Carnival Seattle

August 8 Meeting With Melanie Matthews - Empty Space
Greetings and Salutations to one and all!
We are organizing a fun-raising (and fundraising) party for Carnival season 2006.
Empty Space Theatre will be the recipient of most of the funds raised by this event. (click on blue links to view)
On Monday August 8, Matt Hanson, Jessica Hale, and I met with Melanie Matthews, Managing Director of Empty Space to discuss a fun list of thoughts on how to breathe life into this event and sprinkle magic dust on it. We talked about our initial contact with Empty Space's Steve Gelatro, the former Executive Director who Melanie replaced only last month. In our initial contact with Steve in April, there was an expectation created that ES was launching a summer youth drama immersion/camp/educational program in 2005. Melanie reviewed some of the reasons this hasn't materialized -
- the perception that if you're going to send your 13-year-old to such a program, maybe
        Seattle Children's Theatre or the Bathouse Theatre program are already
        established, and well-done.
- since ES produces mostly fare oriented toward adults, consisting of new works and
     celebrating life's compexities, the jump to doing theatre education might be a great one
- theatre education for youth is often driven by educational grants, which ES hasn't received
- theatre education for youth has potential for developing a younger audience long-haul,
   but the short-term benefits may not be great. ES's audience is loyal, but getting older.
- ES's budget has been further reduced to overcome the cash-crisis that hit last year,
and it is important to work on keeping the theatre alive.    Hence...
    A $20,000 contribution from CTR is a BIG DEAL for ES's survival.

EMPTY SPACE MISSION/VISION STATEMENT:
"The Empty Space Theatre strives to make theatre an event -
Bold, Provocative, Celebratory
- bringing audiences and artists to a common ground
through an Uncommon Experience."

SHORT TERM STEPS:
1) Columbia Tower Rotary will host a party/reception from 5 - 7 p.m. on September 14.
This replaces CTR's regular Wednesday meeting.
2) Bizgroup.biz, a networking group comprising numerous volunteers who have worked on past Mardi Gras fundraisers, will also host a social the same night at the same time. This draws potential volunteers into the Empty Space and gives them a feel for the Empty Space program - now in its 25th season in Seattle.
3) Columbia Tower Rotary will organize a Theatre Night on Wednesday, September 21, Opening Night of the ES production "FROZEN". We will have a limit of 30 tickets, to give season subscription holders a fair opportunity to experience opening night.
4) We are committed to selling $1000 in business sponsorships by the end of August - it is important to begin work on mock-ups of posters, flyers, mailings, etc. immediately.
5) Carnival Gala Event - February 19, 6-12 p.m. This event will resemble the Mardi Gras Gala events of years past in many ways, with some significant differences:
- new interactive entertainment rotated-in
- Carnival theme will shift the music and decoration to "latin" and possibly "Caribbean-Cuban-Brazillian" and connects more to the historic origin: Carnival Venice over 800 years old.
- We will work to devise ways to flow people through the event by using entertainment "peaks" in one area, then the next, of the labyrinth of rooms at the Columbia Tower Club. Ultimately we want to have a "peak" in the largest space on the 76th floor just before a 30-minute live auction.
- We will employ a live auctioneer/consultant
- Ticket sales will be driven by advertising, paid for by business sponsors A budget of $5000+ is required.
6) Ticket reservations for the September 21 Opening Night will be accepted with an accompanying check ($30 per ticket) at the Columbia Tower Rotary meeting August 10.

IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS PLEASE POST THEM TO THIS BLOG

Current Mood: bouncy

Advertisement