Can you name a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience you’ve had at The Pear?
Dear Pear Patron,
Thank you so much for helping us create a magical year for The Pear. Our past twelve months have included incredible blockbusters like Falsettos and Noises Off (the two biggest shows we’ve ever had!); thoughtful poetics from Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea; BOLD new works like Frankenstein Unbound; and old favorites like Pear Slices. We’ve had an impressive array of community programming: co-productions with Perspective Theatre Company (most recently, the acclaimed Richard II), along with Pear Pressure Cabarets every month, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and monthly improv with Greg Burton and Friends.
We thank you for allowing us to create magic with and for you. We’re honored and grateful for the work that you’ve helped us to do and are excited for all of the magic ahead!
The Pear has been proud to produce thoughtful, uncommon, and intimate works for over twenty seasons. From our humble beginnings in our 40-person space (with only a single bathroom shared by cast and audience) to our current larger and more flexible space–we've always prided ourselves on punching above our weight class. Did you know our annual budget is about $250k? Far smaller than the budget of other South Bay theatres (many of which work with $1M or more a year).
We have been fortunate: we’ve been blessed with excellent staff, pandemic grant funding and have emerged from the depths of the pandemic with vibrant programming, working to bring in new audiences while engaging our long-term patrons and supporters (that's you!). However, we still are operating on a knife's edge. All our wonderful staff are part-time and are stretched to their limits to keep The Pear going. We love doing what we do, but we need your help to make it sustainable.
Your end-of-year donation will help us pay artists and staff what they deserve for the magic they do. We'd love to see a day when our staff could be full-time, able to devote this time to work for our theatre and community: for example, by building deeper connections with the groups that come to The Pear and helping cross-train more theatre technicians and so ensure background support for our operations.
–$500 would help us pay a performer for powerful onstage work or a designer for creative technical work.
–$1000 would enable us to increase staff hours, so that we can serve you and our artists more effectively.
Your end-of-year donation will also help us make the Pear a better home for theatrical magic. We'd love to spruce up our physical space (with improvements such as deep cleaning and replacement of our well-worn sign and carpets), update our rapidly aging lighting and sound equipment and purchase new technology (our computers, tablets, and infrastructure are closer to being teenagers than infants).
–$250 would help us finalize the new sign we’ve been waiting for.
–$500 would help us buy a new lighting fixture to upgrade the work we do at The Pear!
–$1000 would purchase new lighting or sound equipment, desperately needed to keep our work current and professional.
