Three area theater groups have joined hundreds of others from around the country in an appeal to Congress for $9 billion in emergency arts funding.
Harbor Stage Company in Wellfleet, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater/Outermost Performing Arts Center and the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse in Vineyard Haven were among more than 260 theaters from 37 states and the District of Columbia that signed on to a letter that Actors’ Equity Association sent late last week to leaders of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
The petition seeks $9 billion in emergency supplemental funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and Corporation for Public Broadcasting to help arts organizations that have been shut down because of the pandemic. The new amount beyond vital funding from the early federal CARES Act matches the $9 billion in losses that one national study says the arts industry has already endured — including wages of now-unemployed performers, crew members and staff.
READ MORE
