The audience at last night’s opening of Staples Players’ “Jesus Christ Superstar” received a special treat.
Gregg Bonti and Max Samuels present Save the Children representatives with a $3,000 check. (Photo/Kerry Long)
At the end of the show-stopping performance, Players presented Save the Children representatives with a check for $3,000. The donation came from spring productions of “Ages and Stages.”
Staples Players’ “Jesus Christ Superstar” run continues tonight (Friday, July 30, 7:30 p.m.) and tomorrow (Saturday, July 31, 2 and 7:30 p.m.). Tickets are available online (click here), or at the Staples auditorium 30 minutes before show time.
If you’re on the fence: Go! It’s a fantastic show, made special by Players’ usual panache and professionalism.
Does Staples Players have a history of donating to charity? If so I was unaware of it when I lived there in the 70s and early 80s. Has this started in the interim? Or is this something that is very recent?
At least since David Roth has been director, Players has taken an active role in donating to excellent causes. Most of the time, the charity chosen has some connection to the theme of the show. For example, when they did “The Laramie Project,” Players collected funds for the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
In a slightly different vein, Players also encourages the recycling of all their programs — they collect them at the end of each performance, then redistribute them at the next one. They are very much a part of the world community.
Thanks for your comments, Dan. You are correct – we do try to connect our charitable efforts with themes of our shows. For “Beauty and the Beast” (in which the main character, Belle, loves books) we did a book drive for various organizations in need in Connecticut. When we did “The Diary of Anne Frank”, we raised money for several organizations that dealt with the Holocaust and Holocaust survivors. And yes, at the “The Laramie Project” we raised funds for The Matthew Shepard Foundation. There are more instances, too – we definitely try link what the kids are doing on stage with the causes. Theatre has the unique ability to touch many people and we like to try to emphasize that to the students.
We thank the Westport community for being so generous with their donations to our various fundraisers – we couldn’t do it without the support of the community!!
Kerry Long
for Staples Players
Well with all due respect to Albert Pia, he should have thought of that!