its current owners, the Mott Family Foundation.
The board announced late last week that the campaign has reached just over the $1 million mark. The nexStage board needs a total of $1,500,000 to purchase the theatre property at 120 South Main St. in Ketchum. As of Monday, March 26, $1,055,000 had been raised. The board has until Saturday, March 31, to come up with the remanding $445,000 to save the theatre property.
A $150,000 matching donation made last week was met by donors.
The theatre, the only public performing arts space in Ketchum, caters to a diverse audience, with 20,000 people attending musicals, play readings, plays, ski films and a cabaret at the nexStage just last year.
On Thursday. March 29, Sun Valley Ski Patrolman Sean Glaccum will present two films he made last year at a special fund-raising party for the theatre. "Endless Winter" tracks the Sun Valley Ski Patrol as it dealt with last year's near-record snowfall. "Feeding the Dragon" is a film about whitewater rafting last spring on the Payette River in western Idaho.
The benefit starts at 6:30 p.m. and the films will screen at 7 p.m. There also will be raffles and auctions for sporting equipment donated by outdoor-oriented stores in the Wood River Valley.
NexStage's planned Walk of Fame will acknowledge major donations to the campaign with large bronze stars for $50,000 and medium stars for $25,000. The stars will be embedded in the sidewalk on Main Street by the theatre, with a special induction ceremony this summer. To date, five of the small stars and four of the larger stars are claimed.
Donation envelopes, capital campaign information packets and pledge cards are available at the theatre and at various locations around town.
"We feel like there is an impetuous to get us to our goal," nexStage spokeswoman Pru Hemmings said.
