The Hope Players

I had the pleasure of watching a bunch of my friends perform in an awesome production on Friday night. Every summer, a group of dedicated producers, directors, actors, choreographers, and friends pool their talent together to create a production called The Hope Show. The theater troop, known as The Hope Players, just closed their Summer '08 production of Back to the Eighties.

Born in 1984, I missed most of the 80s. The remnants of the 80s were still lingering in the 90s, but it just wasn't the same. So, Hope took me back to the days of Nickelodeon's Double Dare, the Golden Girls, Richard Simmons, Jane Fonda, leg warmers, and much more. The audience was also reminded of the stellar music of the 80s in a no holds, complete jam session of every song imaginable from "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" to "Thriller," which was the grand finale.

I was most impressed to see that many of my friends pooled their talent together to write the entire first act of the play. Every decade was immortalized by some landmark, be it Michael Jackson advertising Pepsi to a murder mystery combining A.L.F., Jessica Fletcher, Knight Rider, and of course, MacGyver. To put it simply, this year's production was, in my opinion, the best production ever. The creativity was immense, the talent stupendous, and the intention sincere.

The Hope Players began their crusade in 1997, raising money for the Hope Soup Kitchen in New Rochelle, New York. Since its humble beginnings, Hope has evolved into the Hope for Change Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising money to help fund research toward finding a cure for breast cancer. Every cent of every production goes to this cause. The time of every Hope participant is volunteered. It is an amazing organization.

I too, was once a member of the Hope Players. I'm now a dedicated audience member, but I had the pleasure of performing in several Hope productions. Those summers were some of the best summers of my life. If you cruise The Hope Players website, you're sure to find some lingering photos and bios of me when I was in my high school and college days. I kept thinking while I was watching Back to the Eighties on Friday night, how much fun everyone was having on stage and all the work that went into the production. Those summers always went fast. And for the audience, the production was over in a blink of an eye.

Unfortunately, I write this blog post after the production has closed, but it's not too late for anyone in the area to get involved in this cause. The Hope Players put on several productions throughout the year, so check out their website as well as the Internet home of the Hope for Change Foundation. As the cliche of the group has stated (for many years)...we hope to see you there!

Links:
The Hope Players Official Website
The Hope for Change Foundation