Arts Activities Support

1375 people attended The Christians, earning $19,376 in individual ticket sales. The audience was strongly moved to respond to the production and the ideas behind it through post-show discussions totaling 100 people, nightly lobby conversations with company members, written correspondence in emails and lobby post-it displays, and more press reviews than any previous show. Did you achieve your artistic goals? We realize that these reports are usually quite effusive and positive but truly, this was one of our strongest productions ever. At a rudimentary level, we did the project as outlined: we presented all performances when and how we said we’d present them. Easy enough. For our goal to “Create a compelling, visually stunning theatrical work that is fun to watch and perform,” we can report success. Audiences responded passionately, some moved to tears, many moved to discussion, and more than I can count sought us out after the show to share their responses. Responses like: “I feel like all good theater is like church, right, it sort of gets you in the head and the guts at the same time and it connects you to the thread of spirit/god/energy that runs through the whole universe…. Congratulations and thanks for that amazing production.” –Audience member. Similarly, the press for this show was stunningly positive and effusive, more so than any other show we can remember. “Oh, Lord, does this play ever make me uncomfortable. I mean that in a good way.” –Eric Ringham, MPR News. Our next goal was to “Explore the play’s themes by focusing on relatable characters in compelling situations.” Since the script itself laid this all out beautifully with multidimensional and clearly written characters, this was an easy goal to meet. And we had great performers on staff to execute it beautifully. To meet our third goal to “Provoke thought and discussion, and provide our community with opportunities for discussion” we utilized the oft-repeated line within the script, “I have a powerful urge to communicate, but I find the distance between us insurmountable,” the cast and crew had a rallying cry to foster conversation with the audience. Furthering the conversation, a neatly even 100 audience members stayed for three energetic, considerate, and involved post-show discussions. For those who wanted to share their thoughts in a non-public way, we posed questions on posters in the lobby and audience members chimed in via Post-it note. What worked? What didn’t work? What were the strengths/challenges of your artistic process? The script required the use of wired microphones for all the actors, justified to the audience by the in-church scenes, but more curious when the story moved to a private office and a bedroom. We integrated them into rehearsal early so we avoid tangling cords, but also to make sure the actors would be constantly aware of the limits of gesturing with one hand, and the way the amplification would impact their performance. One quirk of casting was finding out that all of the actors had a very strong connection to faith, and were brought their experiences and history to bear in the rehearsal room. What, if anything, would you do differently? We would have tried sooner to engage a choir. Our eventual strategy was a nail-biter and probably took a month or two off the director’s life expectancy. Did you successfully reach your intended community (i.e. audience, participants, artists, etc.)? If not, why? Oh absolutely- we served all the artists mentioned, and based on their responses, this was an incredibly special show to them. None of these actors worked with Walking Shadow before, and only one of them worked with the director before (with DalekoArts of New Prague). All of our actors had a very strong connection to something spiritual in their personal history, and this show resonated with them in a very strong way, and we think it only lent strength to their performances. Our lead actor, playing Pastor Paul, was new to town and found this to be a tremendous introduction to Twin Cities stages. Several reviews (and more audience members than we can count) responded with a stunned, “Where did HE come from?!” Both of the actresses in the show were surprised to be called in to audition, considering themselves to be comic and character actresses, suddenly asked to do some deeply soul-searching drama (at which they excelled). And both were thrilled and honored (their words, not mine) to be allowed to stretch their own limits in a different kind of role. Audience-wise, we had 1375 attendees, almost double our budgeted attendance. This show was a tremendous success for us. Did your outreach efforts result in community diversity? If not, what would you do differently in the future? We did an audience survey (with an unheard-of 62% response rate) and based on the demographics we regularly measure, this audience was as diverse as ours usually are in terms of gender identity, sexual orientation, age, income, and disability. We remain not particularly diverse in audience’s race/ethnicity. One of the five actors was an artist of color, as were 2 of 9 choir members. We know that casting more artists of color is critical to reflect our community, and increase the diversity in our audience. In what ways did you meet your goals for making your project open and accessible to all who might wish to participate? We did everything we spelled out in our application, much of it in thanks to Mixed Blood’s recent efforts to make their space more accessible. We did two performances of ASL interpretation (one without ASL patrons, another with 2), and two of AD interpretation (6 total). One of the AD performances encountered significant problems with the borrowed equipment. After the performance one user said, “The AD didn’t work but the play hit home nonetheless. I want to make a donation.” Lucky for us, the power of this show was more auditory than visual! Incredibly close to our estimate of 230 tickets, we gave away 223 comp tickets. 218 people enjoyed major discounts (student, military, pay what you can) – about the number we estimated, but a smaller percentage of the audience because of the increased number of people who paid full price.