Arts Activities Support

45% of the young actors were new to Young Artists Initiative. This was very close to our target goal of 50%, a remarkable achievement due to the audition-based nature of the experience. We did receive 5% critical feedback for how we can improve, particularly in the area of actor's musical development. We also increased our audiences by 50%, well above the target goal of 15%. Our primary artistic goal is to give young performers an artistic learning opportunity that goes beyond simply putting together a performance. We achieved this with an amazing artistic team that really put young people at the fore of the work. Comments from young people and families alike spoke to the community building that occurred during the process and the sense of honoring the value of the kids they experienced. Each actor played at least two or three roles in the production, and as such had multiple costumes. This influenced the overall size of the cast, due to budget restrictions. Interestingly, we also had a number of young people who dropped from the production after being offered roles. This is always a challenge with an audition-based show, as some actors are only wanting specific parts. One particular story is in regards to the girl who played Ariel in the production. She was from Mankato, Minnesota, and her mother is a teacher. She expressed a little skepticism that Young Artists Initiative could deliver on the level of quality as such a small organization, especially after attending our parent meeting at the beginning of the rehearsal process. Checking in with her over the course of the production, I was able to learn that she was incredibly impressed and proud to be a part of the organization. Her husband volunteered countless hours of driving and set-building time. The artistic team really delivered an amazing final production. The performance's colors in lights, sound, and the scale of the set were unprecedented for a Young Artists Initiative show. This was the first time we were able to realize a false proscenium. As mentioned before, actors had multiple costume changes, and audiences continually complimented on them after performances. The final goal was to deliver an outstanding artistic experience for our the audience, and the record-setting attendance we had spoke to much of the word-of-mouth "advertising" that occurred from audience members who came to see these young people perform. Many audience members came to multiple performances because they enjoyed it so much. One even commented that they enjoyed the production even more than when they had seen a professional production performed in town in 2015. Our artistic team was really the key to this experience, and it was a little tight with staffing, due to the inability early on to find a suitable director. We have entertained the idea of beginning our season staffing process even earlier, to ensure we have access to the best available adult talent to work with our young people. It is my hope that we can work with each of these artists again in the future, and even invite some leadership opportunities with the organization. We are also building our capacity for volunteers, and trying to recruit from some of the new families that joined us on this production. Our first goal was to have 50% of our young artists new to Young Artists Initiative programming and describe personal growth. We had 10 of 22 participants new to the program (45%), so we almost reached that goal. We were surprised by the lack of turnout for male performers. We had a wide geographic range of participants as well, with the longest distance being an actor from the Mankato area. We were glad to have additional actors of color — and in fact all three were new to the organization. This is still an area of growth for us, and we are looking at deliberate programming efforts to push into school within one mile of our rehearsal space. Actors' feedback on their evaluations during this project were not as insightful as we have seen in the past. This could be due to the younger demographic that participated. Families' evaluations were also supportive, but offered less specific detail. One piece families spoke to specifically was a dislike of our attempt to better meet evening family needs by adjusting rehearsals; they preferred a consistent time each day of the week. As for our audiences, we exceeded our goals in this area. We grew our audience by 50% over last year. We believe it is due to the popularity of THE LITTLE MERMAID as a story. Even as a theater organization that provides programming for young actors, we were surprised by the number of small children who were in attendance, given that the show was a full two hours and twenty minutes long. All parents described the show as completely engaging for these young people. We also felt like our audience demographics in this production better reflected our community as a whole. We would still like to better reach audience members who utilize our ASL interpretation, as turnout was very low. Audience surveys were small in turnout, but highlights included positive feedback on the costume design in particular. One additional data point to note was that 50% of our adult artistic team members were new to the organization. The opportunities that Young Artists Initiative provides emerging artists who are just beginning their careers in the Twin Cities is something we are proud of. The fact that we also bring back artists year after year who are interested in working with our organization again also speaks to the quality experience they have. Young Artists Initiative always conducts an all-staff debrief and shares audience and actor/family feedback with the team for their personal development and growth as well. This is also an opportunity for us to hear from our artists about how we can improve.