It Takes a Village
To Our Dear Community: Welcome!
Long has this lived on my list of to-do’s – starting this show’s “journal,” writing to you!
(And, zooming out, sharing this lovely new digital home for the musical – more on that below, please read on!)
I shall not slip into a character here; I’ve no aim to “play Sarah” or conjure a charming “Townsperson” from the pages of our script – it’s Juliet. Others connected to the project may chime in from time-to-time, but the “voice” in this space shall remain mostly mine.
Musical-making is a creative marathon, and this “Behind the Scenes” area shall share development details of this magical musical – inviting and incorporating your requests along the way.
Producing a pair of Readings on both sides of a pandemic – before very different audiences (2019 Off-Broadway and 2023 Utah canyon) – taught Jon and me a lot. We are moved by the support we’ve received to-date, from talented and generous artists who dive into our collective imagination, time and again, helping guide the show into its current shape.
We seem to have stumbled onto something special, unifying – something worth growing…
And so now…we fundraise!
(Testimonials, too, are cherished currency! So are IG follows!)
A confession: though I once worked full-time as a fundraiser (for theater at that), this step is truly daunting to me – while it is my natural frequency to support others, I struggle to do the same for myself. (Work in progress…)
The trick, as I see it, is to reframe this necessary piece as supporting others – which it really is in the case of theater: providing for the artists we hire (and paying them appropriately – which we simply must do moving forward – “be the change you wish to see,” and all). We endeavor to create a safe, inviting, accessible space for the audiences we endeavor to uplift and inspire.
For this beautiful website, Jon and I were delighted to bring in design maven Virginia Mason Richardson, an awesome multihyphenate artist whose intuitive eye (and joy!) for digital design is a gift I admire.
Over the winter, while making (quiet) preparations, a serendipitously timed theater-date with another multihyphenate artist (the brilliant, seemingly unstoppable Mélisa Breiner-Sanders) placed Aisle & Lens back on my radar – a season later, Jon and I are thrilled to have A&L on-board as our nonprofit fiscal sponsor for this (inaugural!) fundraising period. (More serendipity: my path first crossed Mélisa’s at a nonprofit theater fundraiser I helped coordinate in Chicago, where she served as a rockstar volunteer – alongside my mom!)
I look forward to sharing this journey, and shall continue to update this journal personally – all typos my own (to be corrected promptly upon discovery)!
Take a look around, reach out anytime (sarahandtheseed@gmail.com) – thank you for being “here.”
Warmly,
Juliet