Raising the Curtain

T@F Artistic Director Elizabeth Hunter
Welcome to Theatre@First! 

One of the traditions here is to have a greeter out front at each of our shows. I like to take that post on opening night whenever possible.  I love standing out on the sidewalk, opening the door for people and directing them to our box office.  It’s a nice way to get hugs from people I know and sometimes to catch up for a minute or two with past participants returning to support a new show. Most importantly, it’s a chance to put a face on T@F for newcomers, to let you know that you are in the right place and we’re so happy you found us.

This spring we are celebrating our 15th anniversary!  We’ve just staged our 50th mainstage show and sometime this year—depending on how you count—we’ll put on our 100th overall production. We have grown and changed so much over the years, but we are still Somerville’s community theatre, creating art and providing a venue for new connections within our wider community.

The 2019 season has a lot of exciting events on the calendar.  We’ve just wrapped up Burning and rehearsals are already underway for The Complete Works ofWilliam Shakespeare (Abridged).  Signups are open to audition for both The Revenger’s Tragedy and our fall production of Hamlet.

And let’s not forget our Special Projects!  We had a great night of theatre games at our first Line ‘Em Up in January, raised over $1000 for Parkinson’s research with Giving@First in February, and hosted a special workshop in March to hone the audition skills of both actors and directors. The BareBones submission window is now open and we’ll be announcing this year’s FirstWorks selection very soon.  On April 23rd we’ll be celebrating Shakespeare with a very special Birthday Slam at the Somerville Microtheatre. 

With all of this going on, it’s an exciting time to be rolling out our new website.  Changing platforms has updated our look and given us the ability to make our site more flexible and keep up with the rapid pace of our many projects.  Our amazing team have updated our Past Projects section, streamlined how you can navigate the site, and made it easier to find the information our patrons and participants need.  We will be continuing to enhance the site and hope you will enjoy new features throughout the year.

For the first time, we’ve also added a blog.  I’ll be sharing this platform with key voices from inside Theatre@First. Each month we’ll have different perspectives on our productions, a chance to peek backstage and hear about works in progress, and the opportunity to get to know more of the people who make Theatre@First such a rewarding theatre community.    

It’s opening night for the new theatreatfirst.org and it’s my privilege to stand out on this virtual sidewalk.  You are in the right place and we are so happy you’ve found us. Enjoy the show!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SUPPORTING AAPI

Image
  STOP ASIAN HATE     A STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF ASIAN AMERICANS AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS The leadership of Theatre@First are horrified by the March 16 murders of eight people at spas in Atlanta and by the increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders throughout the United States by more than 150% over the past year.   Together we mourn the loss of the six women who were targeted for their race, gender, and employment. We also mourn the two other victims and hope for the full recovery of the surviving injured bystander. We are particularly concerned at this time for the Asian American and Pacific Islander artists and other participants, audience members, and friends within our community who feel the impact of these events most sharply.  Theatre@First is a strong community, full of care and support for all of our AAPI members in the face of bigotry, hatred, and violence.  We see you, we love you, and you are not alone.  Resources  How to Support the Asian-American C
Read more

Change Is Possible

Image
BLACK LIVES MATTER    Last month we issued a statement declaring our concern and support for the Black community and our commitment to antiracist change at Theatre@First . Since then we've begun to look at every aspect of how Theatre@First operates and how we need to change in order to build antiracist theatre here in Somerville. Now we're here to tell you about the antiracism actions that we are currently moving forward.           IMMEDIATE ANTIRACISM ACTIONS updating our website to highlight our concern for equity, diversity and inclusion facilitating EDI training for officers and Steering Committee members teaming up with leaders of other local theatres to find resources, support, and accountability for our actions adding regular accountability reports to our Steering Committee agenda adding BIPOC-centered shows to our monthly recommendations to members making the Theatre@First social media forums a space for antiracist theatre resource
Read more

Black Lives Matter

Image
This statement was issued by the leadership of Theatre@First on June 3rd and shared with our participants and supporters via email.  We continue to explore ways that we can dismantle barriers, create change, amplify the voices of BIPOC, and support the protests against racism and police violence as a theatre community.  BLACK LIVES MATTER The murder of George Floyd has been added to the list of too many Black lives that have been taken by police and other perpetrators of white violence. While live performance at Theatre@First is on hiatus, we are still here and we are grieving and raging at the specific injustices and systemic racism that yet again echo across our screens and through our streets.  We are particularly concerned at this time for the Black artists and other people of color within our community, who are especially impacted by the cruelty of recent events.  We see you, you are an important part of our community, and you are not alone.  Black, Brown, an
Read more