Tuesday, May 4, 2010

what would it take?

Fellow traveller RVCBard asks (re: a new production endeavor):
What it would take for you to part with $1-$99?

You read that right. I'm accepting at most double-digit donations from individuals. More than that, without official non-profit status, just makes me antsy.

Really, what needs to happen to get you to help put this show on stage?
  • You need tickets? You do realize I was going to set some of those aside for you anyway, right?
  • Want your name on something? We can put it on the playbill.
  • The good seats? C'mon. You'll more than likely be sitting on a folding chair. But if it means that much to you, we can put you in the front row.
  • Early bird or latecomer specials? There's only one night - 4 hours of theatre - so there's only one chance to see it.
  • Advertise your stuff at our show - but that almost goes without saying.
So, let's do it. What would it take for you to help make this happen?
As fellow scroungers, we’ll going to resist the all-too-common urge to see another starving artists with their hands held out as competition and instead embrace the camaraderie. It’s a new Great Depression, after all.

So: what would make us part with less than a hundred dollars?

Characters named after us in the plays.
Yes, it would be awkward (it’s pronounced coy-tic, in case you were wondering), but if the patrons of yore could insert themselves into canvases to please their vanity, we can resurrect this tradition. We’re nothing if not traditional. (Bonus: COItc sounds like “coital”, and we’ve five.)

Table service.
Eff front row seats. I want alcohol served to my row, at the climactic height of the piece, simply because I can. (cf. every ostentatious dining experience in the history of the world.)

Okay, seriously -- if over-optimistically, some thoughts:

Cash -- like rehearsal space, like postcards -- is a production resource; and (somewhat paradoxically) like other resources, when collectivized it becomes cheaper to obtain. We would gladly front the capital for your project if down the line the favor was returned. Just as you’re not asking for us to underwrite your entire production, we wouldn’t ask anything close in return. But it would be nice if a block of cash sat with you when you needed it, and then came over to us when we needed it, only to be passed forward when the next group needed it. A bit Utopian? Yes. Do I sound like a moron? Probably.

We’d love a shout out in your programs and some audience members in the form of your participating playwrights.

(And junior mints. I love junior mints.)

1 comment:

  1. Cash -- like rehearsal space, like postcards -- is a production resource; and (somewhat paradoxically) like other resources, when collectivized it becomes cheaper to obtain. We would gladly front the capital for your project if down the line the favor was returned. Just as you’re not asking for us to underwrite your entire production, we wouldn’t ask anything close in return. But it would be nice if a block of cash sat with you when you needed it, and then came over to us when we needed it, only to be passed forward when the next group needed it. A bit Utopian? Yes. Do I sound like a moron? Probably.

    I dunno. I think it could work if you set it up right (ie, how to raise the money to keep the project going). The thing you're talking about sounds like the beginnings of an umbrella organization sort of like Fractured Atlas, but with a conglomerate of participants instead of one project or company.

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