The Dembowski Family Theatre Endowment Fund is essential and allows our theatre and speech communications department to thrive, providing a hands-on program that exposes students to both classic and contemporary theatre styles. 

The Dembowski Family Theatre Endowment Fund has aided the department’s mission in numerous ways, including: 

• Supporting the cost of hiring a professional stage director, Professor Esme Allen, to direct the third play of the 2020-2021 season, “Machinal” by Sophie Treadwell. The show opened on March 11, 2021 through Vimeo and ran until March 18.
• Enabling the purchase of new sound equipment and computer software for sound, serving mainstage productions in both the Sophia Gordon Center and The Callan Studio Theatre. It also offset the cost of purchasing and refreshing the inventory of new lavalier microphones for musicals and events, and for the purchase of Qlabs computer software for sound mixing. 
• Providing for a professional choreographer, professional stitcher and assistance with technical needs for Salem State’s 2019 student production of “Ragtime.” 
• Paying for a guest artist who created the beautiful costumes, with fabrics from New York, for the 33 actors in the mega-hit production of “A Free Man of Color” in 2018.
• Supporting the cost of tracking and curtains in the Callan Studio Theatre. 

“The full impact of the continued generosity of the Dembowski family on programs and student success at Salem State Theatre cannot be adequately measured. Without their sustained gifts we simply would not be who we are, nor be able to achieve what we do. We are humbled and forever grateful for the ways they support productions and our graduating students in the professional field, and we look forward to working with them in the future.” 

-Peter Sampieri, associate professor of directing and performance