{"id":8728,"date":"2025-05-23T11:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T14:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=8728"},"modified":"2025-05-23T14:35:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T17:35:31","slug":"astor-theatre-unveils-details-about-plan-to-take-facility-to-next-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/05\/23\/astor-theatre-unveils-details-about-plan-to-take-facility-to-next-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Astor Theatre unveils details about plan to take facility to ‘next level’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Eric Goulden, chairman of the Astor Theatre Society, speaks to theatre supporters on Thursday. Karen Murphy, of the J&W Murphy Foundation, and Lynn Cochrane, vice-chair of the Astor board, look on. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

The board of the Astor Theatre on Thursday unveiled some details of a plan they hope will make the theatre the centre of arts and culture on the South Shore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are definitely the envy of a lot of other theatres in Nova Scotia,\u201d Astor Theatre Society chairman Eric Goulden said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it is a very, very valuable treasure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The historic Liverpool theatre, which opened in 1902, recently received a $500,000 donation from the J&W Murphy Foundation. The five-year funding commitment will help with the Astor\u2019s operational expenses, and help improve its marketing, promotion and fundraising efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Board members invited the community on Thursday afternoon to learn more about the foundation\u2019s support.<\/span><\/p>\n

The contribution will help the Astor work on long-term projects to make the theatre sustainable. Three consultants will be hired to come up with fundraising and communications plans and oversee the process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heather White Brittain, the director of development with the Imperial Theatre in Saint John, will lead the Astor\u2019s fundraising and sponsorship development efforts. That will include creating a fund development database that will help the Astor secure more sustainable donations from corporations and other foundations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cathy Neumiller, a communications and marketing professional based in Halifax, will help create a new marketing and communications plan for the theatre. That will include a newly designed website, a subtle rebranding and more community outreach.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the capacity in house to do this work,\u201d said Lynn Cochrane, vice-chair of the Astor board.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c(The employees) do miracles every day with what they have to work with. But the fund development and marketing communications side are specialist areas and require specialists to do them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cochrane said a lot of the work for the first year will be behind the scenes. But lovers of the Astor should start seeing some changes by the end of this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neumiller says she hopes to harness the enthusiasm of the Astor’s sizable and dedicated group of volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about relationships,” she said in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The ultimate with communications is striking up a relationship with someone and finding out what they\u2019re passionate about. The goal is to find the people that are the most passionate and get them on board to help achieve the things that need to be done because there\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jean Robinson-Dexter, a former executive director of the Astor and longtime chair of the Liverpool International Theatre Festival, will act as a project manager.<\/span><\/p>\n

The president of Horizons Community Development Associates also helped Cochrane create the funding proposal to the Murphy foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I\u2019ll be a bit of a trouble-shooter and a bit of a historian about the organization and the kinds of things that the theatre does,\u201d Robinson-Dexter said in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be doing regular check-ins with the two wonderful consultants and sharing that back to the board, making sure we\u2019re on track in terms of deliverables and timelines. It\u2019s a great opportunity to be back and contributing to the Astor again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Astor announced the \u201clife-changing\u201d contribution<\/a> from the J&W Murphy Foundation in April.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The foundation was established in 2008 by the late Janet and Dr. William Murphy, longtime Liverpool residents. Dr. Murphy co-founded the thriving Mersey Seafoods in 1964.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It contributes to a wide variety of charitable causes, especially in Queens County.<\/span><\/p>\n

The foundation\u2019s Karen Murphy told QCCR on Thursday that they had many discussions with the Astor board about how to help.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd our conclusion was that we could assist in some funding to take away some of the operational worries so the focus could be on future-proofing the facility,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s often capital projects that get a lot of attention. But we found with especially small- and medium-sized organizations, operational funding is often forgotten. And sometimes that\u2019s the key to all the other creativity-building that needs to happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She said that she and her family have been longtime supporters of the Astor and were happy to help \u201ctake it to the next level\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people find out I’m from Liverpool, they invariably mention the Astor. That tells you what a legacy is already in place. And it\u2019s on all of us to keep adding to that and to keep building it up. This place has to be here for the next 100 years like it has been already.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/astormurphydonationplansmay2325.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The board of the Astor Theatre on Thursday unveiled some details of a plan they hope will make the theatre the centre of arts and culture on the South Shore. \u201cWe are definitely the envy of a lot of other theatres in Nova Scotia,\u201d Astor Theatre Society chairman Eric Goulden said. \u201cAnd it is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[1160,2156,38,1421,3113,206,2238,3115,2400,2661,275,3114,39,3116,2392,2797,49],"class_list":["post-8728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-astor-theatre","tag-astor-theatre-society","tag-cathy-neumiller","tag-donation","tag-eric-goulden","tag-foundation","tag-heather-white-brittain","tag-jw-murphy-foundation","tag-jean-robinson-dexter","tag-karen-murphy","tag-liverpool","tag-lynn-cochrance","tag-lynn-cochrane","tag-philanthropy","tag-queens-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8728"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8737,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions\/8737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}