Before Diane Fisher-Post came to work at the Village Players the company was in about as sad a shape as it could be, and in that period of financial neglect the Board of the Village Players did not request available Art's funds.

I hope that the Board now thinks of something other than the rumored sales of the building and looks at an available emergency art funds grant (not a loan) from the Oak Park Area Arts Council.  The Arts Council and the Village of Oak Park helped the Festival Theater out when their attendance was adversely impacted due to in climate weather.  If the Village Players gets the same amount of funds it would pay the salary of Diane Fisher-Post. 

This town has some 600 subscribers to the Lyric Opera and as much again to several other acting companies.  Village Players has served 
served this community under the work of Diane Fisher-Post in many
countless ways.  Here are a few though, Doug Deuchler and I have
reviewed many plays in the past year that were done very well for
a community theater and had nice themes for one and all.  There have also been many of our local children (some even with agents) who had a chance to perform on the Village Players stage.  There have been tons of kids who have had acting classes at Village Players and as many who have seen some of their wonderful shows aimed at
Children.  I have seen the children in the audience exclaim with wonder as they saw Geppetto eaten by a large whale.  They sat forward in their seats and tried to warn him, they didn’t yell because they were well behaved, but they did tell him to watch out for the whale.  This is not something kids do in everyday life, this is something they do in a live performance.  The kind of live performance that may come to an end in the same town that will spend some 7.2 million dollars to build a parking garage at the
Oak Park & River Forest High School for 300 cars.  We hear a lot of talk about the arts in Oak Park and how important they are for one and all.  I have heard John Mahoney talk on the subject at fund-raisers for the Arts in Oak Park.  Mr. Mahoney, who came from meager means in Great Britain found the arts an escape for him in his youth, from the harsh reality of life. 

Oak Park speaks of diversity and with that diversity comes kids of economically challenged families, some at one end of the achievement gap-some who will now have a larger gap appear to them.  I hope that something is done real soon.

I have spoken to some local Banks leaders and will work on getting
some funds to the Village Players.  There will probably not be a given Bank though that will be able to give as much as the Board of the Village Players ignored when they did not apply for funds from the Oak Park Area Arts Council.