Dear Friends

As a community, we are all facing the threat of the new COVID-19 coronavirus with a unified purpose: to reduce infection rates, to limit its spread, and to spare our community the worst of what many corners of the globe are currently facing. This is the most important goal we can embrace at this moment, even if there are sacrifices we must make to achieve it.

At Metro Theater Company, our mission has always been to serve youth and families through the power of theater. Through that work, we hope to make our community stronger, healthier, and more inclusive. To do so during this public health crisis (and to ensure we can continue to do so after this moment is behind us), we are making several necessary short-term adjustments. We wanted you to learn about them first:
 

• Beginning March 18, MTC's artistic and administrative staff will move to a remote work model to practice the CDC's recommended policy of social distancing. If you need to reach a staff member, you should anticipate a faster response rate from an email than from a phone call. Our physical office in Grand Center will otherwise be closed.
   

• After Dark, our spring gala, originally scheduled for May 7 has been rescheduled for September 24. All tickets purchased for the May 7 event will transfer automatically to the new date. Our golden ticket raffle (with a prize of a wonderful week-long vacation in Hawaii or Italy, redeemable for upwards of two years after winning) will still happen digitally on May 7. We encourage you to consider either joining us for the gala or supporting us through the purchase of a raffle ticket. (Each are $100, and only 100 will be sold.) You can purchase raffle tickets here or purchase gala tickets here.
   

• In light of school closures, for the time being MTC's in-school arts-integrated curriculum work is paused. While we cannot be present in person in schools, our talented education team is developing digital resources to help parents supporting their children's learning needs while they are home. Look for some of these digital resources via email and on our Facebook page in the weeks ahead. 
   

• At this time we anticipate that our summer camps will proceed as planned, starting in June. Middle School Grand Theater Camp is June 1-12; Advanced Middle School Grand Theater Camp is June 15-26; High School Grand Theater Camp is July 6-10; and Creative Arts Camp for Pre-K through 5th Grade is offered July 27-August 1 and August 3-7. 

Even as you engage in social distancing in the weeks and months ahead, we encourage you to find ways to continue to support those businesses and artists who make St. Louis such a rewarding community in which to live and raise a family. COVID-19 impacts our friends in travel and tourism, restaurants, entertainment, and small business - not to mention scores of working artists across St. Louis.

These necessary changes will also have a meaningful impact on our fiscal health. After Dark alone was anticipated to generate significant philanthropic support during the final two months of our fiscal year. If your means permit, we would also ask you to consider a charitable gift to Metro Theater Company to help us as we navigate these short term changes. It's easy to give online here.

We are grateful to each of you for being part of the MTC community. On behalf of myself, my wonderful colleague Artistic Director Julia Flood, and the entire MTC staff and board, we hope you stay healthy and happy. You are in our thoughts as our community navigates these challenging times together.