July 1, 2002
To: Town & Gown Board of Directors
From: Ben Teague
Report of the 50th Anniversary Planning Committee
Note: This online version of the report does not include surnames. If you don't know them, check your Envoy.
The committee met on June 15. John V., Fran T., Amy M., Harriet A. and Ben T. were present. The committee head wishes to remark that the noise level inside Big City Bread makes an extended discussion impossible.
There is a prospect that John will serve as Second Stage Coordinator for 2003; his continuing in the post would make it easier to maintain close contacts between our committee and the season programming effort. Among the projects John is considering is a collaboration with the university's Center for the Humanities and Arts, which has supported Town & Gown events.
In response to discussion at the June board meeting, the committee recommends to the board that Marie B., the nominee for vice-president in 2003, be asked to set up a provisional play-reading committee now, instead of a separate advisory committee, in order to get an early start toward compiling a list of candidate Mainstage titles.
Ben will create a press release seeking contact information for Town & Gown alumni. The release will go to newspapers and magazines throughout Georgia. Harriet offers the use of school video equipment and the services of her pupils to assist with the interview project. The "Town & Gown at 50" logo is no further along than last month.
Amy is exploring sponsorships. She needs a definite T&G commitment to sponsorship packages or levels that she can promote. The present levels and titles for individual donors are not being used in fundraising or development and could well be replaced by new ones. T&G should be prepared to discuss the use of sponsors' names and images on our posters, programs, letterhead and other materials for the 2003-4 season, and also beyond that time, but a continuing effort along this line would call for a board-level development person.
Against an October 1 filing deadline, Fran is writing an application to the Georgia Humanities Council (GHC) to fund (1) a researcher to collaborate with Florence, Harriet and John in sorting out our archives and creating a "finding aid"; (2) traveling exhibits based on photos, mementoes and so forth, and purchase of equipment to house such exhibits; (3) a series of First Matinee Meetings, post-show seminars led by university and community experts. GHC expects grant recipients to match funding, either in money or in kind, and our contributions to these programs would include services donated by our archivists, materials for exhibits, contact work with exhibit venues, and services donated by the discussion leaders. In addition to their functions during the anniversary season, all three programs would become legacies to future T&G members: better access to archival materials, historical awareness, an inventory of cases and other equipment for exhibits, and a First Matinee tradition enabling us to keep reaching out into local communities (including the growing population of area retirement homes).
Fran also wants us to exploit our history with the university's drama department by co-promoting an event there. For example, the department might wish to set up a campus/theater visit and public lecture by a noted writer on community theater such as Leah Cohen ("Stuff of Dreams"). The committee urged Fran to pursue this idea. Town & Gown would not offer to pay for such an event but would help to publicize and execute it.
The notion of a special "homecoming" grant is not clear enough to work on now. At our previous meeting, the committee talked about seeking money to bring back a T&G alumnus or alumna, now working in professional theater or having some other cachet, who could give a special-topic workshop here in conjunction with our fiftieth anniversary. Many names have been put forward, but the substance and justification of such an event are not strong enough at this point to base a proposal or grant application on them. We will, however, keep this idea in play.
The committee notes that C-Day ("C" for Curtain!), March 30, 2004, falls before Passover (beginning April 6) and Easter (April 11). Spring Break comes earlier that year (March 8-12).
The committee does not plan to meet again until after Lettice & Lovage closes in September. We expect to have updates for the board between now and then.
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