FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE....January 24, 2004
Contact David Turner, 518-798-7479
Tenth Adirondack Theatre Festival slated for
June 17 – July 31, 2004
One week expansion of Festival for inauguration of
Charles R. Wood Theater.
10th Anniversary Gala tentatively scheduled for
June 17-19 featuring tribute to ATF’s first decade.
ATF obtains area’s first grant ever
from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Theater Program, as well as
donation of downtown property for office and housing representing
organization’s largest gift to date.
The Adirondack Theatre Festival began to role out its tenth anniversary
year with a sold-out fundraiser “ten” at the Queensbury Hotel Friday
night. ATF announced dates for the 2004 Festival which include the summer
season’s second expansion in two years to make room for a Tenth
Anniversary gala June 17-19 which will be ATF’s first performance in the
new Charles R. Wood Theater. The new theater, located in the renovated
former Woolworths store which ATF began using in 1996, is a result of a
five-year community-wide effort inspired by ATF but completed by a new
organization which will host many of the region’s arts organizations
besides ATF.
“ATF’s accomplishments in our first decade have been remarkable and we are
thrilled to be pushing forward with another expansion for 2004” says ATF
Artistic Director Martha Banta. “While lengthening the season will be hard
for us financially, we felt a strong desire to open with a celebration of
the last ten years and everything this organization and our community has
accomplished. This special event will be outside of our regular season,
but we also didn’t want to go backwards from a four-show schedule, so
expanding another week was the only option.” Details on the 10th
anniversary gala and the four-show season will be forthcoming over the
coming weeks and months, with the entire season scheduled and tickets on
sale the first week of April.
Also announced Friday night were two significant grants and gifts to ATF.
ATF was awarded a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts in
its annual grant announcements in December. The grant was for the
development and production of a new play by Melissa James Gibson, whose
play “Suitcase, or those who resemble flies from a distance” is currently
playing in New York City and was recently profiled in the January 18 New
York Times. “This grant is especially significant for two reasons”, says
Banta. “First, it represents ATF’s continued ability to bring funding into
our region which will be almost all spent here, and otherwise would go
elsewhere in the country. Second, these grants are awarded by a panel of
our peers in the arts, so they recognize ATF’s excellence on a national
level for the first time. It’s great to see ATF and Glens Falls listed
between Actors Theater of Louisville and Alabama Shakespeare Festival!”.
ATF thanks all of the area’s federal representatives: Congressman Sweeney,
Senator Schumer, and Senator Clinton, for their ongoing support of the
National Endowment for the Arts annual funding.
The announcement which drew the most applause at Friday night’s fundraiser
was the gift to ATF of a property at 50 Elm Street in downtown Glens
Falls. This property, most recently an orthopedic surgeon's office and
known to many longtime residents as Dr. Paul Bulova's home and office,
helps solve several of ATF’s most pressing needs as well as representing
an enormous step forward for ATF as a leader in the community. “This
significant gift, by far our largest ever, couldn’t come at a more
important time for the Festival”, says ATF Producing Director David
Turner. “Having lead the charge on solving this area’s longtime lack of a
dedicated performance space, we have had to sacrifice many of ATF’s own
organizational needs in recent years. But that didn’t stop us from
publishing a ‘wish-list’ in each summer’s program which included office
space, housing downtown, and storage space. It is simply remarkable that
area residents and ATF subscribers Beth and Richard Saunders saw this
need, and had the vacant property to fill it perfectly. This will give ATF
a visible year-round base in the community, and a solid platform on which
to launch our second decade.” ATF will move its office to this location in
April in addition to housing four of its seasonal staff there.
“It’s been an incredible six months” said ATF Board President David J.
King who officially began his two-year term January 1. “When we were in
the depths of last season we honestly thought we might not make it. But my
fellow ATF Board members simply couldn’t imagine our lives or our
community without this organization which has so quickly become so vital.
As a community member and theater-goer, I am just so excited about what
ATF is going to bring us this year.”
The Adirondack Theatre Festival’s tenth season will run June 17 – July 31
at the new Charles R. Wood Theater on Glen Street in Downtown Glens Falls.
Discount season subscriptions will go on sale in early April. To join the
Festival’s mailing list and be among the first to receive a season
brochure call 798-7479 or go to www. ATFestival.org.
ATTENTION MEMBERS OF THE PRESS!
High-quality digital images from past ATF productions, the 50 Elm Street
property, and our 10th Anniversary Logo can be downloaded directly from
our website throughout the season!
