I am often moved to write when I've been part of a collaborative theatre project. This time, it has taken me a bit longer to put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard. This time, I was part of something that was extraordinary in ways that I could have never anticipated or imagined. A very dear friend told me that he believes that we should go through life "expecting a miracle". That is what happened this winter on The 1776 Project.
This time, a group of wonderfully talented and dedicated people came together and created something magical, something that moved a community and created real meaning for the people who experienced the performance. Many people have asked me how I pulled it off? How did I bring this disparate group of people together and create such magic?
Well, I expected a miracle. I have spent a good portion of my business career working at early-stage companies for some wonderful entrepreneurs. I learned from them what it is to believe in a vision and assemble a team to make it happen. I learned from them about not giving up even when confronted with obstacles and bumps. And there were definitely bumps. There were people who dropped out, who couldn't stay with the project. There were actors who were sick and actors that missed rehearsals. There were the normal challenges with the design team. Mercifully, there were no significant weather challenges which was it's own miracle since we are in Vermont and the show opened at the end of March. All in all, we weathered all of the small storms and managed to get a cast of 26 humans along with a crew of 12 to stay on their feet through a three-week run.
Expect a miracle. In this particular project, our goals were very ambitious. We set out to spur a conversation in the community and to engage with kids and adults around the very important issues in the play. We invited local politicians and thought leaders to participate in talk-backs after every show. And our audiences stayed for the conversation. The feedback from patrons has been extraordinary. They went home and re-read books about our Founding Fathers. They engaged with their families and friends in meaningful discussions about civics, and race and what it means to be an American. The story is not all peaches and cream. There were real compromises that were made in order to birth this great country. And everyone involved in the project explored that part of the story very thoughtfully.
We essentially built something from nothing. We had no company, we had no team, we had no real support at the outset. But we had an idea that we believed in. We were able to convince some very generous funders to support our vision. We began to talk about the idea and everywhere we went, people would nod and begin to get excited. While many of the people who came out to audition and to work on the production were known to me, many were not. There is a long list of people who simply appeared and got on board. That's what happens when you expect a miracle.
It would have been so easy to say- whoa, this is going to be way too hard. Who will do all of this work? Who will we get to play these very challenging roles? Are there enough accomplished actors and singers to make this happen? If we're planning to do community outreach, who's going to do THAT work? And how are we going to assemble a group of musicians for the pit? Who's going to run our spotlights and our soundboard? But we started recruiting a team, and as the energy grew, the team grew. When we began marketing the show, the word of mouth started to spread. As the actors became more confident in the quality of the show, they began to spread the word with enthusiasm. And then when our audiences left the theatre, they told their friends. The word spread. Miracles do that. We sold out 8 out of 10 performances. And we built something really special. Sadly these pop-up communities are a bit ephemeral. Actors often mourn when a show is over. The cast and crew become like family and it's hard to replace that when it's over.
The 1776 Project is now behind us. The gratitude that I feel knows no bounds. And now we turn our sights to the next project. It'll have something to do with talking to each other and with celebrating our unique stories. And yup.. you guessed it. Once again, we'll start out expecting a miracle.
