Why Donate to Valley Players?

All monies donated to Valley Players go directly to funding our productions, running our classes and developing our outreach projects. Please download our donation form here.

Valley Players’ mission is to empower women over 40 through the theater arts.

Did you know that 80% of the roles in American theater are for men? And of the 20% that are for women, 95% are for women under 40? 68% of theater audiences are female, but only 24% of produced plays are written by women. The backstage numbers are just a bleak, but I won’t bore you with any more statistics.

Instead, I’ll tell you a brief story. Recently, we produced Anton in Show Business by Jane Martin. I encouraged a friend of mine to audition. She is in her 60s and has recently successfully battled breast cancer. She told me shortly before we opened that when she was cast, she was initially angry with me; that she thought there was no way she could learn all those lines with her “chemo brain”, but she HAD learned them and she was so grateful. Doing the show had made her feel strong again; she had regained her confidence and sense of self-worth—and her lifetime of experience made the role shine.

That is exactly why Valley Players was formed. To give older women a voice and a presence both on stage and off. We will not only be casting older women, we also want to hear their perspectives on this crazy world we live in. We are cultivating actors, directors, playwrights, stage managers, designers–you name it–from the thousands of women of wisdom out there, many of whom wrongly believe that theater is not for them. We may not be ingénues, but we have experience, and we have stories to tell.

Which brings me to the end of mine.  I hope that you can help us by providing a donation using the form here.

Sincerely,

June Alane Reif
President / CEO
Valley Players

Valley Players is a 501(c)(3) corporation. EIN: 82-1201666.