It Takes a Village

Or a virtual theatre community. Or whatever.

We shot the kickstarter video yesterday, and we are gearing up to launch it later this week. But before we do, I wanted to talk a bit about Kickstarter/Indiegogo/etc and the theatre community.

These crowd funding sites are great ways to get projects rolling. Funding theatre, even small, independent, local productions, is challenging. You either need generous donors and grants or a large checkbook to even get stuff off the ground. For South Stream, crowd funding has been an important part of our financial mix. Most of our Kickstarter money is pre-selling tickets. Because of kickstarter and transaction fees, it's slightly worse for us financially to sell tickets this way, but we also get some generous additional donations each year that help significantly. More importantly, our audience, in a very real way, is making the show possible. It's YOU that are our financial patrons, and we need YOU to succeed. I believe this show is going to be great, and if you believe it too (and share it with your friends) it will be. It's a way to include our audience in the collaboration early, and an audience is a critical part of theatre. More than most other art forms (except perhaps live music), it really depends on you.

But before we launch our Kickstarter campaign (coming soon) I wanted to mention a few others by friends of mine.

hiSTORY Stage is currently running a campaign for their production of "The Maltese Bodkin" the weekend of November 13. My housemate is directing this cast in a "radio play" staging in 40s style. The script is film noir meets Shakespeare. It should be good fun. They even have a USO dance after one of the performances.

Maltese Bodkin Kickstarter

On a more serious note, another friend is producing a short film "NO MORE" about the aftermath of domestic violence. It's an important topic on a subject very close to more people than you might think. Go to their page to learn more and help the project happen if you choose.

NO MORE Kickstarter

Having a way for fans to contribute to theatrical and film projects is really a great benefit to our artistic community. It's financial help, but it's also spiritual and emotional help as well. Having a bunch of people, friends, acquaintances, and strangers, look at your project and say "Yes, I believe in you. I want your idea to happen," that is as important as anything else.

... but yeah, the money is important too.  So support your local artists. :-)