Important News About Our 2020 Season

We’ve been fighting the good fight, hoping that we’d somehow find a way to salvage at least a portion of our 2020 Season here at BST. Sadly, the pandemic has other ideas and it has become more and more apparent that there will be no way for us to safely open our doors to the public for the remainder of the year. At a meeting of our Board of Directors last week, the decision was made to suspend production till year’s end and keep our fingers and toes crossed that things will have stabilized sufficiently for us to re-open as soon as possible in 2021. This tears our hearts out, but given the fact that the safety of our artists, audiences, volunteers, and staff is our first priority, we feel it’s the only sane choice to make.

In the meantime, we hope you’ll continue to take advantage of all the free virtual content we’ve made available online. BST’s founders, John Sowle and Steven Patterson, have been producing theatre together since 1986, much of it original or collaboratively created, and we’ve been posting a whole series of archival videos online at no cost. Steven has also embarked on a series of online readings of children’s bedtime stories. And new content is being added all the time.

A list of the Archival Videos we’ve posted so far is HERE.

A list of the Bedtime Store Readings so far is HERE.

We’re keeping our heads above water. But, as we’re sure you’re aware, Arts institutions are suffering immensely during this shutdown. Live theaters are at the lag end of the final phase of New York’s re-opening plans (considering that they require large groups of people to gather together indoors). True, we currently have no production costs (since we’re unable to put on any plays), but that also means we don’t have a regular income.

The theatre has received two small business loans to help keep our tiny staff onboard, the power on, and our building sound. Those, of course, have to be repaid. And our ancient fire alarm system has failed and needs to be replaced.

Thanks to all our Subscribers and Supporters. You have been absolute ROCKS for us during these troubling times. Many of you have continued to contribute to us even while we’ve been shut down. Without your support, our tenuous situation would be even MORE tenuous! And if you’d like to contribute now, you can find out how HERE.

If you were a 2020 Season Subscriber, we’d like to offer you three methods of handling your 2020 Subscription. If you are able, we hope you’ll consider turning your original purchase price into a tax-deductible donation. That would go a long way toward helping the theatre stay afloat. Or, if you’d like, you can exchange your 2020 Subscription for a 2021 Subscription. We hope to re-schedule as many of our original “American Roots” Series plays as we can into our Mainstage season next year. If, however, you’re hurting for cash at present, we’d be happy to send you a refund check equal to your original purchase price. Please send us a note to contact@bridgest.org specifying which of these three options you’d like to select.

And if it turns out that there might be an opportunity to open safely with a show this year, then we’ll certainly be sending out an email right away. If you’re not already on our contact list, then please sign up HERE.

Thank you for all you do to support us! We love you, we miss you, and we can’t wait till it’s safe enough to invite you back to share stories with you again.