Dear Play Troupe community,

 

Following the passing of our beloved artistic director Pam Meadows in 2021, the non-profit Play Troupe of Port Washington—enduring community theater on the Long Island peninsula since 1927—is looking for paths to reinvention and seeks to engage the community to help explore what should come next.

 

To that end, we invite all Play Troupe alumni and interested parties on this email list to fill out a brief survey. Your ideas and input will help steer the future of this historic arts organization, and you’ll have the chance to share your info if you’re open to getting involved. 

 

Please take a moment to answer 11 short questions by clicking:    Here 

 

Thoughts from the Current Board on This Process & Play Troupe’s Future

 

“As we put it in the Play Troupe announcement of her passing, Pam was more than an artistic director, she was our North Star,” longtime Board Member David Barnett (who started working with Meadows at age 15) said. “Even through our sadness, we remember the joy that Pam and all the past Play Troupe leaders brought to thousands upon thousands of people in Port, and we believe that dedication to community, that legacy, deserves to live on.”

 

Alumni from Play Troupe’s many programs are among those now serving on a search committee to find both a new board and a new vision. Many participated in plays and musicals for children under Pam’s direction. Others didn’t discover the company until recent years, as adults. Some no longer even live in Port Washington. But their shared goal is clear: help redefine the scrappy community theater’s purpose in 2022 and welcome a next generation to lead.

 

“When Pam started the Teen Summer Theater in 1972, it was a different world,” Board Member Emeritus Janet Grunwald of Massachusetts noted. “Now it’s not about painting the sets together on a Saturday, it’s about streaming performances in a pandemic. Should Play Troupe become a podcast? Maybe. The point is, we have to embrace that we’re in a new era. If the company is going to live on, it has to find new ways to enrich and connect to local life.”

 

“Play Troupe has proven it can evolve—that’s why it’s still here 95 years later,” Barnett said in closing. “But especially as we remember and honor Pam, we intend to develop all new plans with our ears and hearts open to this community, as hers always were.”

 

If you have comments, would like further information, or wish to make a tax deductible donation to Port Washington Play Troupe, please email: PortWashingtonPlayTroupe@gmail.com