Below, you will find a letter from BBMT’s Executive Director Alex Evans that was posted on June 1st, 2020.
Dear friends,
One year ago we performed our very first show in our new Highland Park home of the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.
For me personally, that show marked a change that I had feared coming for all of my 13 years at the Theater. It was a fear of the uncertainty of what the moment would bring, a fear of moving a lifetime's worth of treasure, of building a new Theater with a shockingly low budget, altering a Los Angeles Monument, and changing the site of cross-generational experiences.
One year later we have performed 323 shows to full crowds. We’ve restored classic puppet shows and widely expanded a vibrant community. We have taken strides in offering sustainable jobs to our staff, formalized as a 501-c3 non-profit and planted seeds for educational programs. We have resurrected BBMT’s legacy of fabrication and built fully operational puppets for the likes of Harry Styles and Lil Nas X, for television shows, for nationally syndicated PSAs, as well as for individuals wanting puppet-likenesses of their beloved pets, friends, or family members. Most of all we have made a lot of people happy.
This was a change that had petrified me but was necessary and in many, many, ways made the Bob Baker Marionette Theater a better place. The huge pride I feel is only possible because of an incredible community and their support and belief that this change could happen in a positive way.
Today also marks the end of our #RoundtheMaypole fundraising campaign - a moment in which, facing an outstanding loss of income due to COVID-19, we turned to our community for financial support. We set a month’s fundraising goal of $20,000 goal, exceeded within 24 hours, and ended the month with the goal almost doubled. This was another moment where we asked for help and the community was there for us. In response, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater will work tirelessly to be there for our community.
For our community, we see our role to empower the imagination of the child in all of us: a tool to imagine a better world. That means equality for all. Black Lives Matter and we stand by all trying to change a broken system. We recognize we can do more, we are going to do more. From addressing the hard questions of the place of outdated content in our shows, to diversifying our staff and audience.
The extent of how we can serve our community right now we frankly don’t know, but it’s our responsibility to learn how to do better. And most of all to listen. My email address is alex@bobbakermarionettetheater.com, my personal phone number is 770-634-4731. It is my own responsibility to educate myself, but for anyone willing, I welcome ideas, thoughts, and comments about how the Theater can be there for our community.
Today we celebrate a year anniversary of our relatively small change. A change that began with fear but ended in pride. Covid continues to alter what we know, yet I have faith and pride that, through creatively safe birthdays and events, digital content and much more, we will return stronger than ever. We will continue to better ourselves as a resource for the community, a sanctuary of sweet, a cross-generational tool to help imagine a better world.
Thank you,
Alex Evans
Executive Director and Head Puppeteer