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‘Giving a Bleep’ raises more than $11k for local nonprofits

For the past five years, “Giving a Bleep the Show,” a satirical musical comedy produced by the nonprofit called Giving a Bleep, has poked fun of the world from a Park City perspective.

This year the production that raises money for local nonprofits, sold out every night of its two-weekend run and pulled in a total of $11,347 in donations through ticket sales.

“That’s more than the 20 people in our group could individually or collectively donate to our nonprofits by a long shot,” said Executive Director Annette Velarde, who also wrote and directed the show. “It felt good to write out those checks.”

The production, which ran Nov. 4-5, and 11-12, took aim at the 2016 Presidential election.

Veldarde selected Hilary Clinton as the Commander-in-Chief, and sent Donald Trump to Park City where he became king and married a “queen” from Sugar House.

The script worked for the Nov. 4 and 5 shows, but after election results that confirmed Trump the president-elect on Nov. 8, Velarde made a quick fix for upcoming weekend performances.

“I don’t know about you, but I kept waking up at night hoping some miracle would happen and that the results were some media ploy to get us to watch commercials,” Velarde said during an interview with The Park Record. “When I actually woke up for good a few hours later on Wednesday, I took a look at the script and asked, ‘Well, what are we going to do to make it work?’“

She turned to her cast members.

“They thrilled me because over the course of the night, they all pulled together,” Velarde said. “Text messages were flying around and they came ready and do this thing.”

So, Velarde and the cast rewrote parts of the script.

“We, honest to God, rehearsed the changed show twice and then went on,” Velarde said.

A big change was the opening song.

“The original version had Hilary singing about winning the presidency and we went from ‘I Got the White House’ performed to ‘I Got Rhythm’ to ‘I Will Survive,’” Velarde said.

The cast came through, Velarde said.

“They are the best and not only professional when it comes to producing a musical, but they are also the best group of friends,” she said. “There couldn’t be a better cross section of Park City populous of that group of 20 people.”

The good vibes continued even after the final curtain call with what Velarde said was one of the best compliments of the year.

“Former Park City Mayor Dana Williams knows who I am, but we have never hung out, and he has never texted me,” she said. “However, the day after the show closed, he texted me and said, ‘I’m in Mexico and hear great things about the show.”

That struck Velarde because Williams’ character appears in the musical.

“We had a segment about Dana moving to Mexico and setting up a Temple of Dana,”
Velarde said with a laugh.

The other reward was presenting a fun production for local residents to enjoy.

“Our goal has always been to get as many people to come out and celebrate community as we can,” Velarde said.

Now, Giving a Bleep the nonprofit is gearing up for its annual holiday project called Give Your Heart, Not Your Wallet.

“That’s when we go visit the Utah State Veterans Home in Salt Lake City on Christmas,” Velarde said. “It’s a casual day and we visit the veterans who don’t have a place to go to for one reason or another.”

That doesn’t mean Velarde isn’t thinking about next year’s musical.

“We do know it will be about Park City’s mayoral election,” she said.

For more information, visit givingableep.com.

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