Northern Sky's Rekindle Campaign Surpasses Goal

Northern Sky Theater announced this week that they have surpassed the $1.75 million goal they set for their Rekindle Campaign, a fundraising effort organized to see the company through the heart of the pandemic until their 2022 season opens in June.

"We can't really say enough about the loyalty and generosity of our donors," said development director Holly Feldman. "Producing original musical theater in the woods, we're of course used to adversity, but we'd never been tested by anything like a pandemic shutdown before. It takes a really remarkable fan base to get a theater company through that."

Northern Sky launched the Rekindle Campaign in late 2020 as a means of ensuring their financial health, which was threatened when the company's 2020 in-person season was scuttled entirely. Northern Sky returned to in-person shows in 2021, but capacity and turnout were limited as a result of the pandemic. To help make ends meet, Northern Sky donors contributed $1.85 million over the course of the campaign, putting the intrepid theater troupe on solid financial footing heading into the 2022 season.

"Being a nonprofit theater company always comes with a certain amount of financial challenge," said managing director Dave Maier, "but not knowing when we could expect to return to regular programming has been unprecedented."

Though in-person shows were canceled, Northern Sky remained active as the pandemic raged, retaining its seven year-round staff members and presenting a robust virtual season.

"We could never have presented all the programming we did without help from our donors," said Feldman. "We loved having the chance to stay in touch with our fans virtually when we were all missing live theater so much. And we kept developing new shows during the pandemic, which means our new works creation process is as vibrant as ever."

Maier added, "The goal of Rekindle was to make sure we got to opening day 2022 in a position of strength and ready to resume normal programming. In fact, we were thrilled to announce our ability to operate both the outdoor amphitheater and indoor Gould Theater concurrently this coming season-and we couldn't be more grateful."

Northern Sky has planned an ambitious 2022 season, presenting two musicals in rotating repertory outdoors on their Peninsula Park amphitheater stage as well as two musicals (one summer, one fall) at their new indoor Gould Theater. Two of the shows (Love Stings in the park amphitheater, and Sunflowered at the Gould in the fall) are world premieres. Tickets go on sale March 1.

Said Feldman, "This is truly something to celebrate. We want our donors to realize that they're the reason we're now on solid ground."

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