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Message from the President GETTING TO KNOW US A PLACE TO CALL HOME. In 1975, after more than 20 years of performing in schools, storefronts and homes, The Naples Players finally had their own 40-seat theatre on Davis Boulevard. The Kon-Tiki Playhouse began to suffer from a crumbling façade and mechanical issues in the mid-1990s, and it soon became clear that a new location was necessary. An unprecedented fundraising effort immediately followed, and the first major gift came from Frances Pew Hayes. Others soon followed including Peg and Herb Sugden, Lois and Dick Blackburn, and Jay and Patty Baker. Three successive yearly grants from the State of Florida totaling nearly $1.5 million helped create the final result: the 1998 debt-free opening of The Naples Players’ Sugden Community Theatre on 5th Avenue South, with the play Me and My Girl. Today, the Sugden Theatre sits only two blocks south of the original building where TNP staged it’s first production nearly 65 years ago. The Naples Players stage more than 220 performances a year. With a subscriber base of more than 3,000, children’s program that reach over 600 children annually, and having been voted Best Live Theatre for fifteen consecutive years in the Naples Daily News, many bestof Southwest Florida Choice Awards among others, The Naples Players are regarded as a cultural jewel of Naples. www.naplesplayers.org | (239) 263-7990 15


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