Oak Park Festival Theatre Postpones THE TEMPEST

Oak Park Festival Theatre has released the following statement regarding its production of The Tempest:

Thank you to the many people who have stepped up to support us in this challenging time. Like the rest of the world, we at Oak Park Festival Theatre have been suspended in uncertainty, hoping for good news.

Unfortunately, we learned last Friday that the Village of Oak Park has extended the ban on large gatherings into the summer. This means that we must postpone our summer production of The Tempest, which we were all so excited for.

While we know this is best for the health and safety of our artists and audiences, we are devastated that we can't welcome you to Shakespeare in Austin Gardens for the first time in 46 years.

This difficult decision presents a significant financial challenge to OPFT, and we humbly ask for your support.

We have lost the opportunity to play to 200 patrons nightly for 36 performances throughout the summer. The losses of ticket revenue, ad sales from our program books, and curtain speech donations so many of you provide will be tremendous.

We have applied for support from the Payroll Protection Program and several emergency relief grants, including the new Arts for Illinois initiative and the Illinois Arts Council. Yet even if some of these highly competitive avenues for support materialize, we still anticipate significant financial hardship this year.

If you have the means, help us raise $50,000 to weather this storm. Please give today to secure the future of OPFT.

We remain firm in our commitment to compensating the artists engaged for this summer with an honorarium. Your gift will support those artists, help us return this fall with The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe, and ensure our ability to bring The Tempest back to Austin Gardens in 2021.

The price of a regular ticket is $38. Even this modest contribution will have a tremendous impact upon the viability of our future.

As always, we are forever grateful for your support and place in our community. Thank you for being a vital member of the OPFT family.

Together, we will weather this storm.

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