Welcome!

Welcome to all! Until we get things together for a real website, I opted for starting us off with the fool-proof Google solution! Please post comments here as much as you want! This is to be an open forum/message board for our Company and I hope it works for us! To start us off, here is the welcome email I sent out last week. Enjoy!

~Emily

Meeting (11.9.05) Notes

Mission
The mission of Spectrum is broad at the moment but here are some main points:
To produce theater that provokes thought.
To bring political theater of all opinions to the stage.
To reach out to the larger community with philanthropy and outreach programs and productions.
Within the group, to maintain a spectrum of ideas and inputs with the purpose of exploring views which may be contrary to your own for the increased understanding of the opposing view.

There are some immediate goals, as well as more long term goals. These lists will constantly be added to and revised as needed.

Immediate goals for 2005-2006
Become an ASG recognized T-status group.
Establish a board with large group input for production decisions.
Host at least one event per quarter, with a possible production in the Jones Great Room spring quarter.
Possibly stage some improv/spontaneous theater.
Get started on developing outreach programs.
Establish mission and by laws that encourage diversity in subsequent group membership and exec boards
At the meeting, interest was shown for writing workshops to help playwrights develop skills with this form of theater.

Long-term Goals
ASG recognition
Larger budget shows and performance spaces
Outreach programs (one suggestion was bring theater in some form to children with disabilities who may not get an opportunity to do theater otherwise)
Have a full season.
Be respected for the quality and standards of our theater company.

At the meeting, I talked about some of my own inspirations for this company. Spectrum has been in my head in some form or another for almost two years now. A major impetus for starting this group was the support of my close friends and a growing awareness of how little theater there on campus and in general that challenges the audience to think while also providing a meaningful theater experience. People are often turned away by theater that preaches or hammers opinions and ideas into the audiences’ heads. This group, however, would challenge people to think in any way but not necessarily preach in an off-putting way. One of my inspirations was the play The Exonerated which uses the death penalty to explore universal issues of life and death while questioning the efficacy of capital punishment while not forcing a certain view. Other inspirations were the NYC group Improv Everywhere (www.improveverywhere.com), Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, political protests, Theatre of the Absurd, political and social justice theater classes taught at NU in the past two years, and many more.

Some Visions:
Lots of special projects! Ideally, a couple of people could come to Spectrum and say “we have an idea” and our company would use the network to help find people to support that group and the idea (ie a director with a play, a writer with a script, a producer with a director, etc) in order to produce the show. Ultimately the group would meet to hear proposals for specific projects and the artistic directors and exec board would design the season based on those proposals and votes on what the group wants to produce. This idea will be hammered out more in the constitution.
Lots of open minds on the board and in the group! Anyone who wants to be a part of the group can become part of the group by coming to a meeting or working on a show. Again, more info in the constitution.

Well, I hope those notes aren’t too scattered for you. That pretty much covers what we discussed at the meeting on Wednesday. I would like to meet with people who are interested in helping with the constitution before Thanksgiving. I will have a draft done in a couple days and will email it out to whoever is interested in helping. Additionally, it would be great to have a larger group meeting during Reading week so we can discuss the Exec board and events for next season.

As always, email me with brilliant ideas, questions, comments, etc. I love hearing from people. Also feel free to post any comments, observations, etc, on this blog! Thank you all for your interest! The response has been tremendous and I get forward to working with you all more!