From Metamorphoses to Trouble in Mind, My Fair Lady to Leaving Eden, you’re no stranger to the captivating theatre on our Mainstage at PlayMakers. But that, as they say, is just the tip of the iceberg. The beauty of being a professional theatre company truly in residence here at Chapel Hill means we get the continued opportunity to invest in our community, even as you invest in us.
Nearly three years ago, we began a program that has blossomed into a favorite—for community and company alike. PlayMakers Mobile set off in the Spring of our 2016/17 season with an electric 80-minute Measure for Measure, taking the great theatre that we’re doing inside our building and bringing it out to share with our community. And each performance is absolutley free.
“My impulse when I got here was that we needed to connect again with our communities,” said Producing Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch. “We’ve grown the work that we’ve done here within the Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art and that’s wonderful, but we need to share what goes on here.”
Through PlayMakers Mobile, new audiences across the Triangle have discovered theatre to be relevant to their lives, vital in surprising ways, and more accessible than they originally imagined. We’ve found great joy in building a new audience for timeless plays in the theatrical canon and fostering new relationships throughout the region.
In the last three seasons, we’ve expanded our Mobile program from 5 stops across two counties to 17 stops across five counties. And we don’t want to give up there. We want to follow in Proff Koch’s footsteps and take PlayMakers Mobile on tour across the entire state.
But we can’t do it alone.
This ambitious goal would see our costs increase from a modest $6,000 to nearly $10,000 per year. So if you’ve enjoyed PlayMakers productions throughout the years and want to help others discover the joy of theatre and the wonder of understanding Shakespeare for the first time, consider donating to our Annual Fund. Your support is critical in ensuring the future of our community programs.
