Super Summer Theatre gets $600,000 grant

Super Summer Theatre at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, has received the largest grant in its 39-year history: a $600,000 grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

Super Summer officials will collect $100,000 of the grant immediately; the remaining $500,000 will be delivered after Super Summer Theatre raises $500,000 in matching funds.

The Reynolds foundation is awarding the grant to honor Dr. Keith Boman, who is retiring this year from the foundation’s board of trustees after 20 years. Boman, a long-time Super Summer Theatre supporter, has been a member of SST’s advisory board.

If Boman’s name sounds familiar, it should; it also graces the Boman Pavilion at downtown’s Smith Center for the Performing Arts, where he was a founder and served as vice chairman of the center’s original board of directors.

(And, lest we forget, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation — created in 1954 by the former owner of the Review-Journal — made a landmark $50 million gift that launched The Smith Center’s private funding campaign. The foundation later kicked in another $100 million for the downtown performing arts center.)

But back to Super Summer Theatre, where the Reynolds Foundation grant will create a 10-year maintenance reserve fund and bankroll a variety of capital improvements, including a new stage roof and siding, landscape and parking improvements, concession stand and lighting booth renovation and the purchase of theatrical and sound equipment.

“We thank the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation for the opportunity to sustain our theater’s future and assist us in our efforts to promote theatrical arts in Southern Nevada,” Jerry Brooks, Super Summer Theatre chairman, stated in a news release. “As we have grown, it has been necessary to secure a location for auditions, rehearsals, set building, and office space. This grant will allow us to maintain our SST Studios and the theater grounds in Spring Mountain Ranch State Park.”

Super Summer Theatre’s current season began in June with “Spamalot,” while “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” opens July 9; “Shrek the Musical” and “Arsenic in Old Lace” round out the current season.

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.