Alan Marshall: 'If Prelude to a Dream were scheduled today I would have to cancel it because we wouldn't be able to get there.'

August 13th, 2013
Dear Friends & Supporters:

If Prelude to a Dream were scheduled today I would have to cancel it because we wouldn't be able to get there. Everything we would have accomplished and created since April will have been for nothing.

I have put $170K of my own money into this project over the past three years. Everything we had and much of what I earn now from my marketing business. I remember telling my wife Karen in November , 2011 after I had put 75K into that I wasn't putting another dime into it.

The project has been an enormous sacrifice for my family. We had to home school our three young children for the second part of this past school year because I could not keep up with their tuition…I had put everything into THE MARCH. Gathering them together to tell them that they weren’t going back to their school and friends was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do, but Carmen (10), Henry (7) and A.J. (5) took the news in stride and never resented THE MARCH because even they understand how important this project is and they accepted that sacrifice because of it.

I only mention these things to say that if I could fund this entire project on my own I would…as I have already tried to do.  But I cannot do this on my own any longer. Please know that I have not poured money into THE MARCH as some sort of financial investment in search of a dividend or profit, but because I knew that if I didn't create this project it may never be done and I would have regretted that the rest of my life. I had faith that one day people of goodwill…people like YOU…would see and appreciate what THE MARCH stands for.

So, I don’t ask this of you for me or for my family. I have had a thriving marketing business that I can turn my attention back to full time on a moment’s notice. I have been self employed and self-sufficient my entire adult life. I am making this appeal for the living civil rights heroes, known and unknown, heralded and obscure. I am asking you to help me let them know they what they did mattered and that we appreciate their sacrifice. I am also asking on behalf of a generation of youth who are disconnected from the history of the civil rights movement and therefore are disconnected from themselves as human beings and as heirs of this great legacy.

So, if Prelude to a Dream were scheduled in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. today I would have to cancel it. The only difference between now and August 27 is YOU. If we stage these performances it will be because YOU dug deep and became a hero to this project and to history.
THANK YOU.
Alan Marshall, writer-director-producerTHE MARCH

 

PLEASE SUPPORT PRELUDE TO A DREAM
The 1963 March on Washington was supported by the generosity of  individuals, businesses & organizations.
THE MARCH Civil Rights Opera Project seeks to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.
We, too, will need the generous support of individuals, businesses & organizations to produce
Prelude to a Dream in Baltimore on August 25th, 2013 & Washington, D.C. on August 27, 2013
We will list the names of those who contribute on our website.
SUPPORTER: up to $50      PATRON: $51 – $99      HONORARY CO-PRODUCER: $100+
Your contribution is vital to our efforts to stage these free performances in Baltimore & Washington, D.C.You may make a gift in any amount using this link:
www.CivilRightsOpera.com/cr/supportprelude/
THANK YOU