With only one show left this weekend for our #MeToo Play Festival, we want to say thank you to our audiences, our sponsors, our actors, playwrights, post-show-panelists, director, crew and our donors. This has been the most powerful work we have done in the five years since the 2nd Act Players came into existence.
Theater has the power to not just tell a story but also to help people feel the emotions of what is happening around them. We think we have accomplished that in this production, with all of your help.
Special thanks to those of you who have come or will be coming to a show — Karen York, Gina Morri, Angela McHaney Valavanis, Catherine Dennis, Michelle Willman, Kelly Shermach, Cathy Tobben, Meta Brown, Dave Ablao, Judi Meyers and her guest, Kurt Peters and his wife, Carolyn Potts, Anastasia, friends from my Mended Hearts group and Julie Mitre.
And we could not have done it without our sponsors — MS Group, our newest sponsor this year; First Bank & Trust Evanston, our longest-serving sponsor; Heart Automotive; Wags on Willow; Andy Erickson at Edward Jones in Winnetka; Marion Scully at Bath Body & Soul in Lake Geneva and our incredible photographer Jerry Alt.
Our guest speakers from the Chicago Federation for Women, Healing to Action, the Center Against Sexual Assault and Northminster Church also were amazing in their insights and comments at our panel discussions.
Our director, Aayisha Ruby Humphrey brought a vision to the festival we could not have conceived of but which seemed so right, thank you Aayisha.
And to my fellow board members, Carolyn Calzavara, Ryan Dant, Andy Erickson and Jenny Frank, the show does not happen without you. Who else would set up and tear down night after night, sell tickets, put out food, empty the trash cans, clean the bathrooms (yes, board members clean the bathrooms after each show, so much for theater glamor). No one not involved can realize how much nitty-gritty work it takes to put on a production but you all make it possible.
We’ll celebrate with cake at our final show Sunday, then it’s on to planning our fall production, an all-new two-act version of New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House.