Arizona Theatre Company Receives $500,000 Challenge Grant

Leveraging an artistically powerful season generating equally powerful reviews from media and audiences alike and following a strong financial performance that provided an operating surplus for the 2014-15 season, Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) board member Mike Kasser and his wife, Beth, have offered a generous $500,000 challenge grant to keep the momentum charging forward.

"This incredibly generous gift will enable ATC to make a big leap toward long-term success and stability," said ATC Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein. "Given the extraordinary success we've experienced during the current season, our financial achievements last year and the tremendous lineup planned for next season, the momentum continues to build at a terrific pace."

To access the Kasser gift, ATC must raise $500,000 in matching funds by April 30. Goldstein said that nearly half the goal has already been raised through 100 percent participation from the ATC Board of Trustees and a group of generous donors.

"It's a wonderful start to this campaign and we hope the community will join in our effort to achieve this crucial match by the April 30 deadline," he said. "Every gift, large or small, will make a difference as we work toward this important matching goal - and will help us continue to bring great theatre to Arizona, beginning next season with our 50th anniversary year-long celebration."

ATC's operating surplus at the end of the 2014-15 season was the first since the 2008 recession and only the second time in the last 15 years, and coincides with "our board and staff working successfully together to provide the resources necessary to fully support and sustain our mission and programs well into the future," Goldstein said

To make a donation, visit www.arizonatheatre.org or call (520) 884-8210 in Tucson or (602) 256-6899 in Phoenix.