... believe ... enjoy ... give ... laugh ... sing along ... believe ... enjoy ...
give ... laugh ... sing along ... believe ... enjoy ... give ... laugh ... sing along ...
| INVEST IN THE WASHINGTON SAVOYARDS |
|
Josh Katz looked us in the eyes, conversed with us back and forth, laughed, told us about the scene in Act 2 that completely cracks him up. It was the eye contact, the back and forth conversation that made the difference. A handsome young man, he’s brilliant but has lacked the skills to participate fully with other people. The Washington Savoyards has made a difference. He joined Boot Camp last fall. Since then, he was cast in Treemonisha and has been on the stages of the St. Mark’s Players and Montgomery College’s Summer Dinner Theatre—complete with waiting tables and opening Brigadoon with the first big song. It was at Summer Dinner Theatre that he laughed and talked and looked us straight in the eyes.
-
Sandy Bainum was a Broadway star who married and raised two sons, keeping up her Equity card but not working throughout those seventeen years. In the four years since she first auditioned with the Washington Savoyards, she’s had the lead in Kiss Me, Kate and The Music Man, received a Helen Hayes Award Nomination for The Music Man, was cast at Signature Theatre, and has just auditioned for a leading role at the Kennedy Center.
-
Liz Johnson has been the Washington Savoyards’ props manager for the last few years and, even though she hasn’t always been paid on time, she just wrote: “ I just wanted to express my interest in doing props … for you again this year. You all treat me better than any other company I've ever worked with :).”
-
Michael Baron directed The Music Man and calls the Washington Savoyards “a delightful and important local theatre company!” He says that it “provides a valuable artistic service to DC audiences and performers at different stages of their careers by producing and often re-introducing classic American musicals and light opera with full orchestrations to the next generation of patrons and artists. By understanding the roots of musical theatre, Savoyards plays a crucial role in its future growth."
WASHINGTON SAVOYARDS MAKES A DIFFERENCE
The Washington Savoyards was founded in 1972 by Audrey Shipp to be a Washington area company devoted to traditional productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s vastly popular light operas. Early on, it became a professional company by paying its actors, directors, designers, and stage crews. Over the years, it has sent artists to sing with the Washington National Opera and the New York City Opera.
During the last five years, that trend has expanded with N. Thomas Pedersen as Artistic Director. Co-chair, and now Chair, of the famed Musical Theatre Department of the Catholic University of America, Pedersen is first and foremost a teacher, whether in the CUA classroom or in the Washington Savoyards rehearsal room. For many of his CUA students, their first experience on a professional stage is in a Washington Savoyards production. Often, their next steps are the stages of Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre, Arena Stage—and Broadway.
And this is what the Savoyards makes happen, recorded in the words of critic Joel Markowitz in DC Theatre Scene: “ What a joy to see an American classic, that is rarely produced, revived at The Atlas Performing Arts Center by The Washington Savoyards. This colorful production … boasts some of the most exciting choreography that I have seen in a local musical production in years. The ‘It’s You Ballet’ is breathtaking and beautiful, and danced elegantly by Jesse Palmer and Mark Chandler.”
Jesse and Mark, both Tom’s students, are now well into their careers. Jesse is auditioning in New York and, just this week, Mark made his television debut on The View. Michael Baron, who directed The Music Man, is now the Artistic Director of Oklahoma City’s Lyric Theatre. When he worked with the Washington Savoyards, he was Artistic Director of Signature Theatre. Matt Gardiner, the choreographer for The Music Man, is now Resident Director at Signature Theatre. Michael Bobbitt, Artistic Director of Adventure Theatre, directed Treemonisha. Michael Rossi, Music Director for The Merry Widow, is conducting around the world. Placido Domingo wrote that, “I felt confident when Michael conducted the orchestra when I sang in Beijing.” Michael will be the cover conductor for the WNO this fall. Carrie Klewin directed The Pirates of Penzance several years ago and is now actively directing in California. Bryan Lilley had the lead in The Mikado, has earned a degree in conducting, and will be Assistant Music Director for the upcoming Savoyards production of Pirates.
The Washington Savoyards makes a difference in Washington, around the country, and around the world. It employs artists of all ages, it provides them professional experience, and it educates them to be educators and leaders in all their artistic and life endeavors.
The Washington Savoyards attracts and grows great talent.
HOW THE WASHINGTON SAVOYARDS WORKS; WHAT IT NEEDS
Every artist who works for the Washington Savoyards is paid. Everyone who helps to administer the Company is a volunteer. Each volunteer has many other professional and volunteer commitments. They are teachers, business people, federal employees. They are otherwise involved in schools and churches and artistic activities. There is no paid staff. Despite this, the Washington Savoyards raises money for its productions through grants, individual contributions, and ticket sales.
Washington Savoyards is a business that exists within a community of businesses. It brings thousands of people into H Street restaurants and businesses, helping to resurrect this great community.
To achieve sustainability so that it can continue to change lives, the Washington Savoyards needs to have the capacity to devote artistic and administrative time and energy to its programs: its educational programs, its theatrical productions, its donor and friend cultivation, and its community outreach. To achieve this the Company needs at least a small paid staff to make it run smoothly: a paid artistic director, a paid general manager, a paid development and communications professional. It needs to have the capacity to market itself. Were such administrative capacity in place, the Company would have set the foundation for ongoing, substantial, and creative educational programs, theatrical productions, donor and friend cultivation, and community outreach and development.
WHAT THE WASHINGTON SAVOYARDS COULD DO
Washington Savoyards is Washington’s professional light opera company. That is its mission. It specializes in classical American musical theatre, the artistic descendant of Gilbert and Sullivan’s light operas. Its productions engage every element of the performing arts. Focusing on opera and theatre professionals resident in the metropolitan area, the Company provides employment, training, performance experience, and artistic support to its performers and crew members. Their entire experience with the Company involves learning, teaching, and mentoring. The Savoyards is committed to non-traditional casting, with the goal that its stage and audience look like its home city.
Its vision has always been to produce superb musical theatre and this vision has always include an educational program. It was able to achieve the first step in this dream in the fall of 2009 with the Broadway/Opera Boot Camp, supported by The Stafford Foundation. Building on last year’s experience, the Washington Savoyards’ vision would be to expand Boot Camp from 16 to at least 25 students. Well-planned and executed recruitment would draw from the entire Washington area, with special emphasis placed on students in public and charter high schools. Ideally, Boot Camp should take place at least twice a year, with its students being prepared to the level that they could be cast in Washington Savoyards mainstage productions. Their education would continue as a cast member. A quarter of the 2009 class was cast during the 2009-2010 season and gave superb performances.
YOU CAN SUPPORT THE WASHINGTON SAVOYARDS BY:
All contributions are tax deductible because the Washington Savoyards is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (click to see the IRS determination letter).
