Crystal Theatre 2021 End of Year Donation

While Crystal Theatre has been able to keep the lights on over the past two years due to your enormous support, generous donations, and continued loyalty, we are asking once again for your help during this holiday season. As a non-profit we depend on tax-deductible donations and grants to make our end of year goals. We are so grateful for the continued help of Connecticut Office of the Arts and the DECD for their Supporting Arts and Covid related grants. In order to ensure continued grant assistance, we need to prove $15,000 in donations annually. So far in 2021, roughly $10,000 has already been donated and we are asking for your generosity in helping reach our $15,000 with the remaining $5000.

Crystal Theatre was founded in 1987 by Cheryl Kemeny, Alexandrea Kemeny, David Jackins and Mariner Pezza, under the auspices of the Norwalk Recreation & Parks Department.

Over the years, Crystal Theatre has organized and engaged in unique projects across the entire performing arts spectrum, including the housing of a professional opera company (Crystal Opera, founded in 1993), several off-Broadway and festival productions (A Spinning Tale, 1990; Cleopatra, A Life Unparalleled, 2007 & 2009; Mother Jones and the Children's Crusade, 2014), two international exchanges (Hungarian Nights, 2017 & 2019), and a public-access television program (Crystal Theatre Presents, 1997). What is perhaps most brilliant about the Crystal Theatre method is its emphasis on original theatre, and even more specifically, theatre written to educate children through the underestimated power of the performing arts. Through Crystal Theatre Publishing, youth theatre companies around the world have performed these shows.

Additionally, Crystal Theatre has fostered the artistic endeavors of young playwrights and composers such as Kyle Brenn, Zachary Anderson, László Balázs and Katie Romano, giving them the platform to bring their original works to life, culminating in fully-staged productions performed at our beautiful theater. This organization has always served as a place of artistic development and multi-disciplinary education, and a home-away-from-home for countless students from all walks of life. Crystal Theatre's Rising Stars Pre-Professional Program offers individualized training, classes, and performance opportunities for the more serious students. Last year, Program Director Joseph W. Santaniello Jr. introduced the full “Company” program, a four year diploma program that now ensures high school students are “quadruple threats” in acting, singing, dancing, and musicianship when auditioning, applying to colleges and beyond. Rising Stars additionally offers "College Bound" packages in which students and families interested in musical theatre, vocal performance, and other performing arts as an option for college are counseled through the increasingly competitive application/audition process.

Yet again, we’re asking for your financial support during these troubled times for us. As we continue to struggle through the pandemic while simultaneously expanding our services, we ask that you consider making a tax-deductible donation to support us during this time of immense uncertainty. You can ensure that future generations have continued access to the unique forms of artistic education that have inspired students and adults alike to keep creating. Specifically, your financial support will aid us in many of our upcoming projects, including the re-recording and licensing of Cheryl’s original musicals, a new light board and lighting system, cosmetic repairs including the re-carpeting and re-painting of our theatre, new classes, performances, teachers, and upcoming national and international tours.

ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE

Crystal Theatre is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that has provided musical theatre education to students grades Pre-K through high school in Fairfield County, CT and surrounding towns for more than 30 years.