Mother Teresa Would Want You to Donate to the Arts

from William Franke, Director of Development & Communications

Ahh, it's the holiday season...when everyone is so busy wrapping up work projects, shopping for gifts, going to parties...and attending fundraising benefits for nonprofit organizations.

I know that for me, it's hard to prioritize which types of charities to give to. Even for people in the arts, it seems like there are so many more important causes out there.

Then I heard this story on The Moth, which is a collection of real people telling their true stories on stage. The guest host for the Moth’s Chicago story slam evening, Peter Sagal (host of NPR’s news quiz show Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me) related this story at the end of the evening that his friend, Morgan, had told him about Mother Teresa:

When she was younger, Morgan was a dramaturg and, for whatever reason, she became quite infatuated with Mother Teresa and thought her the apotheosis of humanity. Her obsession with her ran to the point that, when she learned Mother Teresa was in New York for some kind of official visit (back in the ’80s), she tracked down the hotel she was staying at and went to see her. She caught up with Mother Teresa as she was getting out of a car (with a cadre of nuns) and proceeded to gush “Oh, Mother Teresa, the work you do is so wonderful; the work you do is so important and it’s so wonderful and I just want to come to Calcutta and do that work with you. Because I just think it’s so wonderful.” 

And Mother Teresa gently shook her head and said “No, no, you don’t do this work because you think it’s good; you do this work because you so love the poor people of Calcutta with whom I work, that you can’t be away from them. That’s when you come and you do this work.”

Morgan stood there, realizing she’d been gently rebuked, when Mother Teresa asked what it was she did. Morgan replied “Well, what I do is not important. What I do is I work in a theater and I help put on plays, and what use is that?”

To which Mother Teresa replied, “There are so many different kinds of famine in this world. In my country there is a famine of the body. In this country, there is a famine of the spirit. Stay here and feed your people.”

With your help, we promise to continue doing our part to nourish & feed the people in our community as best we can.

Now, you may have noticed that Theatre East is not throwing a year-end fundraising gala, but that doesn't mean we aren't trying to raise funds! We'll be in touch about a live event in the spring. But for now, since we know everyone is so busy, we thought we'd keep the time commitment low with an event on Facebook; or you can go directly to our website.
With your donations, we'll be able to continue bringing you plays like The Solider Dreams and Eye of God. We're currently ramping up for our most ambitious season yet—our first full season, starting off in fall 2012 with the WORLD premiere of Bennett Windheim’s Normalcy, a play that uses transracial adoption as a catalyst to have an honest and candid dialogue about race in America through the prism of a well-meaning, well-to-do white couple contemplating the adoption of an African-American child. We'll also be continuing our educational efforts with the New Rites Collective.

Thank you so much for your support, now at the end of the year & always.

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illustration by Nadia Nadege

THE SOLDIER DREAMS Mainstage Dates Announced

As we announced at November's Theatre East 3rd Monday Mixer, we now have dates & a space for the full production of THE SOLDIER DREAMS! (Read about the workshop presentation of the play here.)

The show will open on March 25, 2011 at the Lion theatre at Theatre Row and run through April 10. Auditions will be held at the end of January.

We hope to share this amazing play with as many members of our community as possible, so mark your calendar now!

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THE SOLDIER DREAMS Workshop Curtain Speech

Artistic Director Judson Jones shared some of Theatre East's history & accomplishments as well as some thoughts on why we've chosen THE SOLDIER DREAMS as our next production in his introductory curtain speech:

Last year, right around this time we began rehearsals on our inaugural production EYE OF GOD by Tim Blake Nelson. We thought it best to start off light and easy by tackling issues like a woman’s right to choose, western religious extremism, and the question of “Where is God?” Stage and Cinema said “it seems [we] founded Theatre East to bridge differences in our community and tackle subjects that are universal." Theatremania called it a “successful, dangerous play.”

We then thought it best to relax, take it slow and launch an unprecedented educational program, the New Rites Collective, which is a residency program that provides at-risk, disenfranchised and marginalized youth the opportunity to use the power of the arts to connect notions of their own "self" to the world and foster social and cultural change. The program ran for three weeks at the Louis Brandeis Campus where students not only earned high school credits, they experienced play writing, dance, sculpture, Japanese Butoh, movement, Shakespeare, mask work, painting, video and sound design along with mentoring and counseling. In fact you can see some of the pieces the students created in the lounge after the reading. The program was such a success that the school has invited us to continue the program throughout the school year. Like I said before, we wanted to relax.

We continue to believe that theatre serves a communal purpose, both on stage and off. Whether it’s volunteering for causes like the 2010 MS Walk for a Cure or the upcoming March for Marriage Equality; we have a desire to not only be a part of our community but to serve it.

We also desire to serve our community by choosing scripts that deliver an urgent social message, explore our mortality and the shared human experience. This was the case with EYE OF GOD, the reading of PRETTY CHIN UP and with the upcoming production of THE SOLDIER DREAMS.

Of course none of this would be possible without continued support. As a non-profit organization we rely on financial support from our community. This is how we bring programs to schools, this is how we produce, this is how we survive. Tonight we celebrate those in our community that have supported us in so many ways. We would not be here without them. Their names are listed on the back of the program, in the lobby and also on our website. And I would be remiss if I didn’t say that you too can be listed as a supporter of Theatre East.

So why THE SOLDIER DREAMS, why now? A line from the play reads “Even when the soldier dreams the war goes on.” In November 2009 the New York Senate decisively rejected a bill that would have allowed gay couples to wed. Over 30 states have amended their constitutions banning same sex marriage. Is this play a battle cry? Is it the gauntlet thrown at the feet of demagogues? No. This is simply a face. This is the flesh, the tears, the joy, the heartbreak, the loss, the passion of these human experiences. It’s that undeniable thread that touches us all. This is a story of family, of loss, of love. It’s also a celebration of the unique, indefinable, true relationships we have with one another. It’s about our stories and our memories and our tears and our laughter. We recall that special thing; that special bond. We remember how extraordinary they made us feel. And we feel so incredibly fortunate to have walked with them, if only for a little while. And we smile, and we weep and cradle ourselves and bask in the glow of a beautiful life that…is. And forever will be.

Thank you again for coming. Your presence truly means so much. And now, THE SOLDIER DREAMS by Daniel MacIvor.

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THE SOLDIER DREAMS is a Hit with the Audience

We were very happy to share THE SOLDIER DREAMS with an enthusiastic audience of almost 100 Theatre East community members on Thursday, September 9 in the June Havoc Theatre in the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex.

The workshop was directed by Artistic Director Judson Jones (you can read his curtain speech here), featured music & sound design by Resident Composer & Sound Designer Scott O'Brien, lighting design by Resident Lighting Designer Jessica M. Burgess and featured William Franke, Heather Hill, Christa Kimlicko Jones, Denny Lawrence, Helen Merino, Tom Pacio, Joseph Parks & Matt Savins.

"I can't wait for the full production!"
—Sarah B.

We are working inexorably toward a full Off Broadway production of this wonderfully touching play. Help us make this DREAM a reality! Support Theatre East. Learn more about the play here.

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Theatre East Promo 2010

Behind-the-scenes clips of rehearsals; our educational program, the New Rites Collective; and our core beliefs:

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Welcome to the New Theatre East Blog!

Heading into our 2010-2011 season—our 2nd—we want to reboot the blog experience for the Theatre East community. This blog will be a place to tell you more about Theatre East—what we're doing, who we are, what we believe. We'll also be talking about the arts in general and about news & current events that relate to our current production (as we did on the EYE OF GOD blog).

We also want to hear from you of course. If there are questions you have—about us, about the current production, about theatre in general—please let us know!

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