Hope Summer Repertory Theatre at Hope College has been awarded a $15,000 project grant from the State of Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA) in support of HSRT’s forthcoming 48th season.
From May to August 2019, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre will produce a six-production, three-venue season of “Murder for Two,” “West Side Story,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “truth: The Testimonial of Sojourner Truth,” “The Old Man and The Old Moon,” and “Elephant and Piggie’s: ‘We are in a Play!,’” and a new Emerging Artist Initiative. Across the season, HSRT will provide the community with professional theatre experiences, which will entertain and engage roughly 5,000 individuals from Ottawa, Kent and Allegan counties, as well as seasonal visitors to Holland. Educational materials accompanying each production and workshops for youth aged 3-18, will further engage audiences with HSRT’s 48th season.
The MCACA project grant will help support HSRT in employing approximately 100 professional artists and technicians from around the country to produce the season. Reagan Chesnut, who is HSRT’s associate managing director, was able to write the grant application through participation in Hope’s 2018 Faculty Writing Camp, which was sponsored by the college’s Klooster Center for Excellence in Writing.
Organizations receiving a MCACA grant award are required to match those funds with other public and private dollars. Local supporters of HSRT include the Brooks Family Fund/Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area, Barbara Bradley Baekgaad Family Foundation, Cookie Jar Foundation, GE Foundation, Hilliard Lyons, Parkway Electric, Request Foods Inc., Westshore Financial, Zeeland Family Dentistry, Hope College Patrons for the Arts and the HSRT Center Stage Circle. HSRT also receives significant support from the community in the form of Hope Theatre Guild volunteers and partnerships with organizations such as Benjamin’s Hope and the Ottawa County Department of Public Health’s Meet Up & Eat Up.
The $15,000 grant to HSRT was one of 506 awards statewide selected from among 598 applications through the MCACA peer review process, which allows for each grant application to be competitively considered by a panel of in-state and out-of-state arts and culture professionals. The process ensures that taxpayers, who support the project through legislative appropriations, and all other visitors or residents in Michigan will have access to the highest-quality arts and cultural experiences.
More information about HSRT’s 2019 season is available at hope.edu/hsrt
A complete list of grant awards around the state is available in the news section of the MCACA website, michigan.gov/arts