April 2, 2008                                                                                                                                                        Associate Director of Marketing

                                                                                                                                                                               Phone: 253.573.2360

                                                                                                                                                                               Email: laceyl@broadwaycenter.org

Embrace Love and Devotion as Broadway Center presents

Family Performance of  The Velveteen Rabbit

and Hosts Food Drive to Support Local Students

Tacoma, WA – Broadway Center partners with The Food Connection to collect food items for Pierce County Families in need prior to the heartwarming performance by Enchantment Theatre Company, The Velveteen Rabbit on Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 3:00 pm at the Pantages Theater.  

Pierce County’s Largest Food Bank, the Food Connection is finding new and innovative ways of providing families with food resources to meet the basic nutritional needs of children. The Food Connection is providing backpacks filled with two days worth of “kid-friendly” food on Fridays to students at local elementary schools.  Hungry children suffer from health problems such as unwanted weight loss, fatigue, headaches and frequent colds.  They are more likely to be ill and absent from school and typically cannot concentrate or do as well as others when they are at school.

The Velveteen Rabbit is the much loved literary classic first published in 1922. The story follows a plush rabbit that yearns for the day that he will become the boy’s favorite toy and in doing so become “real.” Eventually, the boy soon chooses the rabbit and they quickly become constant companions. As the rabbit becomes tattered and worn, the boy falls ill with scarlet fever. The doctors order all the boy’s toys to be burned, to disinfect the nursery. Upon hearing the news, the rabbit sheds a real tear, which summons the magical Nursery Fairy to appear and transform the rabbit into a “real”, live animal. The classic’s themes of love and devotion resonate with all audiences and create an unforgettable theatrical experience for the whole family to enjoy.

Enchanted Theatre Company has reached a new level in the creation of fine theater for young people through innovative productions of classics tales such as Beauty & the Beast, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Pinocchio, and The Velveteen Rabbit.  Co-founders Landis and Jennifer Smith have joined forces with director and co-writer Leslie Reidel from the University of Delaware, to develop unique and imaginative productions that create striking theatrical images with moving fabric, transforming scenery, shadow play, character masks, life-size puppets, stage illusions and special lighting effects. Since 1998, Enchantment Theatre Company has presented over 935 performances for over 690,000 young people and their families in over 480 cities across the nation.

Tickets to The Velveteen Rabbit are on sale now for $14, $16 and $18. Tickets may be purchased at the Broadway Center Box Office located on 9th & Broadway or by calling the Box Office at 253.591.5894. To purchase online at any time or for information about upcoming events visit www.broadwaycenter.org.

The Broadway Center for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the following for support of the 2007-2008 Season: ArtsFund, Ben B. Cheney Foundation, The Boeing Company, City of Tacoma, Forest Foundation, The News Tribune, Pierce County Arts Commission, Sequoia Foundation Pierce County Program, and Washington State Arts Commission.

###