Who We Are . . .

In the summer of 1996, Karen Brosi sent a very special letter to about 2 dozen contemporaries from her Cal Poly Theatre days. Her message was simple—the Cal Poly Theatre Program needed their help.

Through the efforts of those first individuals, FANS—Friends and Alumni Network of Supporters for the Cal Poly Theatre Program—was formed, its purpose: to be a voice of advocacy and support to the students within the Cal Poly Theatre Program.

A model Cal Poly alumni chapter, FANS has set its goals high and has achieved them. In only 3 years FANS was able to fully fund a schollarship endowment, the Kathleen Fisher Fund, which annually awards exemplary Theatre students. FANS was instrumental in getting the Theatre Arts Major approved and has recently pushed for and won school funds for the remodeling of Room 212, the Theatre Laboratory.

Who are FANS? In our college days, we may have trod the boards in the Cal Poly theatre, hammered a nail in a set or slapped paint on a flat. We may have ushered, managed the house or sold tickets for the shows. We may have taken a theatre class or simply enjoyed the Cal Poly productions. In some way we were a part of Cal Poly Theatre—and it became a part of us.

These days, we are accountants, lawers, business owners, working and stay-at-home moms, volunteers, entertainment industry professionals and Oscar-nominated and Emmy-Award-winning artists. We have come together again for a common cause: to be an ever-present support to the students of the Cal Poly Theatre program, insuring that the quality experience that so greatly influenced our lives, continues to influence the lives of students at Cal Poly.