Just wondering how you are coming along with getting your group started.
When we started a year and a half ago, we had a handful of people who wanted to do a specific show. So we put a little blurb in the local paper to the effect that we were having a "reader's theatre" and gave the time and date. (We didn't really know what that meant, but we knew that we just wanted to see who was out there wanting to do the same thing.) We got about a dozen people together to read the play we had in mind (we had to call every one of the twelve ourselves, but the newspaper bit was a good idea in that at least people had an idea that we were "up to something".) From this group of about 12, we were able to raise enough money to mount our first production, "....Charlie Brown". We made some money from that and got started right away on our second production, while working like mad to find more support in the community. Found a local non-profit art group to take us under their wing and let us be a part of their group. (They gave us a little money at first, but now we don't ask them for anything in the way of monetary support.) Got a board together and started meeting every month. Less than two years later, we have done 4 full productions, a little traveling show, established an endowment fund, bought lighting, sound equipment, found a facility to rent and have made improvements on it. Our community theatre is the hottest thing happening in our area. There is more energy and enthusiasm here than you can find anywhere. It is so worth it to find kindred spirits and make the kind of positive impact on your community that will result from all this hard work. Don't give up! It is like a water pump...you have to really pump hard at first. If you stop, you have to start all over again, so just keep pumping and soon you will be enjoying the benefits of all that hard work. You have the most enthusiasm for the project, so just do it. Find one or two others who are as enthusiastic as yourself and your energy will be multiplied exponentially! REALLY.
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