by Kirby Lindsay, posted 27 November 2013
This December, Stone Soup Theatre offers up holiday dinners without calories, while providing entertainment for all ages. From December 5th – 24th, our independent theater, on Stone Way, will present a live action double-feature with Dylan Thomas’ ‘A Child’s Christmas In Wales,’ and Thornton Wilder’s ‘The Long Christmas Dinner.’ Directed by Ray Woodall, this production magically mixes the elements of music, children, families, and, of course, Christmas.
Moving Forward
This production is the first in a shortened Stone Soup season, and is made possible in part due by community magic. This fall, Stone Soup and its founder, Maureen Miko, preempted the originally scheduled fall production to hold a vitally needed fundraiser for $5,000 to cover a 40% increase in rent, and associated costs.
Over five weeks, Stone Soup used the crowd-funding source site Indiegogo to get word out and raise the money. As to the results, “it’s been fantastic,” Miko reported, “we’ve doubled what we wanted!”
“It’s not Kickstarter,” Miko acknowledged about the site they used, but as a non-profit they found Indiegogo gave more flexibility and options, plus, “it was more accessible.” The heart-warming part came from the way individuals heard about the campaign and shared it with their larger circles, and helped get the word out. “We got checks from people we didn’t know. A wide array,” she observed, “People not connected directly to Stone Soup.”
As Miko heard, “nobody wants to see another theater close.” The successful fundraising has kept the theater open, and, “we can go into our year with more confidence,” she reported. Although, the campaign is likely to repeat next year, and for the foreseeable future, as rents – and other costs – keep increasing. “We have to raise that every fall,” she said, and she hopes that while not necessarily the same people will be able to give each year, that everyone will help spread the word. “We do not want things to fall apart,” Miko explained, she wants – and plans – to keep moving Stone Soup forward.
‘Making It Go Further’
Forward, but not necessarily along the same ruts dug in the road. At Stone Soup, “we produce as much as we can afford,” Miko explained, and they’ve taken a hard, creative look at what they may be able to afford, and what they could do to change the model to be able to do more.
For instance, this season will consist of two shows – the Christmas double feature and, in February, ‘Doubt’ by John Patrick Shanley. Yet, Miko has also sought out co-production partnerships, with at least two happening in 2014.
For Stone Soup, and more and more theater companies both large and small, co-producing offers a very attractive option. Miko wants to find more theater companies to partner, provided everyone can, “choose a show that suits both missions.”
“There are so many details that people don’t see,” Miko said about producing. Each show requires props, sets, script fees, etc. The Stone Soup and Sound Theatre Company co-production of ‘The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)’ in 2011 shared many resources, “and that show sold out every show, every seat,” Miko observed. Audiences from both theater companies filled the place, plus creating word of mouth that drew in fans of the play. “By combining the right forces,” Miko said of the resources and funds of Stone Soup, “we are making it go further.”
‘Shake It Up A Bit’
For the Christmas show, Miko has also made the most of the theater’s resources. Each year, Stone Soup stages an adaptation of the Thomas poem ‘A Child’s Christmas In Wales.’ This year, Miko added the Wilder play ‘The Long Christmas Dinner,’ “to give more challenge to the actors.” ‘Wales’ requires a good size cast performing many small parts and by adding ‘Long’ the production attracted higher quality performers, and gave them more roles to develop.
The plays complement each other with both set at Christmas, featuring a dinner, and focused on memory. However, as is to be expected with works by two very different authors, the pieces also contrast. Thomas shares a vision of the sometimes idyllic, sometimes harsh memories of a child experiencing traditional Welsh Christmases. Back in America, Wilder journeys through the lives of several generations the Bayard family, over nine decades, at Christmas dinner – Miko counted 67 Christmases performed in 24 minutes. As she observed, “the play has a pure, raw simplicity to it.”
The choice of Wilder and Thomas – two well-regarded authors of literary classics – is deliberate. After years of reading, evaluating and producing short plays, Miko has found that, “the very best ones were written by the best known authors.” Stone Soup also has a commitment to give audiences works of dependable quality, by authors they can trust to deliver stories well told.
This year, Miko chose a director new to Stone Soup to bring the work to the stage, and one familiar with music as well as theater. Ray Woodall has more music in his background than some other Stone Soup directors, but Miko also noted about her choice, “What’s really important is to get someone able to handle people.”
This December, Stone Soup offers a combination of a play familiar to their audiences, and one completely new to their stage. Expect to see more of this blending of the established and the innovative in the coming year at Stone Soup. “We needed to shake it up a little bit,” Miko observed about planning for the future of this community-based theater.
To buy tickets to the Christmas show at Stone Soup, visit Brown Paper Tickets or call the box office at 206/633-1883. The show will run right up to Christmas Eve, with daytime performances once school lets out for the season, but those last days often sell out. Order tickets now to guarantee seats for the whole family!
And enjoy this opportunity to enjoy more live theater on Stone Way, thanks to a whole community!
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©2013 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.