FAYETTEVILLE, WV (WV)- A line from William Shakespeare’s sonnets says that the eyes are the windows to the soul. That rings true at this year’s Historic Fayette Theater gala, as it’s a masquerade.
This masquerade was a hit with all who attended the sold-out event. The gala started last year as a benefit to raise money to update the theater.
“The theater received an over $300,000 grant from the federal government for renovations to the theater. We have to match that grant with $124,000,” explained Mandy Wriston, board member at HFT. “So that is one of the reasons for tonight’s event. We are raising money to match that federal grant.”
This year’s gala hit their fundraising goal of $10,000. They’ll go to the renovation efforts. They are excited to update the theater because art in the community is so important year-round.
“So we have to update this building so we can keep it running more consistently. We have such a rich culture here in southern West Virginia of several different types of artists that we want to showcase all of them year-round,” said Amy Bloomfield, board member at HFT. “Without that ability for an HVAC system and updated electrical systems, we can’t do that in our community. And we need that. We want that the summer when we have rafters here and tourists here, we want to be able to do in the fall and in the winter all year round.”
However, there are more stories than just theater that they can and want to share with the community.
“The theater is also not only used for productions but it’s been used to raise awareness for drug addiction, for the Minden and water crisis,” explained Sharon Bibb, VP of the board of HFT. “So if we have something that touches our community and they reach out to us and would like to utilize our facility. We do that because we don’t want it to just be for theater. We want it to be a beacon in the community that people can come and share the things that are having on their hearts and that we can just come together on those things.”
Though the festivities have come to a close, the board is happy to share. That will now be an annual thing. Overall, they are about halfway to reaching their goal for the renovations. Until then, they will continue to bring fun and performances to our communities.
