Think about your special “spot,” whether it’s on the couch or at the table or in your office. You feel safe, welcome, comfortable, wanted, sometimes even needed. What if it came with the knowledge that your spot – with your name on it – was going to help artists and performers and students and teachers create and inspire each other and future generations?
Have we got a spot for you.
Welcome to the Grand Ovation Campaign, a program of Raising the Curtain Foundation that benefits the Newhall Family Theatre for the Performing Arts. More than 500 opportunities to name a seat became available when the completely renovated Art Deco auditorium, built in 1941 as a Works Progress Administration project, reopened in 2018.
At that reopening, several community members took advantage of the opportunity and made donations for their spots, which they frequently point out to friends visiting for the first time. New seatholders have been seen taking selfies with their spots because they are so excited to be a part of the Foundation’s success. Names of the famous and not-so-famous can be found on seat plaques affixed to each spot. Seats – or favorite spots - can be purchased as gifts in memory of a loved one, to celebrate a special life event, or forever enshrine a favorite nickname or two (trust me on that one).
Grand Ovation is a unique opportunity for you to be a special part of the enduring story of the Newhall Family Theatre. Each seat sponsored bears the name of the donor in a location that corresponds with the chosen donation level. The better the seat, the more serious the financial commitment, but one that will pay off for years to come.
There are several donor levels at which you can participate:
Grand Ovation - $1,000 – Front row of each section; center, left, and right.
Grand Curtain - $750 – Center section, rows B through H.
Grand Audience - $500 – Rows C through H, on House Left or House Right.
Encore - $250 – Center section, rows J through W.
Bravo - $150 – Rows J through W, at either House Left or House Right.
The Newhall Family Theatre is the spot where students from CalArts had their Animation Showcase, where actors produced the radio show “The Man With Bogart’s Face,” where local theatre companies put on musicals and dramatic plays, and thousands of students have given their all in talent shows to the delight of their families and friends. Audiences were thrilled to see performances from around the world in the annual Cultural Arts Showcase; children learned about stagecraft from local artisans during the Celebration of the Performing Arts, which also featured a showcase for local groups hungry to return to the stage after the pandemic.
The theatre is alive with the sounds of children’s laughter during “Saturday’s Kids,” and it’s been the spot where cowboy entertainers have yodeled and sung ballads, silent film fans had a quiet festival (spare the thunderous applause) and, coming soon, shows by Charles Phoenix and the Bob Baker Marionettes.
There are 529 seats in the Newhall Family Theatre for the Performing Arts. We’re saving a spot for each and every theater-music-arts-dance-and cultural enrichment aficionado we can reach. Won’t you join us in helping ensure the future of this beautiful theatre and the programming that is sure to change lives for the better? We’ve got the perfect spot…
Visit our website, www.raisingthecurtainfoundation.org , to get your seat. Click “Support” then “Grand Ovation Campaign,” and you’ll be ready!
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