Meet Give a Brand! 2017 finalist, Indie Theater Fund
A small independent theater company, focused on LGBTQ artists of color, is in trouble. The artists have been invited to perform at the New York’s storied Cherry Lane theater, but due to unforeseen technical difficulties, they’re in desperate need of funds. Unwilling to let the performers down, the company’s founder is ready to drain her savings account to resolve the issue.
In swoops the Indie Theater Fund with an emergency grant. Within 48 hours, the founder has a check in her hand, her savings are intact, and the show goes on.
The Indie Theater Fund, one of this year’s Give a Brand! finalists, was founded in 2012 to support — you guessed it — independent theater companies. The structure is simple: Participating theaters give a nickel out of every ticket sold to the Fund, which uses the money to give both emergency and long-term grants to struggling artists. The nonprofit is also working to provide access to bulk discounts on space, equipment, and supplies, but money remains the number-one need for any hardworking artist or theater company paying New York rents.
“We’ve changed in a lot of ways, and we’ve stayed exactly the same in a lot of ways,” says Indie Theater Fund co-founder and Executive Director Randi Berry, noting that while their premise hasn’t changed, their reach has. “We started with one grant for community resource projects, and now we’re up to 10-15 grants of $1,000 each.”
The fund has also grown to 281 participating companies and counting. Ultimately, the foundation would like to include all theater — including Broadway — in the nickel-giving campaign. If that had been the case, Berry says, they would have given $600,000 to indie theater last year.
The continued existence of independent companies means that theater-goers don’t have to shell out $500 for Hamilton to experience live theater; they can spend $18 and be transported by the stage in a smaller neighborhood theater. One such theater is The Bushwick Starr, which received a grant from the Indie Theater Fund for their 2015 – 16 production of “Ike at Night.”
“Not only was the grant used for artist fees for the three performers, as well as design and production team members, but it also helped the Starr become the sole producer for the show — an organizational goal we’ve been pursuing in recent years,” said Bushwick Starr Executive Director Sue Kessler of the Indie Theater Fund’s support.
The organization remains ingrained in the theater world. Annual giving takes place at a big community-building bash, in which vetted applicants are placed into a hat to be selected by indie theater luminaries. It also surveys participants each year to find out what they’d like to see the Fund prioritize in its giving. “This year, we placed an emphasis on paying key collaborators of color,” says Berry.
The Indie Theater Fund believes that today’s social and political environment makes their mission all the more relevant. “With the NEA under threat it’s an important time to support organizations that support artists on a regular basis,” says Berry, pointing out that even if indie theaters wouldn’t be likely recipient of NEA funds, the public’s attitude towards funding art changes when the government sends the message that the arts are not important.
“We’re at a really interesting time in history. Artists are willing to say things others wouldn’t. And within a group of artists, the people who are willing to be the loudest and take the most risk are indie theater artists,” says Berry, adding, “Shows in basements and 40-seat theaters change minds.”
Give a Brand! is Thinkso’s annual pro bono branding project. The winning nonprofit, chosen by public vote, receives more than $50,000 worth of free branding, including a new logo, website, marketing materials, and more.