Microphones and Drop Cloths for Theater Production

Funded Dec 4, 2023

Thank you so much for your donation to our project! This fundraiser, aimed at acquiring microphones and fabric to create a backdrop for the RMA Drama Club's spring production of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was a resounding success! The art club is already hard at work painting all of the canvas for our custom backdrop, and we cannot wait to use the microphones when we have our performances this May! None of this would have been possible without the incredible generosity and support of you, our donors. Your contributions have not only met but exceeded our expectations, enabling us to purchase much-needed supplies. Being able to include our school's Art Club in our performance by having them paint our backdrop expands our reach to a wider range of students, and the microphones will help our talented performers to be heard clearly. All of this will allow for a visually captivating experience for our audience!

Since we met our fundraising goal, we have been able to arrange for every 4th grader in the district to come see our play during the school day since "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is one of the 4th grade core texts. Hopefully, more of these students will become interested in theater and will join the drama clubs at their schools, and then eventually join our Drama Club when they come to RMA as 6th graders. Since the addition of these performances for the 4th graders, our actors are more enthusiastic than ever! One of our stage managers created a proposal that they have given to our principal with over 200 student signatures asking if we can take the entire school to see the show during the school day, too.

Again, we owe you all a heartfelt thank you. Your belief in our project and your willingness to contribute to our club has given us the confidence to dream bigger than we could have previously! I could cite study after study about how student involvement in the arts, and especially in the performing arts, is incredibly beneficial to their social/emotional growth and wellbeing. The American Alliance for Theatre & Education provides evidence that "students involved in drama performance coursework or experience outscored non-arts students on the 2005 SAT by an average of 65 points in the verbal component and 34 points in the math component," showing that "drama activities improve reading comprehension, and both verbal and non-verbal communication skills". The Arthur Miller Foundation further these claims and provides evidence that "low-income students highly engaged in the arts are more than 2x as likely to graduate from college... at-risk students with access to the arts do better academically, aim higher in their career goals, and become more civically involved... [and] language proficiency scores increase more than 10 x with arts engagement in schools for English Language Learners". Your part in our attempts to bring high-quality theater education to our students cannot be overemphasized. As we move forward, we do so with a renewed commitment to improving our students' middle school experience through theater. Thank you for investing in the arts, in our club, and, most importantly, in our students, who will carry the skills and experiences they gain here with them long into the future.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Shapiro