For Immediate Release: March 24, 2005
Media Contact: Patricia Dill, Delaware Theatre Company, 302.594.1104 x228

For the third consecutive year, Delaware Theatre Company will present the Stephen Daniel Foulk Volunteer Award to a volunteer who has served the Theatre in some remarkable capacity. This year, the award will be presented on Saturday evening, April 16th before the 8PM performance of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie to Mary An Love, who has volunteered for almost ten years with the Education Department at Delaware Theatre Company.

The Stephen Daniel Foulk Award was established in 2003 by friends and family to memorialize this tireless, enthusiastic and generous volunteer. Stephen's association with DTC began in the 1980s with the Theatre's annual fundraising event, the Barefoot Ball. Over the years, he co-chaired the Barefoot Ball and also served on the Theatre's Board of Directors. Stephen loved theatre and understood the absolute importance of volunteers for those non-profit institutions that make important contributions to the surrounding community.

The Volunteer Award "shall be used to honor a DTC Volunteer who exemplifies the qualities which were paramount in the life of Stephen Foulk." The award acknowledges the recipient's recognition of the valuable role that not-for-profit institutions play in the life of the community, her attentive and committed focus on the work of the Delaware Theatre Company, selfless giving ("a focus on what a volunteer can do for an organization, not what he can get") and sense of good will and compassion for all.

Ms. Love has dedicated her time over the last ten years to Delaware Theatre Company's Education department and its many outreach programs. Her first involvement at DTC was as a professional consultant for the Educators' Workshop and for Insights, the Student Matinee Study Guide. Even after her official position was completed, Mary An continued on as a volunteer, serving on the Education Advisory Board since 1999 and working with DTC's Totally Awesome Kids, a theatre troupe for individuals with mental disabilities, from 1999-2003. She also assisted the Theatre's annual Young Playwrights Festival by serving as a script reader since 2000 and by developing an official educational playwriting rubric that allows the Festival's Literary Committee to evaluate the enormous amount of student-authored plays - in 2004, the Festival took in a record 561 plays. Outside of DTC, Love is the Program Coordinator for Parish Social Ministries of Catholic Charities.

Charles Conway, Director of Education, affirms that Love is "always available to share her knowledge and expertise; she's been there whenever and wherever we need her." Mary An's contribution is unique in that "she has always encouraged us to reach further and to try for more. DTC's Education Department would be a very different place without her."

Nominations for the Award come from Delaware Theatre Company staff, and the award winner is presented with a beautiful engraved hand-blown glass bowl from Simon Pearce on the Brandywine. Previous winners of the Award include Wilmington photographer John Schoonover, who has taken the Theatre's archival photographs free of cost for twenty-three years, and Rosemary and (the late) Forrest Hickman, who volunteered at every Student Matinee performance from 1987 through 2003.

Preview performances for Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie are March 30 and 31 and April 1 at 8PM. The play opens Saturday, April 2 at 8PM and runs through April 17. Evening performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8PM, and matinee performances are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2PM. Ticket prices are $23, $33, $40, and $43, depending on the performance day and time, with special discounts for students, seniors, and groups of 10 or more.

To order tickets call (302) 594-1100 or online at http://www.delawaretheatre.org.

Delaware Theatre Company's season is sponsored by JP Morgan Chase. Cephalon and AIG are the Corporate Producers of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie. This program is made possible, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency committed to promoting and supporting the arts in Delaware. The Delaware Division of the Arts provides technical and financial assistance to artists and arts programs and serves as a clearinghouse for information on the arts.

Delaware Theatre Company, 200 Water Street, Wilmington, is Delaware's only resident professional theatre company, located on Wilmington's exciting new Riverfront within walking distance from the Amtrak station. Delaware Theatre Company is a member of the League of Resident Theatres, Theatre Communications Group, Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, and the Arts Consortium of Delaware.

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