December 2, 2008 was the first planning meeting for a community-engaged music-theater project on the West Side of St. Paul, MN. These are the notes form that meeting:
Notes from meeting 12/2/08
Includes additional thoughts/questions from Becky
Present: Becky Dale, Harry Waters, Jr., Al Justiniano, Sandy Agustin, Ben Krywosz
Proposed agenda:
Artistic Content/Aesthetic
Roles
Scope
Timeline
SWOT/C (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats/Challenges)
Language Access
Fundraising
Artistic Content
What do we envision this piece to be? Will there be a single narrative with developed characters that change over the course of the piece? Or will it be a series of vignettes? What is our aesthetic? How do we reach consensus about that?
Background experience and Roles in this project
Becky brings:
Experience as Theater Composer (Nautilus, Ten Thousand Things, Macalester College Theater Dept, Playwright’s Center, Cornerstone Theater Company)
Experience with Community-Engaged Theater through Cornerstone Theater Institute 2008, also Nautilus/Ten Thousand Things project with Eric Ehn in 1999
Knowledge of West Side (18-year Resident, Coordinator of West Side Family Center 1996-2000)
Experience in Community building and Nonprofit Admin (Casa de Esperanza, Prevent Child Abuse MN associate director 2001-present)
Becky’s roles in this project:
Convener
Producer
Composer/Music Director
Ben brings
Extensive experience as Producer, Director, Dramaturge. Artistic Director Nautilus Music Theater
Teacher of integrated singer-actor-movement training
Composer-Librettist collaborative training
Developer of collaborative tools for theater artists
Ben’s roles in this project:
Advisor, Leader of a collaboration workshop to guide our process
Nautilus is serving as fiscal sponsor for the project
Sandy brings
Experience with community-engagement and arts (Intermedia Arts, Neighborhood House)
Knowledge of West Side and immediate area surrounding Neighborhood House
Experience as performer and creator (Dancer, Choreographer)
Sandy’s roles in this project:
Advisor
Community partner representative (Neighborhood House)
Al brings:
17 years experience as artistic director of Teatro del Pueblo, located on the West Side, including many projects that have connected with community in similar ways. He’s know to many West Siders as “that theater guy” J
Interest in developing the work, writing, capturing the voices of the community
Has had previous contact with Laurie Woolery from Cornerstone and is interested in connecting with her again, possibly bringing her here
Al’s roles in this project:
Playwright
Teatro may be interested in helping with fundraising
Harry brings:
Experience as an actor and director
Experience in Cornerstone community engaged theater model through Cornerstone Institute (2004), and participation in Guthrie’s Cornerstone project a (2006)
Has worked with many diverse groups, teaching acting across language barriers
Students! Teaches a class in community engaged theater – class of 25 students in spring 2009 can participate
Harry’s roles in this project:
Director
Student liaison
Scope
We have narrowed the community participation focus to the few blocks immediately surrounding Neighborhood House and participants in Neighborhood House itself.
We discussed considering this a “pilot” in order to get moving with trying it out and do something that can fit within whatever budget we come up with. This will allow us to learn more about how to do it, introduce it to the community, and build time and momentum for raising funds for a full production.
Questions: What then, is the scope of the pilot? Length of script? What are the forces involved?
SWOT/C
Strengths:
Strong leadership and advisory team
The artists and partners already gathered have wealth of relevant experience and knowledge
Artistic
Community-engagement
West Side
Addition support/guidance/mentoring available from Cornerstone
· West side has a strong identity about immigration and place
Weaknesses:
Opportunities:
· Food is a great incentive for engaging community participation
· Might want to share this idea with the program committee of the NH board
· Neighb is working to connect participant youth to college - connection with Macalester students might work well with this effort
· Neighb new President is expressed interest in “community engagement” in a local newspaper article
· We can also refer to past theatrical events on the WS we’ve been part of – Teatro productions from Al, Ten Thousand Things productions Becky helped bring to the WS several years ago.
Threats/Challenges:
Be clear to community about what they’re gonna get – avoid “art speak”
Economy – funding climate for participating organizations is tough. Fundraising for this project, too, may be a challenge.
Funding
Becky will check into the following suggestions that were made at the meeting:
Creative Capital (R & D)
Nathan Cumming Foundation (Social Justice Documentation)
We didn’t talk much about this – Becky will update group on what’s been done so far and ideas yet to do at next meeting.
Other ideas raised:
Documentation - How does this get documented so that the story stays alive? How do we document the process? What is the impact on the community?
Involve kids interviewing elders as one way to gather stories
Build “wow” events to engage the community – stepping stones to participation. Perhaps students can help build those “wow” events.
Recommendations that Becky check out Claire DeCoster “Riversedge Playback Theater” (http://www.riversedgeplayback.org/) and “Undesireable Elements” (http://www.undesirableelements.org/ ) I took a look at both – both very interesting! Thank you.
Agenda for 12/9/08
Decision-making process – proposed: consensus with some decisions assigned by role(s)
What’s missing from SWOC/T?
Timeline
FundingCircle back to Artistic Content/Aesthetic, Scope
