Dear EPAC Family,
As our community continues to feel the impact of COVID-19, we remain committed to navigating this difficult period of uncertainty together, through a message of love, hope, and positivity. Thousands of supporters have watched our “Seasons of Love” video, as well as the new content that we are producing. EPAC is currently releasing “Quarantine Chats,” which are online conversations between our Artistic Director, Edward R. Fernandez and icons in our local performing arts community. You will also start to see messages from our Kids4Kids community and new ways to engage with us online.
Our Board of Directors and staff also continue to monitor the effects of COVID-19 and will continue to follow local, state, and federal guidelines and recommendations. At EPAC, our top priority must remain the health and safety of our audiences, volunteers, and staff. With that in mind, we do have additional updates on our 2020 season. We have made the difficult decision to postpone the start of our 2020 season until August.
We will begin the season in August with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, followed by The Boys in the Band, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, and Matilda. Additional updates about our Kids4Kids programming will be forthcoming. As this time, we are planning to still offer our Center Stage Summer Theater Camp, our Kids4Kids Cabaret in the fall, and our staged reading series.
We want to stress that this is a postponement of many of our productions, not a cancellation. We will continue to update our patrons on the status of a revised 2020 schedule as soon we are able to release additional dates and details. We also acknowledge that an August start date is tentative, and that additional delays or changes could still be forthcoming.
If you already have your tickets to any of our 2020 shows or events, or if you are a subscriber, please know that those tickets will be honored at the rescheduled dates later this fall. If you are unable to attend the rescheduled shows, please consider donating the value of your tickets to EPAC as a tax-deductible contribution or exchanging those tickets for another production in our 2020 or 2021 season. We do recognize that we will be losing several shows from our 2020 season this year. For subscribers, we plan to offer additional tickets to our Staged Reading Series and other opportunities in 2020.
EPAC is committed to giving back to our community during this time. We have been in touch with WellSpan Health about our costume shop producing masks and we encourage our EPAC family to take a look at their Covid-19 response page by clicking here. We also encourage you to continue to support our sponsors and the businesses that have always supported us.
We know that this is a stressful time for many in our community. We miss all of you so much and thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to plan for the reopening of EPAC and our 2020 season.
As we think about our future, we’re reminded of this quote from John Steinbeck, “The theater is the only institution in the world which has been dying for four thousand years and has never succumbed. It requires tough and devoted people to keep it alive.”
We’re tough, we’re devoted, and we will keep theater that matters alive.
Stay safe and thank you for your continued support of EPAC!
Sincerely,
The staff and Board of Directors of the Ephrata Performing Arts Center