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  • 1.  Grants

    Posted 09-05-2014 07:51
    As our school program is not funded by the school or district in any way, we are looking into applying for a couple of grants this year (hopefully that means less car washes!).  I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share the grants that they wrote--especially if they were successful!  

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    Jessica Harms
    Tewksbury Memorial High School
    Tewksbury MA
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  • 2.  RE: Grants

    Posted 09-06-2014 01:45
    I managed to successfully apply for a grant from a local Community Foundation in order to run a summer drama camp. My wife used to run a social work program, so had lots of helpful tips when she substantially re-wrote it. The general rule of thumb is to ask yourself what it is the grant is for, and whether the grant is going to have some kind of measurable impact. In our application, we stated that we were offering two free weeks of a drama camp, focusing on skill building and community building (the region/school boundary I serve is fairly poor. Most drama camps run up to a hundred dollars a kid, something our students wouldn't be able to afford. We measured through use of a pre and post test survey, students feelings of self worth and self confidence. Thankfully, when we broke down the numbers statistically we were able to note a marked improvement in student attitudes of self worth and confidence. In our application, we talked about the research that concludes that theatre is a beneficial thing for our students (the EdTA) site has some good literature somewhere on this, I can't remember off hand where it is- someone else know?) Let me know if this helps, and if you want a copy of our proposal/application message me back and is be happy to share. The grant we won was fairly substantial! ------------------------------------------- Phillip Goodchild Valrico FL -------------------------------------------
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  • 3.  RE: Grants

    Posted 09-07-2014 20:45
    Jessica, my experience is that most grants seemed to dry up when the economy tanked.  I can usually depend on our PTO for a couple of hundred dollars for small projects, but the large grants we used to receive from our arts councils, local and state, are things of the past.

    It has worked much better for us to mix in some public domain shows to cut costs.

    Shakespeare is great, of course, especially if you download a copy and print your own scripts.  (I like MIT's copies, but Gutenberg.org is also good.)  Another advantage of that is you can make cuts before you print copies.  

    We've also done "Under the Gaslight" by Augustin Daly, a melodrama from 1867, which makes it public domain.  (It's not readily available online, but I have a digital copy I'll send, if you'd like to read it.)

    "Sganarelle" by Moliere is a one-act that is wonderful, slapstick fun. (gutenberg)  All of Moliere is public domain.  All you have to do is find a public domain translation that sings.

    "She Stoops to Conquer" and "The Importance of Being Earnest" are still hilarious, and public domain.

    A collection of short plays and scenes written by your students, perhaps directed by your Thespian troupe members, will cost you nothing at all.  

    If you've got students or community members sewing costumes for you, you can also put out the word that you would appreciate donations of all that fabric people have realized they will never get around to sewing.  Fabric is expensive, and there are probably sewing rooms and garages full of it.  I've costumed dozens of shows almost exclusively from donated fabric.

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    C. J. Breland
    Asheville NC
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