Life of the Party

There can be no doubt that Teatro Live is having a celebratory moment. With the unprecedented success of our Join the 400 campaign, a marked increase in subscription and single ticket sales, the arrival of some sparkling new ensemble members in recent and upcoming shows, and the announcement of a brand new artistic director… well, festivity really is in the air. Will that be a distraction for us, one might ask? Will all that good news and the attendant joy it provokes get in the way of the hard work that producing live theatre demands? Friends, it absolutely won’t. Harnessing exuberance has always been part of the skill set at Teatro and we’re itching to do just that.

Some of the best loved and most fondly remembered productions in Teatro’s 43 year history have been the ones we refer to simply as the Party Shows. Following the standard set by Cocktails at Pam’s back in 1986, these have been the most populous productions in the company’s history, with ensemble casts featuring up to a dozen actors. Ranging from the glamorous murder mystery of The Ambassador’s Wives to the soapy intrigues of Mother of the Year, the jet-set espionage of The Scent of Compulsion to the screwball pandemonium of A Rocky Night for His Nibs, these works have always been the most vivid embodiment of The Teatro Riot of Fun.

Currently, we speak of these shows in the past tense, but that just isn’t how it ought to be. We’d like to bring some of these big shows back and what’s more, we’d like to create new ones. We have the personnel, we have the imagination and enthusiasm, so what’s holding us back? Well, it’s the cost of the enterprise. A bigger show means more actors, which means more costumes, which means more dry cleaning…  and generally also more furniture and champagne glasses. More people and more things, basically.  Nevertheless, as we’ve stated, it’s time to reignite the party. We think we can do it with your help.

So we’re pleased to announce a new campaign, very much in the spirit of its predecessor. Once again, critical mass is the magical secret ingredient. Just 500 donations of $100 each would handily beat last year’s total, providing us with $50,000 to be put toward expanding the size and scope of our programming. Our deadline is August 31, and what a fine and fitting thing it would be if we could welcome Farren Timoteo on his first day, September 1 by declaring “Mission completed!”

And what are we calling this campaign? Return of the 400? The 400 Strikes Back? In fact, we are calling it The Life of the Party, because that’s what we’re asking you to be. Every donation we receive will add a little more splendour and zest to our ensuing Party Shows and when you finally get to see the riotous results in full swing, you can say “I did that. It was me, the Life of the Party!” and you won’t even have to put a lampshade on your head or roll down a staircase in an evening gown.