NHS Preparations For 'Beauty And The Beast' Include A Search For Sponsors
With the Newtown High School musical Beauty and the Beast set for March 17-20, the school is currently seeking corporate sponsors to help offset the cost of the production.
Auditions were held November 16-18 at the school, and rehearsals began this month.
“It’s going to be exciting. I really think it is going to be a good production,” said Jane Matson, the director and the high school’s choral director, smiling at the thought of local children seeing Belle in “her big yellow ball gown.”
Ms Matson said she is very excited for the show, and said the high school students are, too.
Performances are scheduled for March 17-19 at 7 pm, and March 19-20 at 2 pm.
In the past the annual musicals at the high school have had only one matinée showing, slated for the final day of performances, but this year, Ms Matson said, the second matinée was added for March 19 to offer an extra earlier showing for younger audience members to attend.
“We wanted to give parents another option,” said Ms Matson.
When asked why Beauty and the Beast was chosen for this year’s musical, Ms Matson said the play has beautiful music and orchestrations, “and it is a technical challenge” in many ways, including sets and costumes, but one the high school wanted to “take on.”
“I like doing things that are very ensemble oriented, and there is so much for every member that is in the cast to do in Beauty and the Beast,” she said.
From year to year, Ms Matson said she tries to offer different types of productions.
“In [the students’] four years here I want them to experience something that is a little more dramatic, something that is funnier, something that is for younger audiences, something that is a little edgy,” Ms Matson said. “I want them to have all of that experience while they are here.”
Last year’s musical at NHS was City of Angels.
Seeking Sponsorship
The high school has had a practice of selling advertisements in programs for the productions for years, but for the presentation of Peter Pan in 2014 cooperate funding was actively sought for the first time, according to Ms Matson. Mitchell Girgasky, a student at the time, was inspired by neighboring school districts, in particular Amity, and shared his ideas with Ms Maton.
“We learned a lot by talking with [Amity],” said Ms Matson, adding that public school districts frequently interact and share information and more. “At the end of the day we are all doing the same thing; we are all trying to make good theater. So why not help each other out?”
Putting on a show like Beauty and the Beast “is incredibly expensive,” according to Ms Matson. The costumes for the production are intricate and costly to make, and it would be difficult for the high school to store the costumes once created, she said.
“So we are renting costumes,” said Ms Matson. “The rental, including the dry cleaning, the shipping, and everything, is $10,000.”
Costumes for the March 2015 production of City of Angels, according to Ms Matson, were roughly $6,000, which is a more typical cost for the musical costumes at the high school.
“This is a more expensive year, because of the nature of the show,” she said .
Ms Matson explained the budget for musical productions typically relies on the high school providing the auditorium and stipends for the director, producer, technical director, and the orchestra director.
“The show itself is completely self-sufficient. It has to support itself,” said Ms Matson. “We do that through ticket sales and program ads.”
Students who participate in the show are tasked with selling $50 worth of advertising for the program each year.
Since the high school began seeking and accepting sponsors, Ms Matson said Ingersoll Auto of Danbury has been the title sponsor. This year Ingersoll Auto of Danbury again signed on as the title sponsor for Beauty and the Beast.
Newtown resident Todd Ingersoll, president of Ingersoll Automotive and owner of Ingersoll Auto of Danbury, said on Monday, December 7, that he was involved in music department extracurriculars when he was in high school and his children also have interest in the area. Mr Ingersoll said when he saw the NHS production of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2013, “My mouth was literally hanging open. I thought they just did such a wonderful job.”
The production, Mr Ingersoll said, “was just, I thought, spectacular. I remember being blown away.”
He compared the sets created for How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying to those he remembered from his time in high school, and was further impressed.
School musicals, Mr Ingersoll said, offer an area for students to be involved, and many students are involved with each production. Many more students, he added, are involved behind the stage.
“I think it teachers you a lot, just like sports, about working together and pushing the envelope,” said Mr Ingersoll, who with his wife Tami have three children, Catie, Danny, and Jonathan .
Under Ms Matson’s guidance, Mr Ingersoll said the high school’s musical productions have been doing spectacular, and this year, he said, he expects the same from Beauty and the Beast.
Mr Ingersoll said his company has also supported the arts in Bethel and Danbury for different events and in different ways, such as Buick’s “Drive For Your Students Program” test drive day in October that raised roughly $7,000 for Bethel students.
“Come and see the show,” said Mr Ingersoll about Beauty and the Beast. “I think people will be so impressed by what our kids do.”
The production, he said, will be something for the whole family to enjoy.
Along with the “title sponsor,” Ms Matson said the high school offers other sponsorship levels for the productions, including “spotlight” for donations between $3,000 and $5,000; “cue light” for donations between $1,000 and $2,999; and a “footlight” for donations between $500 to $999.
Sponsors are given different levels of advertisements in the production’s program. Some sponsors are added to a slideshow playing in the school’s lobby throughout each showing of the musicals, and Ms Matson said she thanks sponsors in her curtain speech before each performance.
Over the years, Ms Matson said the musicals have had a few corporate sponsors, but spreading the information about the opportunity has been challenging. She added the high school is looking for a volunteer to oversee running the corporate sponsorship program for the musicals.
“A production like this is a very expensive venture,” said Ms Matson.
With the high school’s auditorium renovation project set for the near future, she said other costs are incurred each year without the renovations. Musicals need more equipment than drama productions, according to Ms Matson, and the drama productions therefor are less expensive to put on than the musicals.
“Each year we have to rent upwards of $11,000 worth of lights,” she said, “because we simply don’t have them. We rent between $5,000 and $6,000 worth of sound each year, depending on the needs of each [musical].”
Along with the $10,000 cost for costumes this year, Ms Matson said each musical costs roughly $6,000 to purchase the rights to produce. The average cost of a musical production at the high school is roughly $40,000, not including the stipends for the instructors or the cost of using the space at the high school, according to Ms Matson.
If a musical were to raise more money than is needed to produce the show, Ms Matson said excess would either be used to purchase new and needed stage, lighting, and sound equipment, or it would go toward purchasing the rights for the next year’s production. Overall, Ms Matson said the high school is “thrifty” in its efforts to save money. Wood for the stages, she shared as an example, is reused until it is no longer a viable option.
Janice Gabriel is the producer for Beauty and the Beast, Brett Boles is the musical producer, Brian Tenney is the technical director, and Kurt Eckhardt is overseeing the orchestra.
“I’m hoping we put on a production that brings the entire community together,” said Ms Matson. “You can bring anybody to see this show —grandparents, parents, siblings, all ages. I think it is a story that people love in all its incarnations.”
Interested sponsors can call Newtown High School's main phone number, 203-426-7646.