Busy, busy, busy day today. I had a lot of meetings, some of which I enjoyed more than others. One that gave me cause for optimism was a planning meeting for a show we will be developing and co-producing to be staged in September 2010. As part of this partnership we provide rehearsal and performance space as well as design services and facilities. The other organization is creating the performance. One of the things that encouraged me was that they held an intimate fund raising event with only 20 invited and raised a fairly respectable amount toward development costs. (I was also happy that we had the meeting because I was able to remind him about an impending grant deadline.) This is a good sign that in these financially troubled times, people are still willing to provide support for a project.
Most of the conversation revolved around set design. Since we are hoping the show will do a little touring, trying to get a preliminary idea of how to create something that was light enough to travel, strong enough to bear weight and durable enough to be reconstructed frequently monopolized a bit of time. This is one of the aspects of my job from which I gain satisfaction. I may be the administrator guy but the dynamics are such that I feel I can run around making suggestions about materials and design and not have the designers and artists look at me with disdain for treading upon their territory. It won’t be long before the project progresses to the point my insights have little value, but I enjoy the fact that I have enough expertise to have my suggestions valued.
The guy with whom we are partnering is doing some amazing cultural exchanges via his company with Japanese groups and has started making contacts in Korea. In addition, he is often asked to participate in cultural exchanges and projects with the Inupiat and Yupik people of Alaska. His interactions with these two latter groups are going to inform the content of the show we are developing. So I am sitting there thinking, why the heck isn’t more funding going his way? He is developing some really vibrant new works that are culturally respectful and have a fairly wide general appeal. I know we will sell out so I need to make sure we don’t limit the number of performances we can do like we did on the last project we produced.
He isn’t reticent about promoting his projects and he sits on a lot of grant panels so he has a pretty good idea how to make a persuasive case. I mean, until today I had no familiarity with the Inupiat and Yupik. I have to say, I want to learn a little more about them because this guy got me excited about the cultural elements he intends to integrate into the work. The tech director and musical director are pretty excited about these elements too. As I am writing this, it strikes me that maybe he isn’t getting more funding because no one is writing letters in support of his grant that say he has made them excited to learn a little more about Eskimo cultural practices–and this is for a show that has nothing to do with Eskimos.
I am already pointing him to some of the grants I listed last week. Maybe I need to offer to write a letter talking about how impressed with his cross-cultural work I am and how it makes me want to learn. This guy is worth funding.