August 19, 2024
While many are away on vacation or enjoying the summer weather, the Egyptian Theatre has been as busy as ever! This summer, we have welcomed over 2,000 dancers from nine different studios over the course of fifteen performances, hosted two theatre camps, served over 6,000 patrons, and sent our full-time staff to a conference.
Summer is the theatre’s big dance show season. It’s the prime time for dance troupes to showcase what they’ve been working on all year and the Egyptian Theatre is happy to provide the stage for it. With more than 2,000 dancers gracing our stage this summer, dancers came from all over, including Aurora, Rochelle, Naperville, Algonquin, Genoa, St. Charles, DeKalb, and Sycamore. And we served 154,725 ounces of popcorn, or roughly 1,870 servings – that’s a lot of popping!
During that same time frame, Children’s Community Theatre (CCT) held their Beginner and Advanced summer camps which led to several fun performances. These students learned a show in just two weeks and performed it for excited friends and family. These performances were a highlight, bringing the community together to celebrate the talents and efforts of the students.
Our full-time staff even found time to take a trip up to Milwaukee, WI for the yearly League of Historic American Theatres (LHAT) Conference. There they learned tips and tricks from others in the industry through attending various sessions and networking opportunities. Shoutout to the DeKalb County Nonprofit Partnership (DCNP) for a micro-grant to help support this professional development!
Our staff has also been busy moving offices! We’ve upgraded from a 400 square feet single room to 1,400 square feet across multiple offices. For the first time in 95 years our staff has separate offices and permanent work stations. We’re so grateful for the opportunity to grow our staff and the space our staff has to work.
This opportunity came about through the recent purchase of the two buildings north of the theatre entrance on 2nd Street. One of the tenants moved to a larger location and we took the opportunity to renovate the space into our new office space. Our entire staff rolled up their sleeves to repaint, fix up, and install all the technology needed for this space. This is an incredible moment for the theatre and is all thanks to our donors and continued community support.
Speaking of community support, we want to give a huge shoutout to Redeemed Office in DeKalb for helping us design and outfit our new office space with furniture. Owners Lisa and Dan were incredibly generous and their install crew were professional and friendly. We can’t recommend them enough!
Out in the community we’ve been providing music for the DeKalb Farmers’ Market through our Live Lunch Music Series. We also attended the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce’s Family Fun Fest and sent lots of DeKalb families home with Egyptian Theatre stickers, pens, and event schedules.
And to really put us in the summer mood, we welcomed our first touring show of the season, Buffet’s Margaritaville. Thank you to everyone who came out, we had an absolute beach ball of a time with all of you! The music, the vibes, and the energy were incredible.
With Fall drawing ever near, we’re ready to continue bringing great entertainment to you, our patrons! Check out our upcoming events page.
