HELENA — Grandstreet Theatre says 2020’s Holiday Benefit will not be your average virtual performance.
“We've really been working very hard for the last several weeks to kind of edit together a really beautiful-looking event,” says Jeff Downing, the Artistic Director for Grandstreet Theatre. “It's going to be a step above people singing a song in their living room.”
The theatre says they’ve upped their production quality by having performances filmed on stage with added editing effects to make it seem like even from your own home, you feel like you are in the theater live.
“In years past, this has been a pretty popular event and it is almost always sold out, which means 200 people get to see it,” explains Downing. “This year, the silver lining is that as many people who want to watch will have an opportunity to do so."
Having more people able to watch the benefit gives Grandstreet Theater a big opportunity to get a head start in their fundraising goals. They admit 2020 has been a difficult year for them, financially. This benefit will kick off their 2021 goals like purchasing a new air conditioning system.
"Our HVAC system broke in August. That's a really important thing for the theater, to be able to circulate air,” says Kal Poole, the Managing Director for the theatre. “Going forward, especially in COVID-19 times, we like to be able to circulate that air and so it's a really big and expensive deal for the theater."
The theatre says they will need to raise about $220,000 over the course of 2021 for their new system.
Grandstreet Theatre has partnered with local businesses to also offer party packs along with the benefit performance. Each pack comes with wine, popcorn, and many more items. The benefit begins December 27th, 2020.
