William Inge Foundation Annual Giving

Dear Friend,

We at the William Inge Festival Foundation are hoping this holiday season finds you healthy and hopeful.  

As we continue to face the challenges the pandemic has brought to all of our lives, plans are being made to host a modified version of some of our regular activities in late spring 2021. In 2022, the festival will return in-person to honor two-time Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage. Our artistic director Hannah Joyce has been able to secure multiple grants from local and national sources to aid in our continued student, playwright residency, and festival programming, however, matching funds are still required to complete these grant programs. In addition, the William Inge Festival Foundation also maintains the local historical boyhood home of William Inge, which is used not only for extended playwright and artist residencies, but also more and more for student and community gatherings.

Our donors play the most significant role in our success. And because of their support we have celebrated the talents of playwrights, at all levels of accomplishment, for 40 years. Whether honoring their accomplishments at our nationally renowned William Inge Theater Festival or hosting them in residence at our Historical William Inge boyhood home, we have kept the arts alive in our community with your support. This support has allowed us to become one of the most eminent theater centers in rural America, providing cultural and educational programs that benefit Independence, the Midwest arts community, and the national theater industry at large.

Your gift in any amount will have a profound impact on our ability to keep the lights on through these difficult days and continue the programs that have impacted our local and national community for the past forty years. Program needs, home maintenance, and bills continue, even with the festival postponement.

Thanks to your support, dreams and ideas spring to life on the stage, in classrooms, and in new stories from diverse artists that impact the American theater far beyond Kansas. We welcome your continued support through a donation in any amount. We encourage you to consider a monthly donation of a smaller amount so that your giving may sustain us throughout the year.

Thank you for your continued support of our work and of the arts. We send wishes for nourishment, stability, and health. We’re looking ahead with hope.

Sincerely,     

Lea Shepard, President, William Inge Festival Foundation Board

Hannah Joyce, Producing Artistic Director, William Inge Center for the Arts