To our dear Bard-a-thon readers, volunteers, and sponsors...

A note from the staff and leadership at NC Stage.

I can’t express my appreciation enough to those people who choose to help NC Stage achieve its mission of creating professional theatre and education programming that affects people. At NC Stage we believe, we know, that theatre can be life changing.  Plays show us the unfamiliar and make it relevant, and they show us the familiar and make it new. Theatre can also help us grapple with the big questions—religion, politics, existence.  We do not pretend to offer answers; instead, plays can be a catalyst to discussion and exploration.  And when theatre is used as an educational tool, students are given access to a rich world of imagination, collaboration and creativity that serves them beyond school and helps them synthesize the raw facts and figures taught in core subjects.

Theatre is about telling a story and telling a story is what the world uses to understand the world.  So we’re very thankful to have been a part of the creative landscape in Asheville over the past 10 years.  When you buy a ticket or make a donation -- be it time or money -- to NC Stage, you become a part of this process of growth in our community and create value in the cultural, economic, social and educational life of Asheville and make the world just that much better. 

We thank you for your continued support over the last 10 years and look forward to another 10, 20, 30 years with you!

- Charlie

P.S. - Care to donate? Use this link!

Bard-a-thon Fundraising Tips

The Bard-a-thon is quickly approaching (THIS WEEKEND!), so as the top individual fundraiser in the 2^nd annual Bard-a-thon (2009), I have some tips for y’all…

• Who to contact: friends and family (near and far), co-workers, teachers, mentors…  really anyone you think might give money, even a couple bucks.  The worst someone can tell you is no.  We do recommend going to individuals rather than businesses.

• Tell them (briefly) what the Bard-a-thon is and WHY YOU’RE PARTICIPATING:  This is key.  This makes it a personal appeal.  Even if it’s simply, “I haven’t read aloud since I was 15 and it seems like a good time,” it gives it a nice touch.  If you want to throw in something about how important theatre/reading/Shakespeare/NC Stage is to you, go for it.  We are kicking off the Bard-a-thon on the eve of National Arts and Humanities Month, after all.

• State your fundraising goal.  If your goal is $200 and you’re sending your email appeal to 20 people, it makes it easy for them to see their place as a piece in the fundraising puzzle.  (Then, when you get a response saying they’ll give, THANK THEM INDIVIDUALLY.  They’ll be more likely to help you out again in the future.)

• Mention which plays and parts you’ll be reading.  Tell them what time the plays you’re in begin (all plays have a designated start time), and that they can watch in person at NC Stage or online - give them the link! - fo FREE.

• If you’re in it for prizes, mention that… but perhaps less bluntly than “I’m in this to win prizes, so give me your money.”  Friends like helping friends win things, ‘cause sometimes they share.  (Or if they don’t share, they feel a need to reciprocate that assistance in some other capacity in the future.)

In my experience, it’s good to email early (now-ish) and then right before the Bard-a-thon kicks off (Friday afternoon), reminding them they can watch AND donate throughout the weekend.  Oh yeah! Tell ‘em viewers can win prizes too!

See you soon!

-Lauren

Monday Update: Bard-a-thon, 'Angels' (For)Play

We've finished the Bard-a-thon and 'twas a smashing success. We surpassed our fundraising goal by over 30%! Thanks go out to all donors, viewers - both physical and virtual - and, of course, participants. We'll have more info up later in the week once we get through some number crunching and tallying, and we'll also have another blog post this week with some personal stories from folks involved in Angels. Some hosts and participants from the Bard-a-thon are cast members from Angels, and you can see and hear them read again very soon...

If you haven't had your fill of hearing plays read aloud this weekend, TONIGHT, Monday, September 13 is the first (For)Play reading of the 2010-2011 Season! Come hear the cast of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches read this epic play at 6 PM in the Carol Belk Theatre on the UNC-Asheville campus. We hope to see you there!

So you've never been to a (For)Play reading? Here's the deal: The (For)Play Series is a series of free readings of our Mainstage plays before rehearsals begin. If you enjoy watching the artistic process unfold, we encourage you to come to this initial reading and then buy a ticket to see the fully realized production. For an even more in-depth look, buy a copy of the script at Malaprop's Bookstore, which is stocking all of NC Stage's plays this season.

A letter to our Bard-a-thon participants

Hey there Bard-a-thon readers/fund raisers!

I wanted to check in with you and say thanks for helping us with this unique and grueling fund raiser for NC Stage. I also want to tell you that we still have some interesting roles available for reading (come on! 4am Titus everyone! It’s gonna raaawk!) so here’s a link to a google doc for info on still available roles. Feel free to send it to anyone you know who might be interested in participating.

Some cool things happening around the event:

I’m setting up a Livestream.com channel for NC Stage and, like last year, the Bard-a-lution will not be televised, but it will be streamed live over the interweb. But, unlike last year, more people will be able to watch at one time and you can also chat with other viewers in real time about what’s going on.

For those of you who do the tweets, I’ll be setting up a live feed from my TweetDeck and I’ve started a hashtag, #bardathon, to track any comments that come through. I’ll have the laptop hooked up to the projector and we can see any tweets that pop up regarding the Bardathon. So feel free to bring your phones, laptops, etc. and join in all the interconnected twittering fun. Come follow us on Twitter at @ncstage

Now to the core matter of this exercise: Raising money!!!

Since this is a fundraiser I thought I’d start a little check in process for all of us to share successes, challenges, tips, etc. as we go around asking our friends, families, stranger to sponsor us. So this letter will be posted on the NC Stage blog and we can all use the comments section to communicate with each other about advice or tips or updates.

First off I hope you are aware of the absolutely fantastic prizes that have been donated for the various categories of highest funds raised. If not, check them out here

Our goal is to raise over $7,000. So let’s do a little math. There are 26 participants so far in this year’s Bard-a-thon. Each participant would need to raise $270 for us to reach that goal. If each person got 14 sponsors at $20 each the goal would be met.

So, you get the idea, right? You can break it apart any way you like but the point is, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

So you can ask people who will sponsor because they know you. Or you can appeal to someone’s philanthropic nature in general or because they like theatre, the arts or NC Stage in particular. If you’re in need of some talking poins for NC Stage, consider this: NC Stage is a professional, not for profit, 501(c)3 theatre; Contributions are tax deductible; We’ve produced over 30 productions and hired more than 300 artists; Our education program, Stages, has reached over 15,000 students in WNC with residencies and student performances covering subjects from Shakespeare to geometry!; NC Stage has donated thousands of dollars worth of tickets for local charity fundraisers for groups like WNCAP, MANNA Food Bank, YWCA of Asheville, The Mediation Center and Rotary Club of Asheville, , and NC Stage supports other local theatres every year with $14,000 of its own money through the Catalyst Series.

So that’s just a little update and check in. Hope you’ll join me on the blog and thanks again for helping NC Stage with this. It’s a rough time out there but with your help we’ll be able to start things off really well this year.

Charlie