Your Membership Helps Support the Community too!
One of the cool things about working at The Music Hall is being in the middle of so much of Portsmouth’s cultural life. Not only is the theater itself a local landmark, but there’s also pretty much always something going on. While we usually have plenty of irons in the fire, it’s also important to us that we fulfill our mission to be a theater for our community, and we have a few different ways we try to accomplish that goal:
- We serve as the location for a variety of events put on by local community organizations. From TEDxPortsmouth to the Portsmouth Music and Arts Center’s annual Jazz Night and the New Hampshire Film Festival, we’re honored to host amazing shows that support the cultural life of our community. And the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra (our resident orchestra!) is here several times per year, whether doing a mainstage concert or as part of our School Days Series.
- Speaking of our School Days Series, it’s honestly one of my favorite things we do. Throughout the school year, we put on performances aimed at elementary and middle school-aged students, helping introduce them to the performing arts. We also have a scholarship program, which helps students from all economic backgrounds attend the performances.
- Every June, we partner with Gather for our Fill The Hall food drive. We strive to fill every seat in our Historic Theater with bags of food, which benefit Gather’s Meals 4 Kids program that helps provide meals for children when subsidized school meals aren’t available. This year’s event will take place on Sunday, June 26, starting at 9am. I hope we’ll see you there!
- Every December, the Ogunquit Playhouse performs a holiday musical in our theater (this year marks the return of Elf the Musical!). It’s a tradition that helps bring the magic of theater and the holidays to our community. Through our Give the Gift of Magic program, inspired and underwritten by Morgan and Tara Rutman, we partner with local community service organizations to provide tickets to these performances to hundreds of families in our community.
We are proud of all of these partnerships, and we couldn’t do any of it without the support of our members. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, we rely on the generosity of our community to make sure that the theater is here and accessible to everyone. As we approach the end of May Membership Month, I invite you to join our Music Hall family and help ensure that our 144-year-old theater is here to see another 144 years. This month, a generous donor is matching our membership contributions, so your gift will have twice the impact. You can learn more about memberships on our website, or please feel free to call or stop into the B2W Box Office, and we’ll be happy to help you. Thank you very much for your support, and for all you allow us to do.