Lamplighters Music Theatre 2014-2015 Season was sponsored in part by generous grants from
GRANTS FOR THE ARTS / SAN FRANCISCO HOTEL TAX FUND Anne & Gordon Getty Foundation Gladstone Family Fund for Artistic Excellence
2014 / 15 Annual Report
Dean & Margaret Lesher Foundation
As a long-time Board member, supporter and performer, I’ve found it exciting to watch the Lamplighters evolve from a small, all-volunteer group of Gilbert & Sullivan aficionados to become a professionally-led arts organization with a community spirit & a national presence.
Gorter Family Foundation * King & Spalding * McKesson Foundation Bernard Osher Foundation * Silicon Valley Bank Foundation * Sing for America Foundation * Tangram Insurance Services Xilinx Community Fund, a corporate advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation
We also received gifts from nearly 800 generous individuals. THANK YOU!
For more than 60 years, we’ve brought music, laughter, & splendid performances to hundreds of thousands in the Bay Area. The 2014-2015 Season was no exception, and we could not have done it without you. We’re delighted to share our successes with you in this Annual Report.
The mission of Lamplighters Music Theatre is to share our enthusiasm and love for the works of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan through productions of their comic operas and of other works of comparable wit, literacy and musical merit. Our company strives to enrich the lives of current and future theatre-goers with productions of the highest artistic quality, and to offer performance opportunities in the unique style of classic music theatre to established and emerging artists alike. Through youth training, programs in schools and community outreach, the Lamplighters aspire to develop young talent and encourage people of all ages to explore the comic appeal and deep musical rewards of this repertoire.
– Theatre Eddys, Candide, February 2015
Rick Williams, Artistic Director; Baker Peeples, Resident Music Director; Barbara Heroux, Artistic Director Emeritus
Staff Sarah Vardigans, Managing Director; Amy Himes, Development Director; Joanne Kay, Operations Manager; Phil Lowery, Production Coordinator; Melissa Wortman, Costume Shop Manager; Ellen Kerrigan, Education Director; Diana Dorman, Music Librarian; Kissa Mercado, Development Assistant.
Board Of Trustees James MacIlvaine, President; F. Lawrence Ewing, Vice President; Mark Fuller, Treasurer; Keith Doerge, Secretary; John J. Vlahos, President Emeritus; Richard Drossler, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, Anson B. Moran, Baker Peeples, Christopher M. Sunseri, Trustees; Chris Uzelac, Company Representative Orva Hoskinson, Ann Pool Mac Nab, Co-Founders Our administrative offices are located at 469 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 Phone: 415-227-4797 • Fax: 415-896-2844 • info@lamplighters.org • www.lamplighters.org
The Pirates of Penzance “... the best I’ve EVER EVER witnessed. IT DOESN’T EVER GET BETTER THAN THIS!!!” – Patron
Candide Theatre Bay Area Awards: Melissa Wortman (Winner, Outstanding Costume Design) Kerry Rider-Kuhn (Finalist, Outstanding Wig Design)
The Grand Duke Our new adaptation of “the last and most easily overlooked of Gilbert & Sullivan’s operas” was named one of the Top 10 Operatic Events of 2015 in the San Francisco Chronicle Year in Review.
Gilbert & Sullivan CD Project The Pirates of Penzance – our 4th CD – was released in 2015, and The Grand Duke is scheduled for release early in 2016. The CD recording of our 2013 production of Iolanthe was honored by Opera News as one the Top 12 full-length opera CD releases of 2014!
Lamplighters Inaugural Community Chorus, Spring 2014 21 brave and talented singers joined Lamplighter principals Jennifer Ashworth and Robby Stafford to rehearse and present a terrific concert – now an annual event. New singers are always welcome!
Gilbert & Sullivan National Summit, August 2014 The Lamplighters hosted 23 guests from 12 G&S companies from 9 states, with three days of fascinating discussions and the cementing of new Savoyard friendships.
Photo: Charles Martin, The Pirates of Penzance 2014
2014-2015 Season Highlights
“This is how Gilbert and Sullivan should be presented—wry, sly and bright as a summer day.” – Pat Craig, San Jose Mercury News,
The Pirates of Penzance, August 2014
Photo: Lucas Buxman, The Grand Duke 2015
“… a soaring success…full of fun, frivolity, and fabulous music.”
the survival of both the organization and the G&S genre. Our innovative, interactive youth education program serves students of all ages and is growing year by year. Our extremely popular summer program, in collaboration with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, is entering its 14th successful year. In early 2015 we were delighted to enter into a deeper collaboration with the Piedmont School District, and we look forward to further strengthening this relationship.
Photo: Steve Zirkelbach
Photo: Lucas Buxman, Candide 2015
Building future audiences is critical to
– James MacIlvaine, President, Board of Trustees
“ … one of the company’s most delightful offerings in many a year.” – Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, The Grand Duke, April 2015
Our 2014-15 fiscal year was longer than usual – a 15-month period from March 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015 – as we shifted our fiscal year start date to better align with our performance season. The 2014-15 fiscal year closed with an increase in net assets of $18,713, partly due to robust ticket sales, but mostly due to careful management of expenses. The organization continued to pay down long-term debt, while also fulfilling almost all accounts payable prior to beginning the 2015-16 fiscal year.
Our greatest expense continues to be performance-related program costs, which vary depending on the production. About half of these costs are dedicated to compensation for the talented performers, directors, designers and technicians who create live theatre in our community. Our wonderful orchestra musicians have been supported by a union contract since 1979. Ticket sales and other earned income cover a little over 50% of the cost of bringing you these wonderful shows.
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â&#x20AC;&#x153;I saw my first Lamplighter production in 1953 ... and have watched the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growth into a professional company, even surpassing Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Oyly Carte in quality.â&#x20AC;? - Long-time patron â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;Ś the performance was nothing short of FANTASTIC. I could not believe my eyes and ears. â&#x20AC;Ś I was literally transported to a higher plane for the rest of my evening ... I never realized how amazing this organization is.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; First-time patron, The Pirates of Penzance, 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x153;all (the) staging was so â&#x20AC;&#x153;right,â&#x20AC;? one could not imagine it being done any other way.â&#x20AC;? - Ann Pool Mac Nab, Lamplighters Co-Founder, Candide, 2015
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FY2015 Income & Expenditure by Production
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thanks to Lamplighters Music Theatre and everybody there for being so welcoming and great to work with. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m very proud to have become one of you.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; New performer, The Grand Duke, 2015 â&#x20AC;&#x153;I continue to have difficulty finding the right language to express to you the value that attending an event like this can have on someone. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how to measure the lifetime effect of seeing a live performance (particularly for the first time) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the memory that is created and carried with the audience member for the rest of their lives, becoming a part of who they are. ... what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re providing is worth so much more than the price of a ticket.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Executive Director, Community Access Ticket Service (CATS), serving Bay Area underprivileged communities