Arts
www.GilbertSunNews.com
May 2015
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Performances of “Les Miserables” are scheduled from Thursday, June 25 through Saturday, June 27. Submitted photo
Copperstar, Higley Center team up for ‘Les Miserables’
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The Okawas extended their credit and used up retirement and savings accounts as well as their children’s college funds to keep Copperstar going. By October 2014, the family was upside down, and they finally accepted defeat, thanks to the ongoing expense of rent for a studio and shop. Okawa said she found someone to rent the studio, but Copperstar is still paying rent on a nearly 3,000-square-foot shop. To make money, Okawa has been selling Copperstar’s costumes, sets and props. “Beginning Copperstar as I did—with no training or background in nonprofit— created a sort of snowball effect,” she said. “We started out with nothing, so we were always a show behind financially.” Higley Center for the Performing Arts Operations Manager Robert Zucker wanted to help Copperstar and his facility at the same time. “I sat down with Mary-Jo Okawa and talked about the realities,” he said. “She is an artistic director. I am a businessman. We have different views of putting on a performance and I think the two of us working together will have much better results. That is what this is all about... me helping them with the business operations and them restoring musical theater.” The partnership began five years ago when Copperstar was a fledgling theater company looking for a home. Higley Center housed Copperstar for three years before it moved into the Mesa Arts Center. Zucker said he kept tabs on Copperstar because of its work with kids and the public. Higley Center attracts the same audience.
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BY MEGHAN MCCOY
Higley Center for the Performing Arts has given Chandler’s Copperstar Repertory Co. yet another chance for a comeback by providing a theater space for its production of “Les Miserables.” Copperstar has faced a number of hardships after Mary-Jo Okawa, the theater company’s founder and artistic producing director, and her family watched their garage go up in flames two years ago. The three-car space had been converted into a scene shop, which held all of the costumes and props. “The fire started in the garage and they never discovered how,” Okawa said. “My husband heard a big bang, which he thought was a gunshot. He went outside to see what was happening and our garage exploded. It had been burning for a while.” The house was a complete loss and demolished. For the next 10 months, the family lived in hotels and temporary housing until their house was rebuilt. Consequently, the night of the fire, Copperstar was set to hold auditions for “The Wizard of Oz.” The family showed up for the tryouts as is—complete with soot on their faces and hands. That resulted in a sea of support. Okawa received many gifts and was nominated for CBS 5’s “Pay It Forward” award. Community theaters opened their warehouses for costumes and props. However, the hardships have snowballed. “In hindsight, it might have been wise to have taken a break when the fire happened because the years that followed have been very difficult and heartbreaking,” she said. “But truthfully, without Copperstar to keep us going and give us a bigger picture to focus on, I believe this time of our lives would have been even more difficult.”
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