When you give to Our Industry, know your donation is making a difference whether you are supporting our signature Programs or our carefully curated list of gifts that professional. I usually refrain from writing director’s notes, which I find indulgent and self-serving, even after two decades of professionally directing award-winning theatre. But while I do think that good theatre need not be explained, Ialso believe it should be revered and, in a perfect world, fully funded. Tonight’s play holds a special place in my heart—it was the first Broadway show I saw as a child, and is tied tothe last memory I have of my father, who died immediately after the curtain call. I’ll never forget what he saidto me as I gazed upon that magical, surprisingly dark stage full of actors sitting in chairs looking at me: “Son,turn around.” Our company was founded on the idea that theatre can transport us to different worlds, worlds where magic ispossible, and people under the age of fifty see plays. We remain dedicated to bold and audacious shows—fromour all-mime production of “The Sound of Music,” to our production of the never-before-staged Step henSondheim document ” ‘Into the Woods’ Dramatist Guild Licensing Contract,” to our production of “King Lear”that took place in the high-stakes world of a Shakespeare in the Park production of “King Lear.”