By Cari Lewis
Thank you for being an important part of Door Community Auditorium! DCA’s board, staff, and program committee look forward to unveiling our 2020 Main Stage Season to our closest friends next week. This year, in lieu of our traditional season preview party, sponsors, Auditorium Society members, volunteers, playbill advertisers, and community ambassadors will be emailed our preview video on April 24 prior to our general public announcement on May 1. Putting together this lineup took 8 months of planning, scheduling, and negotiating, and many of us think it is our best season ever. We hope that we are able to share it with you -our friends, community, and audience- inside our favorite Door County performing arts venue, free of health concerns and without gathering restrictions.
We acknowledge the uncertainty the coming months hold. The health of our staff, volunteers, artists, and audience is our highest priority, and we won’t hold events until public health officials and our state government have given us the go-ahead. Some of our season launch plans have already been changed or postponed, and more changes to our schedule may well be necessary. For now, however, we’re working hard in hopes of beginning our season on July 9, a couple weeks later than originally planned.
This year, instead of printing and mailing a paper brochure, we’re creating and distributing a digital brochure so we can keep all show information up to date. We will offer full ticket refunds if we need to postpone a show or if a patron is feeling unwell. With the Highway 42 construction project blocking our entrance until late June, we were already prepared for no in-person sales until construction is complete. Tickets will be available for purchase through our website, over the phone, or, by printing, completing and returning the order form via US mail or email. DCA’s physical office remains closed to the public at this time. VIP ticket sales will begin on June 2, and general public sales will begin on June 9. DCA’s sponsorship drive will begin April 24 and last throughout May. If you are able, this is an excellent time to support the artists and organizations you cherish.
Tibetan Buddhists practice a meditative artform called the Sand Mandala. Buddhist monks spend months collaboratively planning, designing, and painstakingly meditatively creating beautiful, large-scale masterpieces using colored sand, crushed gypsum, ochre, sandstone, and charcoal. When the mandala is complete, the monks sometimes share it with spectators, and sometimes they don’t. They pray over the mandala and then ceremoniously pour it into the river, representing and acknowledging the ephemeral nature of the world.
We realize parts of this season -or even the whole thing- may well be our own sand mandala. Still, we remain at the ready to provide the healing balms of the performing arts, laughter, stories, dance, and song however and whenever we are able.
Keep doing your best and taking good care. We hope to see you before too long!