Join us for Curtain Call 2020!

OUR AUCTION HAS CLOSED
Thank you for your support!

For nearly 20 years, Curtain Call has been a tradition for Geva supporters. This year's event comes at a crucial moment in the life of our theatre.

Your contribution will help us continue to engage, educate and entertain future generations of artists, patrons and students.

Make a Donation

$25 from every donation of $50 or more goes to support Foodlink.

TRIBUTES

artists, staff & supporters share their Geva stories

Come together to Support Geva

Friends, there has never been a moment in our 47-season history when we needed you more than we do right now.

Geva Theatre Center brings joy to over 140,000 audience members each year. Our Education and Engagement programs serve over 40,000 adults and students annually. We employ hundreds of individuals from the Rochester community. All of that had to pause on March 13, 2020, because of the Covid-19 crisis. We needed to close our doors for the public good.

Since shutting down in March, we have suffered significant financial losses and have had to reduce our staff. Those who remain are pouring heart and soul into staying connected with you and accessing every possible resource to make it possible for us to reopen. We are grateful to all of you who have been incredibly supportive throughout this crisis. This collective spirit of commitment gives us great hope, and we are guided by faith in our ability to do whatever it takes to welcome you back.

By supporting Curtain Call, you are ensuring the future of Geva's artists, creators, educators and other staff.

Theatre feeds our souls, and we also want to assist those in our community who are in need of food for survival. In this spirit, Geva will donate a portion of the proceeds we raise through Curtain Call 2020 to Foodlink.

Thank you for making sure we all can return to the theatre we love so much. With your help, the curtain will rise again at Geva Theatre Center.

RAISE A GLASS
to the artists and technicians who bring to life the magic of Geva

SHOW SOME LOVE
for the extraordinary impact of theatre arts education

NOURISH OUR COMMUNITY
as you help feed families in need through Foodlink

Make Your Donation

Explore the Auction

A Message About Our Change in Plans

Greetings,

First, we want to thank all of you who bid, donated, and participated for supporting Geva Theatre Center at this challenging time. Your generosity is crucial to ensuring our future, and we could not be more grateful.

On June 2, we announced that our Curtain Call Virtual Gala, originally scheduled for Friday, June 5, was being postponed out of respect and solidarity with the global outcry that arose following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and far too many others. Today, we bring you an update on Curtain Call.

To say that we are in a defining moment would be an understatement. First, the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to close our doors and cancel all productions. But theatre-makers are masters of adaptation. And so, overnight, we became video producers, recording and editing performances, and creating entirely new digital content. We rapidly transformed Summer Curtain Call – typically a lively evening at our theatre – into a streaming event you could watch from your living room. Over weeks, we built a show to celebrate Geva and our theater-makers, creating something light and entertaining to make us laugh and take our minds off of our shared confinement.

In the midst of it all, another long-standing crisis – one that concerns us all – has risen to demand our attention and our action. The crisis of racism in our nation and our institutions, and the systemic dehumanization of Black people, in particular, calls upon us all to see the painful truths before us, understand where Geva has been complicit with sustaining and replicating these systems, and set a course for real and permanent change that embodies anti-racism.

To that end, we have decided not to air the show we had originally produced for June 5. The Virtual Gala event that we had planned would not have fulfilled the goals we have begun to center in our decision-making.

So, we will close the auction on Thursday, June 25, at 7pm, without a show. Until then, you may still bid on auction items and donate to Geva. In order to fulfill the transformative mission we are now advancing, your support will be essential. We do hope you will help us raise our curtain once again when the pandemic is over.

As originally planned, a portion of Curtain Call proceeds will go to Foodlink to feed local families in need, which remains an especially urgent mission as the pandemic continues. We look forward to sharing the results of that effort with you once everything has formally concluded.

Right now, we have a unique opportunity to reshape our future and come back from this pandemic better than ever: more equitable, more just, and more connected to every member of our community.