Goodbye 2024

I turned around and you were gone- I mean we were just getting to know each other! Wasn’t it just yesterday we found out that Taylor Swift was dating a Super Bowl Champion and Christopher Nolan had to endure “Barbenheimer” on his way to the Oscars? Here at Emerald Coast Theatre Company we are still humming along to all of our favorite songs from the fall opening musical “Jersey Boys.” And it wasn’t that long ago we had hundreds of children sing, dance, and act their hearts out onstage in our multiple summer camps. A lot of those same children joined us again in “Shrek the Musical” this past fall. I knew you were coming to a close when we opened our hearts for “All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914.”  I felt you slipping away and I just wasn’t ready to see you go. We’ve had some good times, 2024. I’ll never forget how many people came together to support us this past year when the State cut our arts funding with no warning.  Our belief in the miracle that “Anything Can Happen” was renewed when so many people in our community stepped forward and gave with open hearts and hands.  

Throughout the year we saw again and again the incredible growth that comes from word of mouth and the shared desire for human connection in real time. Real stories performed by real actors onstage in a show that will never happen the same way twice. A unique, living, breathing experience that must be shared to even exist. You showed us once again that it is the people who are the heart of ECTC.   

We have said our goodbyes with a bittersweet embrace, 2024. It was a beautiful year with so many miracles grand and small. And the greatest miracle of all is that we now have this gift of a New Year.  A fresh start with so many possibilities, opportunities, and dreams where “Anything Can Happen.”

Hello 2025.