Photo by Daniel Rader
WTF’s 2020 Vision Fund
The Way Forward Is Clear
For a very limited time, all gifts made to Williamstown Theatre Festival will be matched 1:1 by members of our Board of Trustees.*
The impact of the current global health crisis on Williamstown Theatre Festival this year is heartbreakingly certain; this summer, we will not come together in one unifying space in Williamstown to celebrate the enduring power, beauty, resilience, and complexity of our shared humanity. But even in this complicated moment, our way forward is clear. We are committed to sustaining artists year-round, to funding commissions and new play development activities, and to ensuring the future of artists convening in Williamstown to make great theatre. We are determined to reimagine how we can uphold our commitments to you, our audience, providing you with the intellectually and emotionally stimulating work that you have come to expect from Williamstown Theatre Festival. And we are inspired to make sure that next summer, and the summers to come, are our strongest—artistically and financially—yet.
Click Here To Read MoreNow is not a time to mince words: Williamstown Theatre Festival grapples with existential threats even in the very best of times.
And we are not alone. As this pandemic has revealed, revered American institutions, many far larger than WTF, have business models that rely on inconsistent sources of revenue. As a result, cultural institutions in the United States are hugely reliant on philanthropy to bridge the gap between costs and revenue. For organizations like Williamstown Theatre Festival, the threat is real: our revenue stream—which represents 60% of our budget in a typical year—will run dry with the absence of a summer season in Williamstown.
In order to ensure that Williamstown Theatre Festival can weather this storm and the next, providing dependable support for artists in times of prosperity as well as times of crisis, we must appeal to your generosity at this critical moment. Members of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Board leadership have provided seed funding to establish WTF’s 2020 Vision Fund, and we hope you will join them. If you were planning to purchase a ticket to a WTF production this summer, please consider making a contribution to the 2020 Vision Fund to support this urgent fundraising campaign. The future of Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the artists we are proud to call family, depends on you.
Give What You Can
All donors to the 2020 Vision Fund will receive a digital program booklet featuring exclusive WTF content later this year. Donors who contribute $150 or more will be listed in the digital program booklet in recognition of their support.
Special Access to the WTF Season on Audible
This year, WTF is creating a season in collaboration with Audible, the world’s largest producer and provider of original spoken-word entertainment and audiobooks.** As a token of our appreciation, special access to the WTF Season on Audible will be made available to new donors at the $600 level (and higher) and to current donors at the $600 level (and higher) who sustain or increase their support this year. Click below to make a donation in support of Williamstown Theatre Festival.
*Gifts made to Williamstown Theatre Festival will be matched 1:1 by members of our Board of Trustees and will support theatre activities in 2020 and 2021. **When each title in the WTF Season on Audible releases, it will be available on Audible.
Josh Martinez-Nelson
Henrietta Key
