VLOG's 500 Pledge Club: Hooray!
After 70 Years, We Have a New Home!
JOIN THE
500 CLUB TODAY!
After decades of wandering from one rental to another, the Village Light
Opera Group finally owns a permanent home, at 65 Leonard Street in Tribeca – in
which to rehearse, build sets and costumes, offer small-scale performances
and much more.
However, to really ensure the permanent future of VLOG, we need to pay off
the mortgage! Our balance sheet shows that we are in good shape financially,
but since all of our assets are invested in our new home, we, like many New
Yorkers, are cash poor. Paying that mortgage remains our largest ongoing
challenge.
With that in mind, we are announcing the
formation of the VLOG 500 Club. We are looking for five hundred people or
families who can each pledge $1,500 payable over a five year period. That's
$300 a year, which is fully deductible from state, local and federal taxes.
If you itemize your deductions, the bottom line cost is about $165/year.
That's only $3 a week, less than the cost of a beer or cappucino!
So please, if you have enjoyed any of our performances as much as we enjoy
producing them for you, step up and join the club! Pledge $1,500 today, or,
if you can, take more than one share, and help us reach our goal more quickly.
If you are ready to make the commitment, please email Karen Mason and Robert
Dewar at
Click here to
download a pledge form.
or Make a Donation
through Paypal now!
Since 1935 the Village Light Opera Group has given the New
York public high quality productions of rarely performed light operas,
operettas and Broadway musicals. With fifty-plus member casts and twenty-plus
piece orchestras, VLOG has set standards rarely met by New York's commercial
theater organizations. Now VLOG's future is threatened. In the past VLOG
has rented space for its set and costume construction facilities and separate
space for rehearsals. This arrangement is no longer feasible
with escalating rental costs in Manhattan and a shrinking number of rental
spaces available for our purposes. With interest rates low, now is the
perfect time for VLOG to take control of its future by purchasing a permanent
home. Won't you help us by please making a generous donation to the VLOG
capital campaign? Donations are fully tax-deductible as VLOG is a 501(c)3
organization.
FILLING AN IMPORTANT NICHE IN NEW YORK,
THEATER DISTRICT OF THE WORLD, SINCE 1935
Preserving and Enhancing the Unique Offerings of the Village Light Opera
Group Through the Purchase and Construction of a Permanent Home
Founded in 1935
as a volunteer theater organization designed to promote the works of Gilbert
and Sullivan, the Village Light Opera Group (VLOG) has
spent the past 67 years offering the New York public a chance to see
high quality productions of rarely performed light operas, operettas and
Broadway musicals. With its fifty-plus member casts, and twenty-pluspiece
orchestras, VLOG prides itself on setting standards for musical performance
seldom possible amongst New York's commercial theater organizations who have
to cope with the high costs of salaried performers. VLOG's membership is
at its heart, and it affords its members a chance to perform and engage
in backstage activities as well as a chance to work on its management,
allowing them to gain skills that aid their professional development. With
its open
casting policy, VLOG gives opportunities to aspiring actors, and with
its large scale productions, it provides chances for up and coming designers
to prove themselves. A unique amalgam of professional standards and community
interests, the Village Light Opera Group has set itself apart over the years,
filling an important niche in New York Society.
With escalating rents now threatening VLOG's financial security, VLOG's membership
has had to consider an alternative to renting a loft space for its set
and costume construction and hiring other space for rehearsals. The purchase
of a space that would combine set and costume construction
facilities and a rehearsal hall under one roof would secure VLOG's financial
and artistic
future. With New York's uncertain real estate
market, low interest rates, and the availability of reasonably priced industrial
cooperatives for sale in the Garment District, it makes sense for VLOG to
purchase now.
Appropriate commercial cooperatives in the Garment
District range in asking price from $650,000 to $1,000,000. With a down payment
of
only $200,000, and build-out costs not exceeding $35,000, a capital
campaign is more than feasible.
Help the Village Light Opera Group preserve and enhance its offerings
to the New York public by donating towards its purchase of a permanent
home.
VLOG's FOUNDATION
Giving Life to Rarely Performed Light Operas, Operettas and Broadway
Musicals
-
The Village Light Opera Group (VLOG) was founded in 1935 as a
volunteer
theater organization and has performed continuously since then,
except for a
four-year break during World War II.
-
When founded, VLOG's artistic aim was to bring high quality
light operas
to the New York public-a tradition it still upholds.
-
Since its inception, VLOG has experienced constant growth.
Starting in
small theaters with just a piano for accompaniment, VLOG now
performs in a
715-seat house, employs an orchestra of over twenty players and
has casts
ranging in size from fifty to sixty members.
-
With growth, VLOG added rarely performed European and American
operettas
by Offenback, Friml, Herbert, Romberg and Lehar to its repertoire.
-
By 1986, new talent had made it possible to perform Broadway
musicals, the
first of which was Brigadoon. The production met with high critical
acclaim, not the least from The New York Times' reviewers, who
compared it
favorably to the production mounted by City Opera. Productions
of Carousel,
Oklahoma, and Most Happy Fella soon followed.
-
VLOG remains true to its origins, with Gilbert and Sullivan's
Savoy Operas
and other Operettas still very much a part of its repertoire.
-
With its large casts and orchestra, VLOG presents a caliber of
musical
performance rarely seen or heard on or off Broadway today.
-
VLOG continues to expand, reaching new artistic heights and new
audiences.
-
The heart of any volunteer organization is its membership. In
VLOG's
case, its members make up the casts, build the sets, make the
costumes and
manage its organization.
-
Not only does VLOG afford its members the opportunity to
perform and
engage in backstage activities, it also allows them to gains
skills that can
aid their professional development. It is not uncommon for
teachers to head
marketing and publicity efforts, insurance agents to be responsible
for
development, attorneys to handle investments, and social workers
to organize
events.
-
With open casting, VLOG has given aspiring actors the stage
experience
necessary for them to achieve careers in professional theater.
-
Young designers are given an opportunity to work on large
scale
productions. With a stage that is 40' by 40', sixty cast members
requiring
costumes, and a $3,500 lighting budget, these designers are
given an
opportunity that is rare and far between for designers just
starting out in
New York.
-
Over the years, VLOG has maintained its loyal audience and
has reached out
to new theatergoers. VLOG has achieved this in part by maintaining
low
ticket prices, hosting a Children's Matinee, providing affordable
student
tickets, giving away free tickets to senior citizens and providing
assisted
listening devices free of charge. VLOG also encourages audience
members to
become involved in the organization.
-
By stimulating growth amongst its membership, giving opportunities
to
future actors and designers and fostering the community in
which it exists,
VLOG remains an important asset not only to the arts community,
but to New
York society as a whole.
