This Newsletter!
Dear Friends,
As we continue to celebrate our 75th anniversary, welcome to our second GPT Community Connection newsletter. We welcome your feedback so we can give you, our donors and patrons, the information you want to know about your community theatre.
Starting on Friday November 18th, GPT will be posting a social media series on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to celebrate GPT’s 75 years of community theatre and kick off our “75 Days of Giving” campaign.
Posts will include behind the scenes with GPT cast members at the Detroit Tree lighting, back stage, costume and scene shop preparations for our upcoming show “A Christmas Carol the Musical” and video and photos from our 75 seasons of shows.
In the next few days and weeks you will hear quite a bit about GPT’s annual fundraising event. We ask that you consider donating this year as if our next 75 years of community theatre depends on it– because it does!
As we celebrate GPT’s 75 years of exceptional theatre we are thankful to you, our GPT community, for your support, and are also preparing for our next chapter–our plans for artistic growth and ambitions to become a regional theatre presence in our new home at the Schaap Center. Please plan to give today to become part of an exceptional GPT tomorrow!
Be sure to follow us on social media and PLEASE SHARE! YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS THIS!
Click to follow:
Based on Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella, this musical retelling of the classic story of Scrooge and his awakening was presented annually at New York City’s Paramount Theatre in Madison Square Garden from December 1994 to December 2003. This perennial holiday classic tells the story of the wealthy curmud geon, Scrooge, whose feeling of Christmas and charitable giving is “Bah, humbug” until a visit by ghosts of his past, present and future guide him one Christmas Eve to recognize his faults, to appreciate the warmth of sharing love and to value the true meaning of a “Happy Christmas.”
GPT’s adaptation of the show features 25 actors including 6 talented children ages 8-12. Director Kevin Fitzhenry says he believes it is important to tell this story because it reminds us that “sharing of ourselves (whether it’s money, time, talents etc), we have the ability to make everyone around us better.” His favorite lyric of the show is “Gather and Sing of this glorious thing known as Christmas together.” He hopes that audiences will “enjoy a good time, singing, dancing, and celebrating the festive generosity of spirit.”
Our regional award-winning GPT cast members will be featured singing at the 19th Annual Detroit Tree Lighting ceremony on November 18th. Located at Campus Martius Park, starting at 5:00pm, over 100,000 people are expected to attend. Tune in to WXYZ channel 7 for coverage of the event.
Our GPT cast will also be performing during the Grosse Pointe Santa Parade on Friday November 25th.
A Christmas Carol, The Musical
November 25 - December 4
Broadway Bound, January 27 - February 5
Clue On Stage, March 2 - 12
Something Rotten, May 5 - 14
January 28 - 29, 2023 www.gpt.org/auditions
Little Mermaid, Jr. April 21 - 23
www.gpt.org/youth-on-stage
Visit GPT YouTube archive for videos and media events.
Grosse Pointe Theatre celebrated its 50 year members/volunteers at the September 2022 membership meeting. These volunteers have graced GPT with their passion and dedication for 50 years, and have served in a variety of committee and board positions, as well as being involved in dozens of productions over the years. As we honor the legacy and past of GPT, we honor these special members who have been invaluable to the organization. Bravo and a standing ovation!
In the same month that we honored our 50+ year volunteers, GPT also sought to develop its young talent by convening its first annual Future Leaders Conference. GPT values the input, ideas and goals of its younger members to ensure our theatre is poised for growth and is always open to current and best practices. Special thanks to Kyle and Olyvia O’Donnell for organizing this conference.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the opening show of GPT’s 75th season, was a huge success.
With over 2700 tickets sold, GPT broke its record for most tickets sold for a single performance– 611–on September 25th. Congratulations to the cast and crew for an outstanding run!
On display this year was the 2008 version of the coat of many colors from GPT’s last performance in 2008, during its 60th season.
Emmajean Evans has been a GPT member for over 50 years! This year the American Association of Community Theatres recognized her contribution to our community theatre with its coveted national Superior Volunteer Award which is presented to individuals above the age of 65 who have faithfully served community theatre on a non-paid basis for over 25 years.
This national recognition of Emmajean was well earned. She has been a tireless volunteer with all aspects of Grosse Pointe Theatre, on stage, backstage and with GPT business and administration, including helping to build GPT’s Youth on Stage program for the past 18 years. While she can’t believe it has been 50 years, Emmajean has loved her work with GPT because she “always learns something new” and “loves that.” She has particularly enjoyed producing and stage managing shows because she likes to be part of the creativity and “well-oiled machine” that is a GPT show. She values her work with Youth on Stage as she teaches young people lessons that they will carry into their lives like teamwork, articulation, stage presence and patience. She especially enjoys watching the shy students find their voice. Most of all, Emmajean values the friendships and community she has at GPT: “I love being part of this community; it is like my family. If something happens to anyone, we are all there for eachother.”
A nuclear medicine technologist in the Detroit area for over 27 years, she worked and taught at Detroit Memorial, and South Macomb hospital. She and husband Mike Evans were both active with GPT and were married 42 years until his passing a decade ago. She and Mike have 4 children and 4 grandchildren. When asked what she would tell others who might be interested in volunteering at GPT, Emmajean says there is always a place for people to be part of this community, and even if you think you don’t know how to do something, Emmajean says “I bet you do”!
Thank you Emmajean for 50+ years of service to our theatre community!
GPT is the 2023 grant recipient of a highly competitive operations grant from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council (MACC). The MACC is the state of Michigan’s key conduit for grant funding to support community arts in the state. After an extensive application process, GPT was awarded $19,500 to support its operations budget next year. Congratulations to GPT executive director Linda Zublick and GPT finance manager Suzanne Conroy, our grant writing team, for their diligence in securing this support.
Historical Fact - GPT’s founder Russel Werneken, a 22 year old drama teacher, went door to door for contributions in 1947 to support his vision of a community theatre in Grosse Pointe. The group’s first production, Clarence, in 1948, was performed at Pierce Middle School. In those days, rehearsals were held in homes, churches and storefronts, and performances were in school auditoriums. There were 30 members of GPT at the time. Today GPT has over 400 members, who are the backbone of the organization and its productions.
Ground breaking is still expected very soon! It appears that the Grosse Pointe Department of Public Works’ new building on Mack is near complete and DPW will soon be able to move, thus removing the last barrier to the Schaap Center ground breaking. We continue to hope for a 2022 start to the build. As an anchor tenant of the anticipated Schapp Center, GPT looks forward to the enhanced artistic and technical milestones we can reach with a theatre that includes: fly space, hydraulic pit lift, LED wall, advanced lighting and state-of-the-art acoustics. Here are a few additional renderings of the new facility. www.schaapcenter.com
Offering a place to gather and enjoy quality theatrical productions for 75 years, GPT can only exist with the support of you, our donors and community sponsors. Every gift helps to ensure we realize Grosse Pointe Theatre’s mission to connect, create and inspire the community through theatre. Thank you all! www.gpt.org/donate
Facebook www.facebook.com/GrossePointeTheatre YouTube www.youtube.com/c/GrossePointeTheatre
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/grossepointetheatre/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@grossepointetheatre