Batavia playhouse hitches treasury to polo matches
Blackberry Polo Club, First Street Playhouse ride together to raise roughly $1,000 Sunday afternoon
July 18, 2007
BATAVIA -- Drama and polo don't have much in common, but there were fans of both among the roughly 100 people at a fundraiser for a local theater group Sunday at the Blackberry Polo Club.
"It brings an audience to the guys that come in and play polo and it brings a benefit to the First Street Playhouse," said Barb Alexander, an actress who owns the polo club with her husband George and who planned the premiere benefit two years ago.
Kids, parents and grandparents munched ice cream and picnic fare as they watched the game, in which teams of four horseback riders try to move a ball across a field with mallets. Those arriving in the early afternoon saw an Oswego team trounce a team from Kentucky. Later guests watched a Barrington Hills squad eke out a narrow victory over the home team from the polo club.
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"It was tied for most of the game," said Barrington Hills player John Rosene. "They'd get down to our goal and we'd break it up."
The benefit is "a great community event," said Batavia resident Karen Norris.
"It's informal, it's a good picnic," she said as her 8-year-old son Adam played with a polo ball he had managed to grab after it rolled out of bounds.
"It's fun to be able to bring the kids."
Eric Schwartz, a members of the playhouse Board of Directors, also called the event a success.
"I don't instantly think polo when I think theater," he said. "But I think it's a nice match."
The non-profit Batavia theater collected roughly $1,000 from ticket sales at the event, and the funds will likely be used for supplies, operational costs or renovations.
Benefits and donations pay for more than half of the group's yearly productions, but the polo match "is so excpetional because ... it brings different clientele that learn about our theater," said founder and Executive Director Julane Sullivan.
Indeed, Lake Forest resident Maureen Tuohy said she knew nothing about the playhouse until she brought her four children to watch their father play polo Sunday.
"Now I will (have) to see what it's all about," she said.
For information on shows and programs at the First Street Playhouse, visit www.firststreetplayhouse.com.