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Posts tagged ‘Indie Theatre’

Nov 10

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Legends, Myths and Remounts: In Conversation with Sarah Thorpe – Writer, Co-Director & Solo actor of Soup Can Theatre’s “Heretic”

Interview by Madryn McCabe

I sat down with Sarah Thorpe, writer, co-director and solo actor of Heretic, to talk about legends, myths, and doing it all over again. 

Madryn McCabe: Tell me a bit about Heretic?

Sarah Thorpe: Heretic is essentially Joan of Arc in this afterlife space, looking back on her life and the decisions she made, and questioning whether it was worth it in the end. Should she have made the decisions that she did? I wanted to frame it in that way because, obviously, Joan was killed when she was nineteen because of what she did, so every account of her story is from someone else’s perspective, someone else’s opinion… so with some artistic license, it’s her side of the story – what she was feeling, thinking, going through… I wanted to present her in a way that takes down the saintly persona that surrounds her. She’s always depicted that way in plays and in literature, and I just thought that I wanted to explore her as a regular, vulnerable human being.

MM: What inspired Heretic? Where did the idea come from?

ST: It came from a monologue from Shaw’s Saint Joan that I had done for auditions before, and I found that it really hit an emotional note with me. I thought it would be interesting to explore this emotional connection further, and explore this person. I realized that I had all these questions… What was she thinking before her execution? What was she thinking when she stepped onto the battlefield for the first time? What was going through her mind? Was she terrified? Or thinking ‘No, I’ve got this!’

MM: How much research did you have to do into Joan’s life?

ST: A fair amount of research, but I’ve certainly taken a lot of artistic license as well. Not much of Joan is known before she joined the French army and started fighting in the 100 Years War.

MM: We seem to only know about Joan of Arc the Warrior, who heard voices from God, and only just the very brief period of time when she was fighting in the war.

ST: Right! So, we know about that, and we know that she was captured and executed. But, not a whole lot is known about her life before that. We do touch on that and how she was living this life on a farm with her parents and had a simple, medieval farming existence. The 100 Years War started in the 1330s, so she was born into a period of war going on around her, born into this environment where that was sort of what they were used to. It had gone on for so long. How I interpreted the aspect of her hearing voices was her wanting so much to say ‘No, we shouldn’t put up with this. This isn’t right. We’re being occupied, and it shouldn’t be an English king on the throne. We should do something about it.’

Photo of Sarah Thorpe by Justin Haigh

Photo of Sarah Thorpe by Justin Haigh

MM: Do you have a writing partner, or did you tackle this story on your own?

ST: I wrote it on my own. Justin Haigh did the dramaturgy on this remount. I re-wrote the script from the original version that we did in April.

MM: I was just about to ask, how much of an overhaul has this version gotten? Is there a lot of new stuff going on? What might bring people back who have already seen it?

ST: It’s not a huge overhaul. Some scenes were rewritten, some scenes were cut completely. In doing the remount, I thought that I could write some stuff better, and go into more depth of what I could interpret into what she was thinking and feeling and going through. So, for people who saw the April production and want to come back, I would say that there’s more emotional depth, and a bit more action. It also looks completely different. We have a whole new design team. The look of the show is totally different, yet still keeps with my vision. The way I always pictured it was people coming into a space resembling a medieval tomb. It’s kept with that same idea, but in a totally different way.

MM: Did you find that things changed much in the rehearsal room as well?

ST: Rehearsal was, again, a bit different. We have the same stage manager as last year, which is great. Directing-wise-Matt Bernard directed the April production, and this time around Scott Dermody and I are co-directing. Matt and Scott have different directing styles, so it’s been different rehearsing just because of the different approaches. I feel like I’m working harder this time around! It’s not that I wasn’t into it the first time around, and I don’t know how or why, but I feel extra committed now.

Photo of Sarah Thorpe by Justin Haigh

Photo of Sarah Thorpe by Justin Haigh

MM: Do you find that you can easily separate all your roles as writer, director, actor, or does each one influence what the other does?

ST: I’ve gotten better at knowing when to turn off the producer brain and turn on the actor brain, or the writer brain. Certainly when I was doing the rewrites, it was really just writer brain. I wasn’t thinking about anything else. But once we started rehearsals and looked at the script from an acting perspective, I’d sometimes think ‘Why the hell would I write something that way? What was I thinking?!’ I’ve gotten better at differentiating, and what helps me is making that bit of time to focus on the different things. I have to write a little schedule… so it’s 12-1 I’ll run lines, 1-2 I’ll do a bunch of social media and post things, then I’ll look at the design that’s just been sent, and look from that perspective. And luckily, I’m sharing the directing responsibilities. I wanted to have a hand in the directing this time, as well, to have a say in the design concept but Scott really is the eyes that are making sure I’m delivering a good performance.

MM: Do you prefer this avenue of creating your own show and having so much say in the producing versus the more traditional auditioning for another company and being directed in a specific part?

ST: As an actor, this is the first time I’ve done anything like this. I hadn’t written anything outside of theatre school. I have to say that it’s really satisfying to create my own work from the ground up. As an artist, overall I’ve really enjoyed that process. I do also enjoy the more traditional process, though. There are some scripts that I’d love to tackle as a director too.

MM: What do you want people to know coming into the show?

ST: What I find exciting and compelling is that we’re introducing people to a person who is always portrayed as higher than other humans. She’s a saint, she’s holy, she’s perfect, a saviour. I find her way more interesting when we see that she screwed up sometimes and made mistakes and bad decisions and maybe she shouldn’t have done some of what she did. I find her, and I hope everyone else does, compelling to see as a vulnerable, flawed being just trying to do what she feels is right.

Heretic

Presented by Soup Can Theatre

Photo of Sarah Thorpe by Justin Haigh

Photo of Sarah Thorpe by Justin Haigh

Written and Performed by Sarah Thorpe
Co-Directed by Sarah Thorpe & Scott Dermody
Scenography – Alyksandra Ackerman
Lighting Designer – Randy Lee
Sound Designer/Production Manager – Wesley McKenzie
Dramaturge – Justin Haigh
Stage Manager – Kathleen Hemsworth

When: November 11 – 22, 2015

Where: Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, 16 Ryerson Ave.

Tickets: $15-22, online: soupcantheatre.com phone: 416-504-7529, in person: 16 Ryerson Ave.

Connect: 

Soup Can Theatre: @SoupCanTheatre

Sarah Thorpe: @thorpe_s

In the Greenroom: @intheGreenRoom_

Madryn McCabe: @FuriousMAD

 

 

Oct 28

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The Sex Ed Curriculum, Plays in Threes & Making a Statement with a Dildo – In Conversation with Rob Kempson, Playwright/Director of SHANNON 10:40

Interview by Brittany Kay

Brittany Kay: Tell me about your title character Shannon and SHANNON 10:40?

Rob Kempson: Shannon, the character, was born out of my work as a teacher and meeting students who don’t feel like they are welcomed in the environment of school. I’ve taught in a lot of settings where they are welcomed and that is truly amazing, like if you look at an arts school, for example, and the amount of students who are queer or questioning or in some of sort in-between place with their sexual identity or gender identity, those schools tend to be leaning towards a more supportive side. What was most interesting to me were kids who are incredibly confident with their sexuality and are able to talk about it openly, and the way that other kids in school respond to that kind of confidence and power. I was not one of those kids. After creating Shannon, I started thinking about myself as a queer teacher and the challenges associated with that in this day and age. I thought putting those two people on stage together might create an interesting dynamic.

BK: What has been your inspiration for writing this show?

RK: I’m producing two plays of mine this year. SHANNON 10:40 is the first one before the holidays and the second one is called Mockingbird, which will be in the Next Stage Theatre Festival in January 2016. They are part of a series that I’m calling The Graduation Plays. I think that I tend to work in threes. I kind of get obsessed with an idea for a little while and hang out with that idea in my brain. I’ve been teaching for a long time and so I’ve obviously always thought about school settings but for SHANNON 10:40 and Mockingbird, it was just their time in my brain to come into being. I was ready for them to exist. Jokingly, 2014 was the year of Grandmas for me. I did a musical that was about a grandma (The Way Back To Thursday) and then I did a piece at Hatch that featured three grandmas (#legacy). I don’t think my grandma phase is over, perhaps, but I’d like to think that now I’m on to my school phase.

Once I get interested in a given environment or topic, I want to explore that from a lot of different places before I’m done with it and sometimes you can’t fit all of that into one play, so it becomes two plays.

BK: Is there a third one in your series?

RK: I think there’s a third play… and I think I know what it’s about. I certainly didn’t imagine I would get into Next Stage this year and also get to produce SHANNON 10:40 this year, so the fact that they are being presented so close together is very exciting. I feel really lucky.

BK: Why the title of the series – The Graduation Plays?

RK: I always thought of them as a series and then a smart publicist friend of mine told me that I needed to name it as a series if it’s going to be one. Of course, initially what came to my mind was the Education Plays and I thought, “well that sounds stupid,” and then I thought that that’s not actually what this is about. It’s about all of us as an education community but also us as a world advancing in some way. Getting to somewhere that we weren’t before. That’s what graduation is in theory and I think I imagine these plays to both showcase characters and situations that challenge what we expect and challenge what we understand to be acceptable.

I think that there are so many examples of students taking back power because they need to act out, they need to say they’re not happy, they need to stand up for themselves… there’s a lot of different reasons. The term ‘graduation’ is kind of about all of that – it’s about moving forward and understanding something new. Both plays have that sort of characteristic to them.

BK: How has teaching, being in a school environment, and around these types of students influenced your writing?

RK: I feel so lucky that I get to work as an artist educator and as an artist because those two streams for me are incredibly important in my life, in my career, and they ultimately inform one another. So things that I’m working on in my artistic practice often end up infiltrating my work as an artist educator and vice versa. Things that happen in my practice as an artist educator always make their way into my writing. There’s this real sort of back and forth between those two parts of my brain.

Hallie Seline as Shannon in SHANNON 10:40

Hallie Seline as Shannon in SHANNON 10:40

BK: Why 10:40?

RK: Oh, because that’s the time of Shannon’s guidance appointment. She’s going to a guidance appointment at 10:40. It’s not like 4.48 Psychosis or anything crafty. It’s literally the time of her guidance appointment. The timeline is all about the school day and 10:40 is midway through second period, it’s right before lunch and she’s been called out of class to come to this guidance appointment. There’s a very different kind of day for students because school starts so early in the morning and ends so early in the afternoon.

BK: This play is very timely and appropriate for what some are calling The Education Crisis that is going on.

RK: Yes. It’s not really brain surgery though… Oh, the world changes but we’ve done the exact same thing for a very long time? If we expect to be relevant and expect to connect with our students and we expect to have our education system actually do anything for the community that we live in, it needs to change with the world. The bureaucracy that prevents it from doing so is, in fact, the problem. We need to be able to respond quickly with curriculum development. We need to give teachers enough autonomy to be able to work with the curriculum in an innovative and progressive way, but we also need to be able to support them as they make those choices. The message of Shannon 10:40 is definitely political in scope in the sense that a teacher, Mr. Fisher, is dealing with this desire to be a progressive forward thinking teacher and he’s not receiving the support that he needs to in order to do that effectively. Shannon is a student who’s caught in the cross-fire, not feeling represented in her school, not feeling represented in her classes that she has to take and, therefore, feeling oppressed. She is feeling like she is the victim of oppression in her everyday life as a student and so, of course, she’s going to do something to change that, because she has to.

I think the play is about students figuring out a way to state their case, to share their message, to say what they need to say—and students don’t always do that in the most appropriate way. That’s what it’s about: a student taking back the power and fighting the oppression of that system.

BK: Tell me you’re inviting Kathleen Wynne because this is so timely around what is happening right now in the world of education.

RK: I do have dreams of doing so. I’m definitely inviting some folks who are into education pedagogy and hoping we’ll be able to have a discourse around that.

BK: I think that’s what theatre is about… that, often it needs to reflect what’s happening in our day-to-day.

RK: I agree. I also think that we don’t give students tools to talk about or react to oppression, but we then oppress them. If we’re not teaching them how to react to that in a way that’s appropriate, how can we expect anything but outbursts, outrage and acts of defiance because they need to be heard. They need to say what they feel.

I think the last great bastion to knock down in a school setting is really around sexual and gender diversity and it’s way better than it used to be. It’s not like we aren’t making progress but it’s when in that progress that we need to recognize we’re never done… We still need to work. We still need to continue and develop.

BK: What do you want audiences walking away with from SHANNON 10:40?

RK: Hopefully, a new perspective in their toolkit when they’re thinking about the way that education works in this province. And, also, that they got to see a show with a dildo in it! We haven’t even said that—Shannon brings a dildo to school.

Rapid Fire Question Period:

Favourite movie: Sister Act 2.

Play: Impossible to choose… You Are Here by Daniel MacIvor?

Musical: Elegies.

Food: Cheese.

TV Show: Please Like Me.

Book: Favourites are so hard… I don’t like the commitment… The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

Best advice you’ve ever gotten or something you live by: This is where I find myself. You have to be happy where you are.
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Who: Written and Directed by Rob Kempson
Featuring Qasim Khan and Hallie Seline
Set and Costume Design by Anna Treusch
Lighting Design by Oz Weaver
Sound Design by Daniel Maslany

When: Wed‐Sat at 8pm, Sun at 2pm

Where: Videofag, 187 Augusta Avenue, Toronto

Tickets: $20 or $15 for Artsworkers/Students. Plus a $10 Halloween ticket treat for Saturday October 31st at 8pm.
Available at shannon1040.bpt.me

Connect with us:

Rob Kempson – @rob_kempson #shannon1040

Brittany Kay – @brittanylkay

In the Greenroom – @intheGreenRoom_

 

*Disclaimer: Please note the editor’s personal involvement in the show has not affected the editing and content of this piece. The views of this interview are that of the interviewer and the subject.

Feb 21

Events We’re Crushin’ On: Everybody to the Theatre Company’s “Theatre on a Theme: Love” – Sunday February 23rd

Interview by Bailey Green

Everybody to the Theatre Company unintentionally greeted me with piano chords and harmonized voices as the cast rehearsed a musical interlude for their upcoming show, Theatre on a Theme: Love. This unique show is EtoTCompany’s second production, following the success of their first show Theatre on a Theme: Failure (September 2013).

“The interesting thing about the theme of love is how much it is related to pain. This show isn’t just a happy stroll through the park, under the stars,” director Drew O’Hara says of his cast. “The company have brought some really personal stuff to the work.” Artistic Director O’Hara founded Everybody to the Theatre Company with several members of his Ryerson acting class. The soon-to-be graduates were looking for a creative outlet and something they could call their own. O’Hara had conceived the idea of constructing a show called “Theatre on a Theme” where new, short plays would be woven into a whole, cohesive performance.

ToaT LOVE PR Photo 5

This winter the company put out its second call for submissions on the theme of “Love”. The plays have to be 5-10 minutes in length and use up to any of the three men and three women of the company (and of course be based around the selected theme). “When the audience watches through the lens of a theme, it allows them to make the connections for themselves,” said director Drew O’Hara. “It gives our audiences a more immediate connection to the actors and to the show. The experience of seeing Theatre on a Theme is more personal.”

Everybody to the Theatre wants to explore the theme of love in all its facets. Though many of the submissions were romantic, and that aspect is not ignored in the performance, O’Hara looked for plays that explored love in many forms. “The goal is that hopefully we’re going to find something for everybody,” said Artistic Producer Jade Douris. “But there are as many different kinds of love as there are people.“

Then something amazing happened when the call for new plays was posted for Theatre on a Theme: Love website. “The submission post went viral in the United States,” O’Hara said. None of the company knew how it had happened. Somehow the call for plays about love made its way into the right hands. Everybody to the Theatre Company was rewarded with almost two hundred plays from LA to New York, from Ohio and Michigan and from Halifax to Texas to Toronto.

Artistic director O’Hara selects the plays for each show by searching for the most unique perspectives, the variety of character or shows that may compliment and contrast each other. “We got so many submissions in the last ten days,” said producer Jade Douris. “Sometimes we just couldn’t cast the show, say a grandmother and grandchild scene, but for the most part it wasn’t easy. We read all of them.”

ToaT LOVE PR Photo 3

Everybody to the Theatre Company’s mandate reflects its name as they focus on bringing theatre to different audiences. Theatre on a Theme searches to find stories from as many different voices as possible. The playwrights range in age from 19-65 and include a past Dora nominee, a graduate of two masters programs, not to mention both experienced and amateur playwrights.

Two members of the company have their own work included in Love. “Owen and I both wrote for this show for the first time,” says Jade Douris pointing to founding member and actor Owen Stahn. Stahn smiles and admits, “Yeah, I’m still pretty self-conscious about that.” They laugh, grin and shift in their chairs.

Not to mention that the company still balances a full semester of theatre school. The collective process can be challenging and the company works hard to knit the plays into a cohesive whole. Honesty is key. “It requires you to bring a lot of passion and energy to rehearsal and risk getting completely rejected by your peers,” O’Hara says of the process. “Most of us learn to let go,” Jade Douris smiles as she teases Owen. Owen mourns for a vignette of his that was cut from Failure, the company’s first production. “By the end of the process, we learned that failure is an absolute part of life and a critical part of growing,” Owen says. “You can escape it, but you can also just embrace it.”

ToaT LOVE PR Photo 1

These intrepid artists have plans for future themes, but plan to adjust them depending on the social climate or what life throws at them. They hope to one day bring their shows to as many audiences as possible. After the performance in Toronto, Theatre on a Theme: Love is travelling to Peterborough to perform at the Theatre on King. Showtime is at 9:30pm, tickets are $15 or $10 if you see The Dumb Waiter, the show performing before theirs.

If you see an Everybody to the Theatre show and think of a theme you would love to see, visit their website and drop them an email. They are always open to hearing suggestions from their audiences.

Theatre on a Theme: Love

Presented by Everybody to the Theatre Company

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When: Sunday February 23rd at 2pm and 8pm
Where: Unit 102 Theatre (376 Dufferin Street)
Tickets: Visit their website: www.everybodytotheatrecompany.com  $10 in advance, $15 at the door.

Everybody to the Theatre Company rehearses in the UCRC Studio. It’s a lovely studio space on Saint Clair West and has great, affordable rental prices, (http://www.uppercanadarep.com/#!rentals/cij8).

Jan 15

A Chat with Sochi Fried on “Stencilboy and Other Portraits” at the Next Stage Theatre Festival

Interview by Ryan Quinn

I had a cup of coffee with Sochi Fried during our lovely Toronto deep freeze to talk about Stencilboy and Other Portraits.

RQ: Would you like to tell me a little bit about the show?

SF: Sure! It’s a new play written by a woman named Susanna Fournier. She’s worked in this city as an actor, she went to National Theatre School as an actor, but she’s also been a playwright for a number of years. This is actually her first play that she started writing in high school. So it’s been a progression of ten years for this play, having it evolve and be influenced by different actors and dramaturgs. It’s the first full production of any of her work, which is really exciting. The play itself has three characters, I play a young woman named Lily who comes from the country to the city (in this world there is only the country and the city). There’s been an economic collapse, and so she’s coming to the city looking to find a very specific painter. He’s the most famous painter in this city and he’s the only state-sanctioned artist due to government cutbacks. She desperately wants to be immortalized in painting, which is what bring her there, but the first guy she meets happens to be a guy named Stencilboy. He’s an underground graffiti artist whose day job is to paint over his own graffiti that he does at night. It’s sort of a triangle between the three of them, and it goes into notions of a young generation pushing an older one out, and what traditional art is, and the value of more transient art.

STENCILBOY_BRANDON-COFFEY-L-SOCHI-FRIED-C-RICHARD-CLARKIN-R-2

Brandon Coffey, Sochi Fried, Richard Clarkin of Stencilboy and Other Portraits

RQ: So it’s this kind of self-reflective “art about art”. What do you think is so important about this kind of theatre?

SF: With any piece of theatre, there’s a certain amount of reflecting of the world around us, and this playwright is writing about what she knows, which makes it vital and energetic. Also, the gender politics of the play are very exciting. It can be really controversial, whether it’s just another old story of a young woman trying to define herself through men. Hopefully that’s not what people take from it, but then again, the question is whether or not we need to see more stories like that. So I guess why it’s important for it to be done is that it raises a lot of questions and goes into some murky, complicated territory in an interesting way. I don’t think it’s perfect in any sense, which is wonderful. It’s gritty, and strange, and it requires something of an audience. That’s always good.

RQ: What do you hope people are thinking about or discussing on the way home?

SF: I hope that they’re discussing the journey of an artist into becoming. Also the rights of an artist, what kind of stories can they appropriate, and who says what you can paint. I hope that they’re discussing what it is that would drive this woman so much to want to be desired in that way and her eventual realization that she doesn’t need that.

Playwright Susanna Fournier

Playwright Susanna Fournier

RQ: Is that what’s so attractive to you about the character of Lily? This desire and this drive?

SF: Totally. She’s aggressive in her energy. She’s very funny. She’s adventurous, ballsy, she has a lot of moxie. She calls people out on their bullshit, but she also has a lot of her own emotional baggage that she’s trying to run away from and it keeps catching up with her. She doesn’t have the skills to deal with that but as the play progresses, the experience she has allows her to grow up.

RQ: Switching gears, for the new year, what are your hopes as an artist or for the artistic community? What would you like to see in Toronto.

SF: I’d like to see more plays by women. I really would. I’d love the independent scene to support more new Canadian work. I find it surprising and frustrating the number of older American plays that keep getting put on. As an artist, I’d love to do more film. I’m also still on the hunt, I think everyone is, for collaborative partners; more really interesting, strong directors, and writers, and actors.

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Sochi Fried as Lily in Stencilboy and Other Portraits

RQ: So this is going on at the Next Stage Theatre Festival. What do you think the importance of festivals are as opposed to singular mounts in this city?

SF: Well, there’s a lot of really interesting work that I’m excited to see at Next Stage this year. A whole array. But, more in general, I think the festivals have become platforms through which plays can be seen by members of the community that have clout or the wherewithal to give them a second life or a third life. So, I think that’s the great advantage. Also it’s in January, where there’s not a lot of work for theatre artists. And there are some strange time restraints to festivals in general which are not conducive to whatever the imagination wants to create, but the restraints can be interesting and force people to get their stories out there.

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Stencilboy and Other Portraits

Written by Susanna Fournier
Directed by Jonathan Seinen
Presented by Paradigm Productions www.paradigmtheatre.com

Where: Factory Studio Theatre
When:
Thu Jan 16 7.45pm
Fri Jan 17 4.45pm
Sat Jan 18 9.15pm
Sun Jan 19 2:45pm
Tickets: 15$ http://fringetoronto.com/next-stage-festival/.

Aug 6

Top Ten Fundraising Tips from Shaina Silver-Baird: Former Marketing Associate for Nightwood Theatre

 Shaina Silver-Baird is a Toronto-based actor, singer/songwriter and budding Marketing savant. This past year she had the opportunity to work with Nightwood Theatre as their Marketing Associate, soliciting donations and promoting productions like The Penelopiad and The Lawyer Show.

How does one even begin to ask for money and donations?  If people don’t have the money to give, should you bother connecting with them? Why do/should people give at all? Shaina breaks down the scary myth about “the ask” and shares her Top Ten Fundraising Tips thus far.

1. Ask for what you want

I think the most important lesson I learned while working as Marketing Associate for Nightwood Theatre was that the best way to get what you want is to ASK FOR EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT! I know – what a novel idea! But it’s a very scary thing to do. Identify exactly what it is you want: the dollar figure; the donation item or the exchange of services, and ask for it. You actually stand a much better chance of getting it when you know specifically what you want. Most importantly, believe that what you’re raising money for is worth it. You are offering an integral artistic service. People want it. People are fascinated by it. Don’t sell yourself short or approach them as if they are doing you a favour. Talk passionately and show them you’re project is worth the investment, and they will believe you.

2. Know your product

Know the show you’re selling inside and out. Know why this project deserves funding over any other project. Ask yourself: What’s important about it? What issues is it addressing? What exactly will the funds go towards? Who is involved? (Do they add credibility?) What are the donation options?

You will need to answer these questions with the utmost confidence and conviction, so know your answers before you pick up the phone or send an email. People want to feel good about their donation. Show them your passion, your conviction and your knowledge and they will have faith that they are investing in something worthwhile.

3. Know your fundraising market

We’ve all been told to consider who our market is when selling tickets to a show, but who are you targeting in your fundraising efforts? Is your audience and your fundraising pool the same market? They may not be.

Therefore, be honest with yourself. Are you looking for money from friends and family, business execs or local businesses? What would entice that specific pool to donate? For example, my fundraising market when organising the silent auction for Nightwood Theatre’s The Lawyer Show 2013 was… you guessed it… lawyers! So I sought out larger ticket items to auction off that they would be interested in and could afford. This included: a wine and cheese tasting, prime Toronto Maple Leafs tickets, a Caribbean resort getaway etc. It was a very successful endeavor because the lawyers (audience and cast members) were excited about the items and the companies donating were excited about the opportunity to publicise to a market of affluent, legal professionals. However, if I was targeting other artists in their 20s, these items would be out of their realistic price range, and companies would be less inclined to donate items with such a high value. I’d try to create multiple opportunities for lots of people to donate smaller amounts such as: soliciting a higher quantity of smaller items they could realistically bid on; do a 50:50 draw; an indiegogo campaign and/or an event with a cover charge.

4. Ask yourself: What makes you different?

With all the companies, artists and organisations out there asking for money, the competition can be daunting. I was lucky to be working for a company that was a registered charity, which was a huge help in pitching to prospective donors. But you can still be successful without that status. Ask yourself: what is different about my project? Who will be genuinely interested in it?

For example, if your play centres around characters of a specific cultural background, sign onto that lovely tool called THE INTERNET and find every organisation, store, restaurant or community centre dedicated to that culture. Draft a donation request letter that’s engaging, professional and honest and send it to all of them. You can ask for money, silent auction donations or the opportunity to buy ad space in your program. Remember, you’re offering them the opportunity to advertise to their target market, assuming your show will draw an audience comprised of that specific cultural group. This can apply to groups with a specific subject of interest as well.

Finally, remember to display postcards in every business or organisation your find that parallels your show’s subject matter. Invite the staff of these businesses and organisations to the first couple shows of your run and hopefully you’ll turn donors into audience members and word-of-mouth promoters.

5. Excel spreadsheets are your best friend

Keep track of every piece of information using excel spreadsheets. Literally. I’m not joking. This includes every single person you’ve contacted; when you contacted them; which channel you used to contact them; who provided you with their contact information; whether they seemed interested and why; what they donated etc. Even if you don’t get a bite from 80% of the people you contact (which you won’t), you’ll build an amazing database for the next time you do a show. And most importantly you’ll stay organised. You’ll know exactly what information you have and what you don’t. This is especially important once you start securing donations, be they cheques or auction items. You don’t want to lose track of those figures. Excel is your partner in crime!

6. Create a database of contacts

This tip follows closely on the heels of # 5! So you’re a new company. You don’t have a lot of contacts or donors. Sweet. Fake it ’til ya make it. All you need is determination and the internet. Highlight who you think will be interested in your company/show, be it businesses or individuals, and collect their contact information. Find emails online or by calling up the company, and make a list serve. And you guessed it: record it in a grand excel document. Then personally address each email when you send out your call for donations. It takes a lot of time but a) people appreciate the personal touch and b) if you’re not willing to put in the few minutes it takes to type their name and kick off with a personal sentence about why you think this donor opportunity is perfect for them… why should they donate?

7. PDF’s are your second best friend

It may seem like a minor detail but send all your official forms and documents as pdf files, not word documents. I like to think most people wouldn’t do this, but word documents allow a second party to change the text of the document when filling it out. PDFs do not.

8. Tap your network

You know more important people than you think and it’s especially easy to get in contact with them using social networking sites. However, I find that doing a mass, impersonal facebook call to action will help you get your mother and your best friend to donate, but not much more. Therefore take the time to message and post to specific people. Many will say no, but the ones who say yes may just do it because they appreciate the personalized effort.

You also know many people with valuable skills. Can you approach them to auction off services or goods? Even better, can you do a trade? For example, what about approaching an emerging photographer to do your show photos in exchange for another service? What about asking your local grocer to donate snacks to your fundraiser instead of donating money? You can offer them an ad in your program in return or the opportunity to display flyers! Be creative!

9. Make sure you have something to offer in return

Businesses are very willing to donate if they think it’ll get them visibility. Therefore, stress the fact that you are getting lots of people in one place, at one time, making your show a prime marketing opportunity! The fact that your show is attracting an audience gives you power and something to offer. Use it to your advantage! It’s a trade: you get money – they get an ad where hundreds of people will see it. You get an item to auction off – they get visibility and the opportunity to get people excited about their product. Again: It’s a trade-off. You’re not begging.

10. Set solid deadlines for yourself… and then be flexible

It’s important to set deadlines for yourself so you know exactly how long you have to raise funds. Always plan for a bit of cushion time after these deadlines, so setting them a week earlier than they actually need to be is a good idea. Everyone is busy and inundated with emails, so getting in touch with people can take a while. Start soliciting months in advance so you can follow up multiple times if people don’t get back to you.

Make sure the due date for receiving donations is clear in your donation requests. Ideally, people will honour that deadline and it’ll force them to get their donations to you in a timely fashion. There will always be people who come through last minute, but a deadline will help you keep the latecomers to a minimum. I was accepting my last auction item for The Lawyer Show the day of the auction, but I would suggest avoiding this if possible – simply for your own sanity.

… 11. Most importantly have fun! And good luck fundraising!

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