2014-2015 Annual Report to the Community

®

2014 –201 5

YEAR IN REVIEW

LET TER FROM

It’s been 12 months since we last presented our annual snapshot, and I’m happy to report it was another banner year at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. Reaching nearly a half-million guests that have enjoyed show programs, student matinees, special events and tours, we have become a vital part of Southern Nevada’s cultural landscape and we delight in bringing world-class performing arts to the community.

Throughout the 2014–2015 fiscal year we focused on offering new experiences, connecting and engaging with our audiences, and growing initiatives that will allow The Smith Center to be around for decades to come.

When we were preparing to open, there were a few goals we set out to realize sooner rather than later.

One intention was to launch a Broadway show’s national tour and we did just that with the glittery sensation Kinky Boots. From the media tour with creative team members Cyndi Lauper and Jerry Mitchell to the opening night party, the production was given a true Las Vegas welcome.

To date, we have reached nearly 200,000 students through our Education & Outreach Department.

This past year we successfully launched a new family series allowing for youngsters to experience theater with their parents, siblings and other family and friends.

You’ve heard it said before, The Smith Center was built for the community and in 2014–2015 we hosted one of the largest community events to date – the star-studded Nevada Sesquicentennial gala. In addition, we ramped up efforts to build greater relationships, awareness and brand equity with the community by welcoming more local artists to Cabaret Jazz and Troesh Studio Theater and participating at local festivals and events such as GREENfest, Pride and Metro’s Night Out. Finally, we once again focused on our sustainability efforts, both in fiscal and physical operations. This past year 2,252 donors, which was more than double the previous year’s number, gave more than $3 million while corporate partnerships provided $853,379 to further our mission. Of course, we continue to monitor changes that can lead to cost savings and efficiency. Last year we began changing our fluorescent, halogen, and incandescent lights to LED, leading to a sizeable decrease of our energy consumption and hazardous waste generation.

Thank you to all who supported The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. We look forward to seeing you, engaging with you, and being Southern Nevada’s Heart of the Arts.

Myron Martin

Don Snyder

President and CEO

Chairman of the Board

WORLD - CL ASS TAKE HEART “Having a home at The Smith Center has been a fabulous move. It’s a wonderful home. Any person can enter the concert hall and hear music that touches their heart and see something on stage to be excited about. It’s live culture and it’s what The Smith Center is for!”

— KARL & ROBIN REINARZ, Las Vegas Philharmonic Musicians

“The Smith Center inspired me to pursue my career as a musician; it allowed me to see my favorite musicians up close and gave me that extra push to keep on going and practicing hard.

And to realize that one day, I can be up on that stage.”

— JEFF FRANTOM Green Valley High School Graduate and USC Student

Photo by David Bazemore

10,198

Subscribers to the 2014–2015 Broadway Las Vegas® season

Ira Glass Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host

ThePianoGuys

Kinky Boots Press Night

Photo by Takashi Okamoto

Photo by Bill Swerbenski

London Symphony Orchestra

Arturo Sandoval

335,848

Kodo

Tickets sold to patrons over the past year

“Cabaret Jazz – there is no room like it in Las Vegas. There are some great theaters and nightclubs, but it is a unique place. It’s unique because of the way it feels.

When you can feel the energy of the audience, it’s really special, more so to me than in a room where people are anonymous.

In there you can literally look at people and be involved in their reaction to what you’re saying or singing. I love the intimacy of that room, it’s a shared experience.”

— CLINT HOLMES Singer and Cabaret Jazz Resident Artist

“Being a resident company has let us be more accessible to Las Vegas. We have the ability to not only provide the full theater experience for our patrons, but also for students of our Nevada Ballet Theatre’s academy and education & outreach programs. These kids have had the opportunity to watch us dance and to perform on the stage themselves.

That’s an unforgettable experience that will hopefully inspire them to become the next generation of artists.”

— NEVADA BALLET THEATRE COMPANY ARTISTS, Krista Baker and Ariel Triunfo

392

Performances at The Smith Center

School House Rock, Student Matinee Performance

“When I went to The Smith Center I saw Flat Stanley and we had so much fun, it was really cool, and I was with all my friends.”

— EILEEN DISBENNETT Student Matinee Participant

IS THE HEART OF OUR MISSION

78,501

Students and their teachers attended a performance at The Smith Center during the school year

Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards

Early Learning Through the Arts

20,537

Students and teachers experienced in-school performances presented by local and visiting artists through The Smith Center’s leadership in the Southern Nevada Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child initiative

44 Camp Broadway

Preschool classrooms across the valley participated in Southern Nevada Wolf Trap Early Learning through the Arts residencies

“Every year we have children that have autism or disabilities, and every year those children try out for Disney Musicals in Schools and their performances are amazing.

I work with underprivileged children and they come in so shy and so stiff. [They] learn their parts and dances, and halfway through the kids have completely taken ownership and they’re coming up to me saying, ‘Mrs. Avendano, I’ve found a way that we can improve this.’ So they go from being their normal little selves to being these totally confident people that are so sure of themselves and have taken on the persona of their character. They do everything they can to make it as good as they can make it.”

— LINDA AVENDANO Clark County School District Teacher/Disney Musicals in Schools

1,165

Southern Nevada educators participated in professional development sessions presented by Kennedy Center and visiting teaching artists

Disney Musical in Schools Performance

300 Approximately

students and teachers participated in the Disney Musicals in Schools program during the school year

Disney Musical in Schools Performance

“The Smith Center is important to Las Vegas not only to expose people to the arts, but for the great work that they do in the community.” — ROMAN PANTOJA, The Smith Center Teaching Artist “You may have a teacher who may have played the clarinet in high school and may want to introduce music into their classroom. As a teaching artist we go in there to show them how to do that. We show them how to use math with their clarinet.” — CHINA HUDSON, The Smith Center Teaching Artist

“Winning the Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards was the best accomplishment of my life. Being able to go to New York humbled me in a way I had never before experienced. It put into perspective how talented people are all over the world and taught me that just because you achieve one thing it doesn’t mean there isn’t a long road ahead. It wasn’t the finish line, but the first step to a life-long journey.”

— DEYLAN DEAN 2015 Nevada High School Musical Theater, Best Actor Award Winner

Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards

1,740

Donors contributed $667,144 towards Education and Outreach programs, which includes the nearly $13,000 from ticket buyers who “rounded up” their purchases

FILLS THE HEART “My husband and I love organizations with impact. When we heard about The Smith Center we thought, ‘Yes, this will be a facility with impact.’ We love charities that serve children, so it has that component as well.

I think we need to care – not just on a personal level – about what kind of community are we going to be.

What are we encouraging as a community? I see The Smith Center as such a wonderful complement to what goes on here in Las Vegas. It’s so essential, it really was a missing piece, and it’s here!”

— LARK McCARTHY Vice Chairman, Kennedy Center National Committee for the Performing Arts and Smith Center Donor

“There is satisfaction in helping something grow that has introduced thousands of children to the performing arts.

We have a strong education and outreach program and we’ve reached over a quarter million of Clark County students and beyond that otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be exposed to the performing arts.”

— LARRY LeBLANC Smith Center Volunteer

97

Volunteers contributed

6,833

hours to The Smith Center over the past year

“The people that put [The Smith Center] together, people such as Don Snyder, Fred Smith and the others, had a vision. There are numerous elements that our community needs to have, like a great university, great schools, and a performing arts center like this. So we support it and we’re going to continue to support this.

It’s one of those choices we made that this would be a piece of our giving.

Her name is on that wall with me, Schafer Elizabeth and Phillip C. Peckman, we did that together.”

— SHEA E. & PHILLIP C. PECKMAN, CEO of the Peckman Company and Smith Center Donor

“When I came out here I really sensed it was a desert in more ways than one and when The Smith Center opened, I finally felt like this was home.

I think that sealed the deal and I think that did it for a lot of people. You talk about culture in Las Vegas, you immediately say, ‘What’s playing at The Smith Center?’“ — RABBI YOCHEVED MINTZ Spiritual Leader of Congregation P’nai Tikvah and Smith Center Donor

21,720

Guests have attended special events at The Smith Center over the past year

Nevada Sesquicentennial Celebration

10

Couples said “I do” at The Smith Center

Corporate partnerships accounted for

$853,379

© Adam Frazier

Photo by Adam Frazier

2,252 Donors demonstrated their belief in our mission through their contributions over the past year – more than double the number from just one year ago

in sponsorship of the 2014–2015 season

$3,749,564

Was given through the Annual Fund, ensuring the sustainability of our operations

“Performing arts centers transform communities. The Smith Center is world-class and we are fortunate to have such a place for us, our children and our children’s children. However, performing arts are not self-sustaining – even those that have been in existence for 20–25 years require some philanthropy, so we invest through attending performances and contributing.”

— MICHAEL & RENEE YACKIRA, Treasurer of The Smith Center’s Board of Directors; Special Advisor to the Chancellor, Nevada System of Higher Education; Smith Center Donors

AHEAD

201 5 –2016 Like a lot of the finer things in life, The Smith Center continues to get better with time.

The 2014–2015 year was one for the record books, and the year ahead looks magnificent.

A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN In 2014, we co-produced The Tempest with Harvard University’s American Repertory Theater. With the 2015–2016 Broadway Las Vegas® season we once again get to realize a goal of incubating new works into existence with the Broadway Las Vegas season finale – IDAHO! The Comedy Musical.

Written by Buddy Sheffield and with music

by Buddy Sheffield and Keith Thompson,

IDAHO! The Comedy Musical will be produced by The Smith Center and offer audiences an exciting chance to see a new production while it is in development and before it goes to Broadway. Embodying the grand presence of a golden era production and mixed with bold humor, this show isn’t your grandmother’s prairie musical, and you won’t want to miss it.

CELEBRATING EDUCATION HEROES Since opening, the center has serviced approximately 200,000 students through the Education & Outreach Department. Even before the building was constructed, education was at the heart of The Smith Center and so it’s with tremendous enthusiasm that we look forward to May when we host the inaugural The Heart of Education Awards recognizing the teachers who put learning first in all that they do. Generously provided for by The Rogers Foundation, this landmark program aims to assist the Clark County School District (CCSD) with honoring, recruiting, and retaining great educators. The awards will recognize hundreds of finalists in a celebratory evening that will include a red carpet, swag bags and fine entertainment, which will be the culmination of Teacher Appreciation Week. In addition to the festive invitation-only show, approximately 20 teachers will each be awarded $5,000 in appreciation of their outstanding efforts. It will be a remarkable annual event.

Thank you for your support and keeping The Heart of the Arts beating for our shared community.

SECURING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE In just a few short years we have become an indelible part of our community.

Thanks to you, it’s now hard to imagine the landscape of our city without The Smith Center. We intend to be here for the ages to inspire and entertain, but public support is essential to keep this long-term commitment. Ticket sales only cover about 75% of our operating budget. The remaining 25% comes from Members like you. In the coming year, help us meet our goal to raise nearly $4 million to sustain the extraordinary performances and innovative programs that you have come to expect from us. Your gift to The Smith Center is really your contribution to enhancing the quality of life in Southern Nevada.