After a 15-month shutdown for the COVID pandemic, The Westmoreland Players recently reopened with a production of “A Sanders Family Christmas.”
The Westmoreland Players, a Northern Neck-based community theater group, received a $15,000 grant from the Mason and Lula Cole Charitable Trust and a $2,500 grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA).
The Cole Charitable Trust provides grants to organizations that serve the residents of the Northern Neck region of Virginia, and supports organizations that span a range of community needs, reported Westmoreland Players president Dan Beckhard. For many years, the Cole Trust has been a leading benefactor of the Westmoreland Players.
The VCA grant was awarded competitively under the VCA’s Arts Recovery Grant program, and is being supported through federal funding from the American Rescue Plan, said Beckhard.
The grant will assist in the theater’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the theater to go dark for about 15 months in 2020 and 2021.The theater recently reopened with the production of “A Sanders Family Christmas,” a musical comedy that played to enthusiastic audiences, he said.
Treasurer Debbie Evans said the theater sustained significant financial losses during the pandemic shutdown, due to the need to continue to pay the loan on its property as well as the costs of utilities and maintenance.
“The Cole Trust and VCA grants, together with the generous support that the Players received from patrons, sponsors and other contributors, will help us recover our financial footing and resume the production of a full season of professional quality theatrical productions for local audiences,” Evans said.
The Westmoreland Players was formed in 1979. The organization owns a 150-seat theater in Callao and produces about four plays and musicals per year,. The Players also sponsors a week-long children’s theater camp each summer culminating in a staged production of a musical play.
The 2021-22 season will continue with productions of “Moonlight and Magnolias,” February 26-March 13, “The Wild Women of Winedale,” May 7-22, and “Lost in Yonkers,” August 6-21.
