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The Understudies
Founded in 1964 "to foster interest in the Wayne State University Theatre and primarily to support the Hilberry Theatre by fund raising, by promoting excellence, and by developing audiences," the Understudies are as unique among theatre fundraising organizations as the groundbreaking theatre program they have supported for almost a half-century.
When Leonard Leone and Clarence Hilberry formed the Hilberry Classic Repertory Theatre at Wayne State University in 1962, nothing like it had ever existed before in the United States. After Hilberry personally raised the money to finance the start-up, he was determined to keep the start-up capital separate from state funding for the university. He knew, however, that such autonomy would require continuous fundraising to perpetuate the program and that he would not have the time to do it all himself. This realization inspired him to create a group that would help raise funds and keep the theatre's finances balanced in perpetuity.
But in 1962 there was no such thing as "Fund Development." Donors to arts organizations were wealthy "angels," and Detroit had its share who had made their fortunes in the automotive industry. Hilberry, however, saw the angels of his theatre as something entirely different and as unique as the theatre itself. Instead of approaching corporate titans or invested businessmen, he approached Detroit's socialites, and he asked this group of women to form the leadership for a support group.
The women Hilberry called upon had had other leadership roles in the community, or already held leadership positions at Wayne State, so he knew they could accomplish the job. He invited them to a couple of luncheons at his house and explained how the program could work. They were impressed with the idea and ventured forth to create the organization that would soon be known as "the Understudies."
That first group of strong, influential and community-minded women was not large; membership to the organization was by invitation only. Regardless of the size of contribution, one was still carefully scrutinized before receiving an offer to join. The Understudies increased their numbers very judiciously. They were a Detroit sorority of sorts, slightly elitist, but intentionally so to attract donations. And it was this carefully crafted coterie, with a certain upper-middle-class presence among auto industry executives, doctors, lawyers, educators and blue-collar labor alike, that made the Understudies stand out as original, respected and desirable as a membership organization. Devotees of the theatre wanted to belong.
Today, 42 years after its inception, the Understudies boasts more than 125 members and has gone on from a 1963 lead of $25,000 to raise more than $2.5 million for the Hilberry Theatre and its graduate theatre training program. And during that time the organization has excelled at its mission of "fundraising, promoting excellence, and developing audiences."
The Understudies received one of Michigan's highest honors in 2004 when Governor Jennifer Granholm, one of the group's three honorary members, presented the organization with Michigan's Governor's Arts Award with the words, "The Understudies have been a powerful tool for providing access for the arts, for building communities, and for building in our young people a love of the arts that empowers them to reach for the stars. They are ambassadors for the arts, and for our community, and for our entire state."
The last word, however, should perhaps come from the person most in contact with the Wayne State theatre department's and the Hilberry Theatre's day-to-day and long-term operations over the past decade, current Department of Theatre Chair Dr. Blair Anderson. "The impact of the Understudies for the Hilberry," he says, "is our survival; they have made it possible for us to be here today."
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