Wow! I just reread my post from February 14th. The road ahead looked a whole lot prettier than it turned out to be. Bellevue Creative Arts Community subsequently had a near-death experience!
First of all: the Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation. I wrote them from a template, with many questions to put to the Board about how we wanted to be structured and how we wanted to get things done. I know from long experience that the best first step is to go ahead and write them, then make changes from there. So I did. I brought several copies to the next meeting, each with blanks to fill in and all areas of concern highlighted. I was prepared for a meaty session of discussion of everything I had questions about and anything else the others might find to hash out. But no! The writers of the spiffy musical Once Upon A Tree were there with copies of 2/3 of their script. They and President Mary were hell-bent to do a read-through of it. So there was no discussion of Bylaws that evening. I gave a copy to President Mary. I feel certain that she never read them - to this day!. Mary said that she would be happy to go over everything with me sometime during the week. So we communicated via Messenger and found a chunk of time when we could do it by phone. I called her at the appointed hour. It turned out that she was in her car somewhere and it was pouring rain. "So, looking at the second page of the Bylaws..." "! don't have them with me," she said. So we limped through the session, me reading the questionable portions out loud and suggesting possibilities. It mostly went pretty smoothly, considering. We didn't have time for the Articles. I didn't have the heart for it anyway, and most of those questions were the same issues as in the Bylaws. I made the changes, printed several copies, and got them signed by all Board members present at the next meeting. I wasn't happy with the Bylaws - to this day. But we needed to get them signed so that we could move forward with the IRS. We could change them later.
And then! And Then!! Mirabelle, who was working diligently toward submitting our 501(c)(3) paperwork, noticed that Mary had signed a different last name than I had printed on the page. Oh, the name I used, the name I knew her by, was her maiden name, her pen name. She had, of course, signed her legal name. So, I made that correction, printed more copies, and gave them to Mary to take around to get signed again. March 19th was when the last signature was obtained. May 9th BCAC became 501(c)(3).
Then there was the May 19th Bellevue Picnic. I did my research. A booth at the picnic would cost $500.00. We could have a cool booth with scenic elements from Once Upon A Tree. We wanted to perform a song or two from our spiffy musical on the stage. I wanted to put together a flash mob. Mary wanted to generate flyers to pass out to the crowds. It was all very exciting. I let the Chamber of Commerce know what we were thinking about, and they were excited too. I needed to let them know ASAP if we were using the stage so they could assign us a slot. I issued a survey to the membership asking which of these projects they would like to be involved in. Eight people wanted to pass out flyers, and fifteen wanted to do the flash mob. We asked the writing team for a full script so that we could hold auditions and cast the June show and be ready to stage a song or two at the Picnic. It was then that I learned that the script was not finished yet, but they would finish it by the end of March. Auditions were tentatively scheduled for the first weekend in April. From that moment on, the whole thing went south. The script wasn't going to be finished in time. I let the Chamber know not to expect us. The fundraising wasn't going well. We couldn't reserve a booth. We called rehearsals for a flash mob. Seven rehearsals advertised, a grand total of three people other than Mary and me showed up (two at one rehearsal and one at another.) Mirabelle put together the flyers, and we told everyone where to pick them up on their way to the Picnic. NOBODY showed up. Mirabelle passed out some and Mary passed out some. I didn't even go. By then I was sick to my stomach about the whole BCAC project.
There were those among the Facebook group members who told us that there was much more interest in the visual arts than in theatre. Arleen proposed a meeting at her place for interested visual artists to brainstorm about how to get that action going. Arleen was there. Mirabelle was there. Cheryl was there for support - she wants to support BCAC any way she can - and Glen was there, a new face to the project. Nobody else. Not even Mary or me.
We called a regrouping meeting. Nobody showed up other than the three of us. Still we kept working. We found a carrier who issued liability policies for nonprofits, because we were required to have insurance for a million dollars in order to rent any venue for a show. $650.00 per year was the best rate we found. Mary offered to borrow money to get the policy so we could move forward. Mirabelle advised against it. Mary persisted. Mirabelle resigned.
Mary and I began thinking about abandoning the project. We went to the bank with Mirabelle to get her name off of the account, and she offered to help us dismantle the whole thing. We decided to hang on for a little longer, to let the group know what we were thinking about, to see if anybody stepped up to help get back on track.
Lo and behold, Joe stepped up. He was ready to take on the whole show and carry it to the next level. The existing Board members voted Joe president and Mary vice president, and at Joe's first meeting there were ten people. The second meeting is in a week and a half, and I hope that it is at least as well attended.
Who knows, Bellevue may yet have community theatre.
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
All Business
Back in November, while walking the dog - when I do my best thinking - I was thinking about theatre, and how much I love it and how much I miss it. All at once I shifted from feeling sorry for myself because I had not found any practical theatrical opportunities, to realizing that I really had not done much in the way of seeking them out. In Vero Beach, the Theatre Guild was very visible and accessible. In Albuquerque I had started volunteering at the Little Theatre a couple of months after arrival. In Meadville, I was drafted by Carmen's Church members. Here in Nashville, all I could see were opportunities too far away for me to consider as a basically vehicleless individual. But had I really looked for opportunities? I decided that I had not.
I came home from that dog walk, picked up my Kindle Fire and began searching in earnest. I applied to join the Facebook Group "Theatre Nashville" and the Facebook group "Hip Bellevue" and once admitted, asked the question "Is there a community Theatre in Bellevue? The answers were mostly answers I would expect in a culture that assumes everyone has unlimited access to a vehicle. There's one in Brentwood. There are two in Dickson. There is a theatre in Bellevue, but it is professional dinner theatre, and still a long treacherous walk in a place where sidewalks hardly exist. I expressed my disappointment, and then someone replied, "Start one." Start one? Start one? Is that possible?
Timidly I went back to the Hip Bellevue page and asked, "Would anybody be interested in helping me start a community theatre group in Bellevue? " Within a few minutes there were five or six "Yes!" responses. Within a few hours, we were up to fifteen. Within a few days we were over fifty. Within a week we were planning our first meeting. Within a month we had a name, a logo, a website under construction, a mission statement, bylaws, Articles of Incorporation and a Board of Trustees. We created seven committees, and called for volunteers to fill them. The Board decided that our first production would be Once Upon a Tree, a spiffy musical written by two of our members, slated to open in June. Now we have a Tennessee Charter, a bank account, and enough money raised to file for 501(c)(3) status.
The Bellevue Creative Arts Community group on Facebook has a hundred fourteen members (last time I looked) many of them chomping at the bit for us to call auditions. April first is our target date for that. I have designed the basic structure of the set, with details to be figured out as we go. We have a director, a costume person, and a pretty big pool of interested parties who we hope are willing to help get this sucker staged. What we don't have yet is a stage. We are working on that, and I have no doubt that we can git 'er don e before June. All in all, I am pleased as punch with our progress.
My first community theatre was The Vero Beach Theatre Guild in Vero Beach, Florida. They started up in the sixties, with no internet, no targeted Facebook groups, no email, no cell phones, no texting. What a very different experience it must have been for them. I joined them in 1980, when there were still a few original creators working on shows, still enjoying the theatre family experience, and the thrill of bringing a play to life in front of an audience. I think now about how gratifying it must have been for them to have birthed this baby and watched it grow.
Our labor pains are pretty intense now, jumping through all of the hoops it takes to become a legitimate nonprofit corporation in the twenty-first century. Two hours in the bank answering questions and signing papers designed to prevent our meager funds going to drug lords or terrorist organizations. Can't raise money until we are 501(c)(3), can't become 501(c)(3) until we raise money. But the theatre family experience is still sustaining us, just as it did those pioneers in the sixties, keeping on keeping on, knowing in their hearts that the curtain would soon open on a spiffy musical, and gladden the hearts of the entertainers as well as the entertained.
I came home from that dog walk, picked up my Kindle Fire and began searching in earnest. I applied to join the Facebook Group "Theatre Nashville" and the Facebook group "Hip Bellevue" and once admitted, asked the question "Is there a community Theatre in Bellevue? The answers were mostly answers I would expect in a culture that assumes everyone has unlimited access to a vehicle. There's one in Brentwood. There are two in Dickson. There is a theatre in Bellevue, but it is professional dinner theatre, and still a long treacherous walk in a place where sidewalks hardly exist. I expressed my disappointment, and then someone replied, "Start one." Start one? Start one? Is that possible?
Timidly I went back to the Hip Bellevue page and asked, "Would anybody be interested in helping me start a community theatre group in Bellevue? " Within a few minutes there were five or six "Yes!" responses. Within a few hours, we were up to fifteen. Within a few days we were over fifty. Within a week we were planning our first meeting. Within a month we had a name, a logo, a website under construction, a mission statement, bylaws, Articles of Incorporation and a Board of Trustees. We created seven committees, and called for volunteers to fill them. The Board decided that our first production would be Once Upon a Tree, a spiffy musical written by two of our members, slated to open in June. Now we have a Tennessee Charter, a bank account, and enough money raised to file for 501(c)(3) status.
The Bellevue Creative Arts Community group on Facebook has a hundred fourteen members (last time I looked) many of them chomping at the bit for us to call auditions. April first is our target date for that. I have designed the basic structure of the set, with details to be figured out as we go. We have a director, a costume person, and a pretty big pool of interested parties who we hope are willing to help get this sucker staged. What we don't have yet is a stage. We are working on that, and I have no doubt that we can git 'er don e before June. All in all, I am pleased as punch with our progress.
My first community theatre was The Vero Beach Theatre Guild in Vero Beach, Florida. They started up in the sixties, with no internet, no targeted Facebook groups, no email, no cell phones, no texting. What a very different experience it must have been for them. I joined them in 1980, when there were still a few original creators working on shows, still enjoying the theatre family experience, and the thrill of bringing a play to life in front of an audience. I think now about how gratifying it must have been for them to have birthed this baby and watched it grow.
Our labor pains are pretty intense now, jumping through all of the hoops it takes to become a legitimate nonprofit corporation in the twenty-first century. Two hours in the bank answering questions and signing papers designed to prevent our meager funds going to drug lords or terrorist organizations. Can't raise money until we are 501(c)(3), can't become 501(c)(3) until we raise money. But the theatre family experience is still sustaining us, just as it did those pioneers in the sixties, keeping on keeping on, knowing in their hearts that the curtain would soon open on a spiffy musical, and gladden the hearts of the entertainers as well as the entertained.
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