Bedlam Theatre

Hello theater people everywhere in the state of Minnesota,

There is now an organization dedicated to serving you: The Minnesota Theater Alliance, brand new, and ready to get started working with you to strengthen our community, our organizations, and our work. But first, let’s get acquainted, shall we? Please come learn about us and let us learn about you at one of a series of meetings we are having all over the state in the next few weeks.

My name is Leah Cooper, and I’m the Program Director at the Alliance. Many of you might know me from my time at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, where I first fell head over heels in love with this theater community. The Alliance was started by a series of steering committees made up of artists and artistic directors from many Minnesota theaters. With start-up funding from the McKnight Foundation and the St. Paul Travelers Foundation, plus fiscal sponsorship and a temporary home with Springboard for the Arts, we’ve already got a great foundation for building great services for you.

But first, I’d like to talk to all of you in person about the Alliance. No really, all of you. All theaters, of all kinds, all over the state. So we’re putting together a bunch of meetings, kindly hosted by theaters all over the place. Each meeting will be an informal conversation – a chance for me to tell you a bit about the Alliance’s founding, goals, and initial membership services, and also a chance for you to tell me what an Alliance can do for you. Please please please come to one of our meetings, I’m dying to meet you and hear what you think!

Everybody who makes theater is welcome. Big companies and little companies. Urban, suburban and rural companies. Community, professional, amateur, and academic companies. Not-for-profit, for-profit, and totally unstructured companies. Do you make theater in Minnesota? Then I want to talk to you!

The meetings will be only one hour long and there will be free refreshments. And there are tons of dates and locations to choose from. So please pick one, RSVP, and come talk to me! We need your RSVP so we can keep each meeting down to about 20 people to facilitate easy conversation, so please let us know which meeting you are attending by using the handy-dandy Web page below. It’s EASY, I promise! Just click the date you want, select the number attending, click “Register,” enter your name and email address, and click “Complete registration.” Done. Easy. Here it is:

Meeting RSVP site:     http://mntheateralliance.eventbrite.com

The meetings are coming soon (starting June 10th), so please don’t set this email aside – go check out the dates and pick one right now!

Almost all of the Metro area meetings are listed on the page now, with just one more coming at Pillsbury House Theatre. Meeting dates around the rest of the state are still being set, so check back every couple days if you live outside the Metro. (Dates still coming for Winona, Rochester, Pipestone, Willmar, Saint Cloud, Fargo, Thief River Falls, Bemidji/Park Rapids, and Duluth.)

OK, one last request. Please forward this to other theater folks you know. I’ve made a contact list by cobbling together lists from many sources, but nobody has a complete census of Minnesota theaters, so I’m sure I’m missing people. (A census of theaters? Hey, somebody should start an Alliance to do that!)

Thanks for your time, I can’t wait to see you,
-Leah

____________________________________
Leah Cooper
Program Director, Minnesota Theater Alliance
Mobile (612) 227-2046

Springboard for the Arts
308 Prince St. #270
Saint Paul, MN 55101-1437
Office (651) 292-4381
Fax (651) 292-4315
Check out the new Web page: http://www.springboardforthearts.org/Services/theateralliance.asp