2008 Batavia Players, Inc. President’s Report It is with great pleasure that I report to the membership that the Batavia Players, Inc. has once again completed a very successful year. This was our first five-show season, which was a goal when I first became President. This year we achieved it with huge success and wonderful audience response. Hard work from the entire board made the 2008 Season possible. Success was also apparent in our ability to fundraise, maintain over 100 Family Memberships and attract phenomenal talent. Christmas brought an unusual end to our season due to weather complications and yet it allowed us to donate $1000 to the Salvation Army of Batavia at a time when it was needed most. This was our most financially secure year. Our season started with our 6th Shakespeare in Springtime Production of Julius Caesar. This was performed at Genesee Community College and included a fantastic set with beautiful costuming. We were able to obtain two grants from Go Art! Once again we received the largest grant for this area. This is a testament of our professionalism and production quality. Our second production, Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, was also at Genesee Community College. This is an acclaimed long-standing Broadway play that is difficult to stage. The design team and the actors involved worked extremely hard on this production and I was so happy with the results. Again, the word professionalism comes to light when I think of that fantastic cast and tremendous set. I was so proud of the show. A special thanks to Rachel Oshlag, who became a cast member with little time left and held one of the lead roles. All 8 women and our 1 young man were phenomenal. It is apparent that our talent pool also extends to the young people that participated in this year’s Summer Youth Theater Production of Jesus Christ, Superstar. Each and every one of the 70 plus singers, actors and dancers gave their all to make this an amazing production. This has been a favorite of mine for 36 years and to be able to produce this show with all the talent and all of it’s vibrancy brought me to tears each and every night. Standing ovations for all the actors in the show at each and every performance. This show also included a beautifully designed set by Stephanie and Bob Rudman and amazing costumes. Each sketch that I gave Beth Ann Hooker became more and more complicated but Beth Ann persevered and brought the entire package to life. Visually this show was gorgeous. Our 4th foray onto the stage included our fist adjudicated show for the Theater Association of New York (TANYS). We decided to produce our One Act Plays at John Kennedy Elementary School as a way to offer another alternative for adults to be on stage without increasing our financial risks. All the shows were wonderfully staged and Directed by E. Jane Burk, Michelle Case and Peter Flanagan. Three of our actors received Awards of Merit from TANYS for their performances. They were Peggy Marone, Robert Rudman and Kevin Partridge. Audiences loved the shows and the simple format seemed to work well for us. Our final show for the 2008 Season was A Child’s Christmas Quilt. This show was written by Mary Brenner and myself to once again showcase our local musical performers, parents and many of our current and former Summer Youth Theater participants. It also included the Second Annual All Batavia Elementary Choir. 20 plus young people from all five elementary schools across the city were part of our cast. The show not only allowed us to work with the music departments in the schools, but also give back to the community by raising over $1000 for our local Salvation Army. The show itself was scheduled and re-scheduled due to weather. When it finally came together it was wonderful and very emotional for me. Audiences totaled well over 2300 this past year and we feel that those numbers will keep growing. It is our intent again to do another five show season. As best as can be figured out we are THE ONLY Community Theater that does 5 complete shows each year. That is an attribution to the hard work of the Board of Directors and our members, performers and volunteers. Our Board remains active and we have worked through financial issues, changes in leadership and increasing demands on all of our time and energy. We stay dedicated to quality and professionalism and continue to seek new members. Our success this year also included the establishment of our new costume facility. This is an on-going work in progress and we are constantly striving for ways to improve this service and store our costumes. Financially we had a very successful year with our Garage Sale, Pizza Hut Night, Mum and Bulb Sale and Bob Evans Night. Each of these along with our continued ad sponsors for shows helped us to maintain a very healthy bottom line. This past year our income exceeded our expenses by approximately $3000. We also were successful in providing over $1500 in Scholarships this year with our two existing programs. Our second Youth Theater recipient was James Schmieder. In closing, I am happy to report we are in great shape and I feel that this year will be a great year where we will continue our five show season, make new alliances that will assist with that goal and maintain our financial stability. I am happy and proud to have served as your President this past year and look forward to serving this fine organization in the future. To each and every volunteer and actor, donor and benefactor, spouse and child and especially to the Board of Directors, my heartfelt thanks and appreciation. YOU all make me proud to be the President of the Batavia Players, Inc.
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