Good morning! Here’s a list of things you need to know going on this week!
Talk about job creation in Downtown Aurora! Here’s a summer job alert: RiverEdge Park is still accepting applications for several positions this summer. APPLY ONLINE
Cabaret rehearsals move across the street into the theater and onto the stage Wednesday evening. I dropped in to check out the progress of the set being installed which was built right here in Aurora in our scene shop by Paramount’s Broadway Series Technical Director Jason Pikscher and his phenomenal crew and scenic artists.
The Scott Davis scenic design is breathtaking. Literally, the impact of seeing it as I entered through the doors of the theater took my breath away.
Lighting Designer Yael Lubetsky was onstage focusing instruments like painting with light across the stage. Back in the Copley with Scott, I sat in for a look at Act 1, attending Director/Choreographer Katie Spelman delivering on all counts why this American musical masterpiece is so enduring over the last five decades. Katie has a fervor for composers Kander and Ebb’s songs and intent,
and I relive my love for this music watching her stunning treatment of this work’s euphoria and its challenge in her extraordinary cast and ultimately, dear reader, its challenge to all of us who will be watching.
That night, I hightailed it over to the Oswego Public Library with Director of Sales and Corporate Relations Joel Friend. Joel brought Scott Davis’ remarkable miniature model of the set along with a fascinating selection of images from the costume design of Mieka Ven Der Ploeg, a technical drafting plot of the lighting instrument grid and set construction photos to project on a big screen for a rapt full house of theatre-goers! It felt like we could have stayed all night! Once I got started, I went on and on about Cabaret, its history from the Broadway original, the subsequent revivals and the Bob Fosse film. (There’s a terrific BBC documentary on the making of the movie narrated by Alan Cumming which I referenced to the group suggested to me by Shannon Cameron, Paramount’s Director of Education and Community Engagement.)
Speaking of community engagement…
the really big news is Paramount receiving the largest grant in its history to the tune of $2.5 million from the Dunham Fund to kick off our Act 2 Capital Campaign!
And wow, baby! Thank you, Dunham Fund, for leading the way! Now, the campaign goal is $4.5 million, and there is no way we are going to raise the remaining $2 million without you! The Act 2 campaign, funding the Paramount School of Performing Arts, replacement of Paramount seats and Copley Theatre remodel project, is all about developing and investing in the best of our community, and now it’s time to do what you can to make a gift to support it. DONATE TODAY
Lots of excitement ahead this week! And beyond! Stay tuned!
Love & thanks,
Jim
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