Hi Everyone!

Len here. Executive and Artistic Director at Miners Alley Playhouse. What a hard time this has been for so many, right? From patrons living on fixed incomes, to hourly workers who find themselves out of work, and to businesses like ours that rely on having an audience there to make our art. Yet even with all of this bad, we know that Miners Alley Playhouse will be back.

Theatre is the only art form that requires an audience. I mean, sure, we can perform a play in front of no one (or perhaps, just a camera), but then it becomes a different art form. The performances and the play itself are informed by every audience. It is a give and take between performers and audience, and the live interaction is what creates that once in a lifetime experience that is live theater. So, when a global pandemic makes it so that we can’t be closer than six feet from each other or gather in groups, that makes our art form impossible to do. We know and accept that this is the right thing to do for the greater good of the community at large.

Everything that Miners Alley has built and created – the jobs for artists, the building of community, the extended family – is all a derivative of our content, or our productions. So, I find myself a bit sad these days that we are unable to help the community in the manner in which do so well. But there are other things we can do now.

The first thing we should is to be grateful for all that we do have. My wife Lisa, and my daughter Ella, are healthy and doing fine. Sure, we’ve made lifestyle adjustments, but we are here and we have each other, we have beautiful pets and shelter, and, as of now, we have employment. For all of that, I am grateful.

On a personal note, I have a meditation practice which has been helping me focus and remain centered and grounded in awareness which helps me lead by example with my family and friends. I am also blessed to be able to exercise every day which also helps me be a better version of myself.

And I know that I speak for all of us at Miners Alley when I say how grateful I am to our patrons and greater community. For example, our landlord, Mesa Meadows Land Management (a.k.a. The Foss Family) has, without any prompting from us, offered to waive our April rent for the theater space. I can’t begin to tell you how helpful this is for us, since we have no income coming in but lots of money going out (primarily payroll for our actors and staff). To Sarah and Pat and everyone at Mesa Meadows: You are an inspiration to the Golden community!

We will be back. And we’ll be better than before. And when this is all said and done, we have lots of great shows on the horizon to inspire, entertain and connect us.

-Len Matheo