As this 29th Season comes to close for The Pearl, it is especially important to take a breath and look back on this inaugural season at the company’s new performance home on 42nd Street.

It has been a season of great challenges, to be sure, and also one of great accomplishments. From the season opening Figaro to this closing pair of one-acts by J. M. Barrie, our year has been distinguished again by the strong support of our audiences.

This new stage for the classics at The Pearl has amply demonstrated to be a great platform for the company’s work. Intimate in scale, with great sightlines for every seat, the space is uniquely suited to The Pearl’s work in the classical canon. Designs for Figaro, In Acting Shakespeare, and this production of This Side of Neverland have all made great use of that intimacy, bringing the action to the foreground of the stage and making the most of that intimate relationship with the audience.

And, of course, there was Davis McCallum’s splendid production of Henry IV, Part 1 taking fullest advantage of the epic scale possible in The Pearl’s new home. Daniel Zimmerman’s setting and Davis’s staging made thrilling use of that potential, also pointing the way to all that is possible in this realm for future production. In addition to its Resident Acting Company, The Pearl is blessed to be working with tremendous design teams season after season—work that is possible on this new stage because of you.

Which brings me to another major event of this season, the critical fund drive from mid-season onwards that garnered such significant support from so many. We are deeply grateful to the hundreds of subscribers and contributors—both from the city and nationally—who responded to the call and provided the financial help The Pearl so urgently needs to complete this season and begin looking ahead to the next.

All of us at The Pearl are profoundly grateful to the many who answered our appeal with generosity and the heartening words of support that invariably accompanied each contribution that arrived. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, our staff, our Resident Acting Company, and the many affiliated artists as well as volunteers who work so tirelessly to bring great productions of the great plays to you, we thank you.

As the Board and the staff carry on with the major campaign to fund our work in the future, we are deeply grateful to you. Your faith in The Pearl and your generous support means the world to us. Because of you, we are looking to the future with great hope.

The 30th Season beckons! The Pearl is moving onward to that next milestone in the company’s long performance history—now playing on The New Stage for the Classics.

J. R. Sullivan
Artistic Director

Photo: Jacob J. Goldberg