As the competition gets stronger, we know that all our applicants need to bring their "A Game" to the table. As such, we are trying to put as many tools and resources into your hands as possible. This year there are two workshops for grant-writing assistance. One is December 12th at 10 AM, and the other is December 17th at 6 PM.
Another great tool is being able to see what your peers did, especially when they were successful! I am posting here the answers to the "narrative" section of the applications by three applicants who were awarded funding last year. There is one example from each category of Grants to Organizations, Special Projects and Programs and Individual Artist Projects. I hope this helps.
Many wishes of success to all of you as you seek funding for the 2016 creative year!
Examples
Grants To Organizations: (Mudlark Theater)
1. What are your organization’ss artistic goals and how will
they impact the Evanston community?
RAISING THE BAR As a rule, the general public expects little
of children's theater. Since its founding in 2005, Mudlark's goal has been to
raise that expectation and keep it there. By holding children to a higher
standard and empowering them to make strong artistic choices, we create the
possibility for great theater-vibrant, funny, compelling shows that erase the
boundary between youth and professional theater. Our work gives children a
platform for their ideas and their talents, adding their voices to the public
discourse. ALL ORIGINAL MATERIAL As of February 2015, Mudlark will no longer
produce published plays; we will stage original adaptations and world premieres
exclusively. Since 2010, our in-house playwrights have been identifying great
pieces of literature in the public domain and crafting scripts tailored
specifically to our population. Stories that have received the Mudlark
treatment include Shakespearean comedies, Greek tragedies, Ojibwe folktales,
and novels by Lewis Carroll, Louisa May Alcott, Franz Kafka, and Mary Shelley.
In adapting and staging these works, we bring great literature to life for
actors and audiences alike. INCREASED REACH In addition to expanding Mudlark's
after-school drama programs, we are now piloting in-school residency programs
in order to achieve a deeper impact on a more diverse population. (A CPS
residency is scheduled for winter 2015, and we are in talks with Evanston
schools as well.) CREATIVE ASSESSMENT Mudlark will continue to use creative
assessment methods to measure our impact on program participants, as performers
and as people. FINDING NEW SPACES This year we are exploring a range of
Evanston performance venues that will help us to boost audience and visibility.
2. What programs do you have planned for the 2015-2016
season?
PRODUCTIONS Mudlark productions take place in a variety of
Evanston venues and are fully produced theatrical events with professionally
designed sets, lighting, and sound. Every play we produce is either written
specifically for-or devised in collaboration with-our actors. Our 2015
offerings include: Mudpie 2015 (March 2015) An Evanston institution, Mudpie
takes the stories, poems, and reflections of local kids and adapts them into an
electrifying, one-of-a-kind theater experience. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
(April 2015) Aesop's Fables (May 2015) Pride and Prejudice (May 2015) Romeo and
Juliet (July 2015) Looking forward, possible 2015-2016 shows include a new
adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; a modern retelling of
the Grimm tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses; and a new play based on the real
lives of female spies in World War II. AFTER SCHOOL CLASSES Twelve public
schools and four private schools now host Mudlark programs (primarily in
Evanston) provided at modest fees and with scholarships available. Enrollment
in our after-school programs has grown tremendously since we launched four
years ago. MUDPIE WRITING WORKSHOPS Most of the creative writing pieces that
make up Mudpie (described above) come from our after-school writing workshops,
made possible through collaboration with local public schools and Y.O.U., a
youth development agency. The workshops are designed to give underprivileged
kids the structure and encouragement they need to write freely, from their
imagination and experience. And those whose pieces are selected for the show
get the added thrill of seeing their words come to life onstage. SUMMER CAMP In
the summer of 2015, we are slated to offer 15 separate camps for kids ages
7-14. Our camps geared toward middle schoolers include improv, playwriting,
prop design, and clowning, plus three performance-based projects: Sketch
Comedy, Fake News Show, and an outdoor production.
3. How is your organization managed? How do the
qualifications and make up of your board and staff increase your effectiveness
as an organization?
Mudlark has two full-time staff members (Executive Director
Michael Miro and Artistic Director Andrew Biliter, both alumni of Evanston
Township High School), plus part-time Education Director Christina Lepri and
part-time Office Manager Laurie Ortega-Murphy (an "alumna" of
Mudlark). Our seven-member board of directors includes educators, attorneys,
consultants, entrepreneurs, and a Sun-Times columnist. Mudlark is growing fast,
and is determined to continue to build capacity. Mudlark has been in the black
since its beginning, and we have successfully built a very healthy earned
revenue stream: play revenue (ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships) and
program participation fees totaled almost 70% of our total revenue of $240,919
in 2014. Current management objectives include: 1) Maintain our comprehensive
roster of programs at their current level. 2) Ensure high-quality program
management by increasing salaries and stipends. We recently increased the
workload and compensation of our part-time Education Director and also hired a
part-time Office Manager to start 2015. We've also instituted modest raises to
both Executive and Artistic Director salaries. 3) Continue strengthening our
Board of Directors and encouraging a learning culture where board members
routinely attend workshops and seminars. 4) Secure 2-3 new major donors in
2015.
4. Who is your target audience?
As a working theater and a theatrical training organization,
Mudlark's audience includes both participants and the theatergoing public.
PARTICIPANTS Collectively, our programs serve a wide age range (6 to 18), and
we strive to ensure that our participant base reflects the racial and
socioeconomic diversity of Evanston as a whole. We are trying to reach parents
and kids looking for enriching theater arts experiences outside of the school
day. We are there to meet all levels of interest, from those seeking a basic
introduction to the performing arts, to kids who want the challenge and
responsibility of being part of a professional-level show. AUDIENCES Our
productions are aimed at the community at large (not just the parents and
friends of the actors) and are designed to be entertaining to audiences young
and old. Our audience is anyone who loves theater, and especially anyone who
comes in the door with low expectations.
5. How does your organization positively impact Evanston
(especially underserved communities)?
In 2014... 155 young people participated in Mudlark
productions. In addition to acting experience and training, the impact of being
in a Mudlark production includes higher confidence, social-emotional
development, a sense of personal responsibility, and a chance to interact with
great literature outside the classroom. Of the children who participated in
these shows, 15% did so at a zero or reduced fee courtesy of our scholarship
program. The casts we select reflect Evanston's diversity, with approximately
30% of participants coming from families of color. Our fall show, Name of the
Game, was a devised play about identity and difference, created in
collaboration with a highly diverse group of young actors, and presented in
connection with the national exhibition Race: Are We So Different? 673 young
people participated in on-site school programs. In our drama clubs, they
learned the basics of voice, movement, improvisation, and collaboration. In our
Mudpie writing workshops, offered through a partnership with Y.O.U. and
District 65 after-care programs, they learned to trust their creative impulses
and share their reflections through writing. The workshops and most of the
drama clubs are hosted at District 65 schools. D65 serves a population in which
39% of students come from low-income families, and 56% are children of color.
Our school-based programs, for which we offer unconditional full and partial
scholarships upon request, also reflect this diversity. In addition, 280 young
people participated in our summer camps (10% on scholarship), 4,445 audience
members came to our shows, and 150 volunteers lent a hand. All told, Mudlark's
constituencies in 2014 totaled 5,703-an increase of 351% from 2010. In 2015, we
anticipate reaching almost 1,500 young people. Mudlark is proud to be working
with our community's young people, who are deeply invested in issues of
identity, social justice, divisions of class and race, and the radical role of
the imagination.
6. Why you are requesting a grant and how the funds will be
used?
Funding will provide
essential operating support to Mudlark Theater Company's 2015-2016 season. In
order to keep increasing our reach while maintaining our commitment to
high-quality shows and training, Mudlark must build capacity on a number of
fronts. Adding shows and classes to our lineup means renting more classroom and
rehearsal space. It also means renting more-and larger-performance venues, and
the cost of tech personnel, lighting, building supplies, costumes, and props increases
along with that. As our roster of on-site school programs grows, we need
funding to attract and keep the best possible teaching artists, and to
compensate our Educational Director for the increased administrative burden.
Overall, funding from the Evanston Arts Council will help Mudlark realize its
grand ambition: producing all original material that redefines the genre of
youth theater by raising audience expectations of what children can achieve on
stage.
Special Projects and Programs: (Pride Films and Plays)
1. What are the artistic goals of your project and how will
they impact the Evanston community?
This project brings an affecting and memorable story of gay
Midwestern history to Evanston. With critical extra funding from the EAC, the
award-winning Pride Films & Plays (PFP) can produce a new play at Piccolo
Theatre in January 2016. With 16 performances, $10 House will bring hundreds of
theatre-goers to Main Street. Depending on the staging, we expect to have 800
tickets to sell. The four-week run gives Chicago-area theatre critics time to
review the production. Evanston writers Rick Kinnebrew and Martha Meyer developed
$10 House with PFP through staged readings in Wisconsin, Chicago and Evanston.
In this timely love story, a snobby decorator falls in love with his handyman
as they restore a rock cottage. Their work in historic preservation actually
saved their town-true story. The play premieres this year at Broom Street
Theatre in Madison, and was a finalist for 2015 New Works Festival at St.
Paul's History Theater. By collaborating with Piccolo, we gain a terrific
location at a well-trafficked gateway to Evanston. This unique venue is
accessible in every sense, and the company itself a south Evanston treasure.
All EAC dollars of our budget go to Piccolo for our playing space-a double
bonus to Evanston's theatre ecology. The theme of the work-a gay marriage that
hides in plain sight-will find a receptive audience in Evanston. Partners like
the gay-friendly St. Luke's Episcopal Church in south Evanston and CoE's LGBT
Liaison Mark Muenzer will help promote the show. We will also reach out to the
high school liaison and to Northwestern. Despite the closure of Next Theatre,
this is the right community to support another strong resident theatre company.
With easy access from Chicago and north suburbs, Evanston needs a strong
theatre to bring patrons to its rich restaurant scene, and it's bound to
happen. Probably the right theatre won't pop into town fully formed, but grow
into its rightful place through trials and ventures like this one.
2. What program activities do you have planned for the
2015-2016 season?
PFP produces four shows each season, along with special
events for fundraising and development of new works. Next season is currently
under development. 2015 started with The Book of Merman, a new musical comedy
by Jeff award-winning playwright Leo Schwartz. This new show is Jeff
Recommended, indicating that at least one element was deemed excellent by the
opening night judges of the Joseph Jefferson Committee. The company is thrilled
to be invited to join the Steppenwolf Garage Repertory, in which Steppenwolf
Theatre presents the work of Chicago's most innovative storefront companies.
PFP's production of Topher Payne's comedy Angry Fags opens there in Spring
2015. Every year, PFP conducts four writing contests to foster new works about
LGBT themes and characters: Women's Words, Great Gay Screenplay, a student
contest called Generation Next, and Great Gay Play and Musical. PFP discovered
Evanston playwrights Rick Kinnebrew and Martha Meyer through their contest
submission.
3. Who is your target audience?
This show is especially for gay youth and adults in Evanston
who want to see characters like themselves in artistic works. While we want to
showcase Evanston as a great theatre destination for everyone, another target
is the crowd who want to spend their entertainment dollars here. The show will
also appeal to history and historic preservation aficionados. We can entice the
Chicago press to tell the story of the show's creation-how a pair of straight
librarians on their honeymoon stumbled across a beautiful gay love story from the
past. Given the show's themes, we will promote it to: LGBT groups at
Northwestern, ETHS, and Evanston Public Library; Evanston History Center
members; the Preservation League; Hoosier Mama Pie Company customers. (Savory
pie figures in the play.)
4. How will your project be managed? How will the
qualifications and make up of your board and staff help you achieve the goals
of this project?
David Zak, Executive Director of Pride Films and Plays, has
won 7 Jeff Awards, including a special Jeff for fostering diversity in Chicago
Theater. He has directed in New York, London, Seoul, and Dublin. He was
Artistic Director of Bailiwick Repertory for 27 years, and was recently
inducted into Chicago's Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. David brings with him the
resources of PFP-the artistic ensemble, publicity channels, and a base of
subscribers. Duties: to cast and direct the show, to oversee set construction
and tech direction In their Evanston Public Library work, Martha and Rick
designed and successfully executed early literacy projects sponsored by
Evanston Community Foundation, Foundation 65, the State of Illinois, and
others. They wrote and presented plays at Evanston schools, reaching thousands
of children. Besides writing and developing $10 House with PFP, they planned
and publicized its staged readings at venues in Evanston, Wisconsin, and
Chicago. Duties: Planning, publicity, local funding, audience development
Piccolo Theatre is an established theatre in a vital business district. The
space is wheelchair accessible, easy to park near, and near public
transportation. Duties: to provide space and site staff for the production The
advisory board for this project is made up of volunteer community members who
are eager to lend their support: Angela Allyn, choreographer, writer, and
Program Coordinator for Evanston; Marybeth Schroeder, VP of Programs for
Evanston Community Foundation; Evanston resident Tim Estberg, Theatre Dept.
Coordinator at New Trier High School. Duties: develop a local audience;
identify local support for the production, review plans Pending negotiations,
our team will include: • Penrod Design, an award-winning scenic design company
based in Evanston • Actors Nelson Rodriguez and Nick Stockwell, who originated
the lead roles
5. How will your project benefit the underserved communities
of Evanston?
We want to benefit gay Evanstonians along with their friends
and family by highlighting the unrecognized accomplishments of gay people in
history. The gay theme of this show will be out and apparent in promotion and
even in local fundraising, by inviting prominent gay citizens to sponsor the
show. The EvanstARTs study found that challenges to Evanstonians going out for
art included insufficient parking, lack of time, inconvenient event hours,
admission fees, and not even knowing what's available. (Final Report, p53) Our
plan addresses each of these concerns to make it easy for people with financial
or transportation challenges to attend. In addition to proximity, the south
Evanston neighborhood offers easy parking, which is also free after 6 pm. We
expect to keep our ticket price near $15, making it an affordable night of
theatre. Our first two shows will be offered as reduced price previews, too.
When Next Theatre closed, many Evanstonians lost not only a valued company, but
nearly a whole season of plays. This project brings the work of an innovative
Chicago theatre right to Evanston. A professional show with a topical
theme-that will help offset the loss of Next Theatre to Evanston's
theatre-going public.
6. Why you are requesting a grant and how will the funds be
used?
All of the grant funds ($3150) for this project will remain
in Evanston as a payment to Piccolo Theatre for the use of their space. Not
only does this financially benefit a valued cultural asset, our lighting up the
house in January contributes to their sustainability by attracting new audience
members to their space. The riskier and more changeable expenses of
production-like promotion, design, paying the cast and crew-will be borne by
PFP and by local fundraising. We'll seek additional local funding from past
supporters of Rick and Martha's educational work-Lighthouse Rotary, the Woman's
Club of Evanston, and Mayor Tisdahl's fund. To open the fundraising to the
public, we will create an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign for online
contributions to PFP to fund this production. PFP uses an adopt-an-actor
promotion to raise production funds while investing the audience in the show, a
technique we will adapt, inviting prominent gay Evanstonians to support the
venture.
Individual Artist Projects: (Evanston World Music
Youth Orchestra)
1. What are your artistic goals?
In creating the Evanston World Music Youth Orchestra, our
goals include: 1) sharing with the next
generation of musicians our combined 60 years of professional experience in
researching and performing world music; 2) helping young musicians to: better
understand art and in specific, ethnic cultural arts; improve their knowledge
of music, ethnic culture, and awareness of the world; improve their skills and
abilities in playing music, performing, and dealing with other world visions;
3) enhancing Evanston's attractiveness as a place to live by creating an
Evanston-based free-standing, independent, non-school institution to expand and
continue our exploration and sharing of ethnic dance music and culture as we
have successfully done for 25 years in schools across the USA and in Europe; 4)
providing young people with an attractive, community-building alternative form
of artistic expression; 5) enhancing Evanston residents' awareness and
understanding of cultural and musical diversity.
2. What are your qualifications and accomplishments as an
artist?
Terran Doehrer has performed world music professionally for
35 years, appearing with many world famous artists such as Gypsy singer Esma
Redzhepova. Since 1980, Terran (leader, Jutta & the Hi-Dukes), has created
and co-created over five ethnic bands (including the award-winning Balkan
Rhythm Band, one of the 1st "world music" bands anywhere, and the
Ensemble M'chaiya, officially recognized on its 20th anniversary by Mayor Daley
as Chicagoland's 1st revival Klezmer band. Terran plays six instruments, sings,
teaches dance (ethnic and Ballroom), and speaks (to varying levels of
proficiency) five languages. Jutta Distler has performed world music
professionally for 25 years, playing as a guest with world famous artists such
as Greek mandolinist Dimitris Marinos. Since 1990, Jutta has co-created three
ethnic bands (Jutta & the Hi-Dukes, Nordland Band, Terran's Greek Band) and
performed with the Balkan Rhythm Band and the Ensemble M'chaiya. She has a
degree in Speech and Theater from the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland,
teaches Speech Formation at Chicago's Arcturus Teacher Training program for
Waldorf teachers, plays three instruments, sings, teaches dance (ethnic and
Ballroom), and speaks (to varying levels of proficiency) five languages. As a
team they've taught workshops and residencies in world music and dance for 25
years at colleges and schools across America and Europe and given lectures on
ethnic music. They taught dance at the Chicago Waldorf School for six years.
3. Who is your target audience?
There are two targets for this project: Orchestra members
and the Evanston community at large. The 1st target audience is young Evanston
musicians between the Fifth and Twelfth Grades who have at least an
intermediate level of ability (playing at least an octave and reading sheet
music) on their given instrument(s). To participate, a potential member will
demonstrate his or her playing and reading ability at an audition. The 2nd
target audience is the Evanston community at large given that the goal of the
EWMYO is to present in an orchestral format otherwise less-heard forms of world
music, such as Balkan music set in odd time signatures.
4. How will your work positively benefit the residents of
Evanston (especially underserved communities)?
1) The EWMYO will
benefit young Evanston musicians by providing them with a form of expression
which does not currently exist that will promote their understanding of society
while developing their skills as musicians and performers. 2) The EWMYO will
also benefit the Evanston community at large by providing Evanston with a form
of entertainment which is not often heard here that enhances the community's
positive understanding of ethnic culture thereby increasing the likelihood that
Evanston will continue to grow as a liveable, enjoyable, diverse, thriving city.
3) The EMWYO will benefit lower income participants by offering a fifty percent
tuition discount for up to a quarter of the participants based on an honor
system in which we will ask all parents/guardians to tell us if they need
financial assistance.
5. Why you are requesting a grant and how will the funds be
used?
The prime purpose of this grant is to assist establishing
the orchestra, that is, to partially defray the costs of: rehearsal space rent,
production of and dissemination of publicity materials (both to attract
potential musicians and to announce concerts), creating arrangements of the
sheet music, and director's fees, as well as to help underwrite the enrollment
fees for lower income musicians who would otherwise be unable to afford to participate.
Please see the budget section of this application for details on these points.
