Kentwood Players Awarded Grants to Support Pandemic Recovery

Kentwood Players has been awarded grants totaling $18,700.52 through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture and Community Partners' Creative Recovery LA Initiative as part of over 750 arts, cultural, and equity-building organizations, reflecting a historic County investment in the nonprofit creative sector.

Shares Kristin Sakoda, Director of the LA County Department of Arts and Culture: "The Department of Arts and Culture invests in LA County’s cultural life. One core way we do that is by making public funding accessible for hundreds of arts and equity-focused organizations - museums, art centers, dance companies, theaters, arts educators, music, folk and traditional arts, youth justice, literary organizations, and more - that provide culturally relevant programs that reflect, and serve, our diverse communities."

Kentwood Players has been awarded grants designed to address pandemic impacts on the arts and the creative economy, one of the most economically significant and hardest-hit sectors due to COVID mandated shutdowns and reopening requirements, while leveraging the unique capacity of arts and culture to catalyze our region’s economic recovery, civic connectivity, and community well-being. The two grants received are:

Arts Relief and Recovery Grant: $15,332.62

To support recovery of Kentwood Players from negative impacts due to COVID-19 related closures, interruptions, losses, and new health protocols including general operating support, fiscal sustainability, program activities, and pandemic recovery.

Reopening Culture, Tourism, and Marketing Grant: $3,367.90

To support marketing initiatives and activities that amplify re-openings in the cultural sector and encourage arts tourism by local communities and visitors. Kentwood will use funds to promote and market their arts programming to encourage diverse audiences and program participants to return to virtual or in-person programs.

During the recent mandatory shutdown due to COVID, Kentwood Players underwent significant and costly renovations to the Westchester Playhouse, where the community theater group has presented a variety of high-quality live theatre productions since being built in 1960 at 8301 Hindry Avenue, Los Angeles 90045. Funding from these grants will be used to offset some of those costs as well as ongoing upgrades, improvements, marketing, and the costs related to keeping the doors open for their members, subscribers, patrons, and local community.

Holly J. Mitchell, Supervisor to the Second District, in which Kentwood Players at the Westchester Playhouse is located, shares, "The Department of Arts and Culture’s grant programs are crucial to the livelihood of diverse arts nonprofit organizations. By bringing these resources to communities that have been impacted by long-standing inequities, we are helping to ensure all Angelenos can access the many benefits of the arts. Our grantees harness the creative power of the arts to enhance youth development, affirm cultural identity, revitalize our local neighborhoods, and much more. Through the equitable investment of arts funding, we have an opportunity to maximize the unique impact of the arts nonprofits serving the diverse communities of Los Angeles County."  

Kentwood Players is currently presenting Ken Ludwig’s uproarious farce MOON OVER BUFFALO on Friday, August 11 at 8pm and Saturday, August 12 at 2pm & 8pm. Opening September 15 is J.B. Priestley’s suspenseful drama AN INSPECTOR CALLS with performances continuing through October 7 on Fri/Sat at 8pm, Sat/Sun at 2pm. Open auditions for the award-winning musical A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER take place on August 26 and 27, with performances set for Friday, November 10 through Saturday, December 9 on Fri/Sat at 8:00pm, and Sat/Sun at 2:00pm.

Reserved seat tickets for all Kentwood Players productions are $25 for plays and $30 for musicals, with a $4 discount for seniors and students with ID. Patrons who present their Metro TAP card after taking the new K Line to Kentwood (the Westchester/Veteran’s station is a short one block walk from the Westchester Playhouse) receive a $5 discount. To encourage new patrons, each production has a Pay-What-You-Can performance for the second Saturday’s 2:00pm matinee.

 

For more information about Kentwood Players current and upcoming productions, open auditions, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.kentwoodplayers.org, or send an email to boxoffice@kentwoodplayers.org or call (310 645-5156. You can also find Kentwood Players information on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

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