“If we didn’t have the community’s support, we would have to close the library tomorrow,” Beverly Kitson said during an annual fundraising event for Biblioteca David Kitson. She is the administrative director of the library.
Sunday, February 20th, a dinner party followed by a staged reading of a play, Murder Me Always by Lee Muller, was held. With attendance of almost 130 people, it was a night of solidarity, joy and laughter. The event took place at the Selva Mar Clubhouse.
The play, directed by Kim Shook, received a lot of appreciation with ascending laughter and applause from the audience. While Buzzy Maxwell was the star of the night, the performance of all the amateur cast was extraordinary. Even though it was promoted as reader’s theatre presentation, most of the cast members did a great job of memorizing the majority of their lines. The addition of a surfer character, played by surfer, K.C. Feeley, definitely gave the play a local flavor that the audience seemed to appreciate.
Carrie Anderson, one of the guests, found the food “amazing,” and said, “The play is adorable and actors are great.” Gary Paulsrud, another attendee, commented, “I think it is great. It’s wonderful that this small community has people who are willing to put in the time needed to create such an evening. And it certainly supports a great cause.”
Revenue from the night will be used to support the $28,000 annual budget. Sixty percent of the budget goes to the payment of the all-Costa Rican library staff. The rest is used to cover other expenses – electricity, telephone, supplies, books and other media for the collection as well as the maintenance of the building.
Named after David Kitson, Beverly Kitson’s husband, who died of cancer, the library was established in 1996. Initially, it had books only in Spanish, later on it was expanded to include books in English and in other languages spoken in the area. Today it gives the Nosareños access to books. There are more than 8,000 books in the library’s collection, including a special collection of children and a recently expanded collection of young adult books.
Regarding the night, Kitson said, “It was a complete success. The audience had as much fun as the players, and the players had a lot of fun.” Raychelle Sexton, who appeared as Trixie on stage, also commented “I had fun. People seemed to like it, too”.
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