Notes from Ivy - Be part of our Mosaic in 2012

Hi friends!

Usually we send out a big end of year giving letter from Mosaic that is one last push to try to cover funding, try to get some friends a good artistic and social cause to give to, one last harah for the great year we've had!  We are, and we did and we will again.  But this year I wanted to send you all a quick note from me personally.  After all, what is Mosaic but your kids, our teachers and me all rushing through from semester to semester, getting on another costume, and "putting some glitter on it" to make it all come together.
 
This year was a great year.  We always learn so much, how to be better as teachers, how to be better for your kids, how to be better as a company and we always grow personally from the experience and we hope you and your children do as well.  However, there is always a looming item on my agenda of things to be better at that I am very shy and protective about.  Of course, as you can imagine, it's fundraising!  Why?  

Back to that question in a moment.

There is something you should know about Mosaic and I don't know that these words are ever spoken from me as honestly as I can type it out here on my computer.  Mosiac is has been a growing changing creature since we started.  And we are a Mosaic.  Broken people, coming together to make something beautiful.  The picture our Mosaic makes will always be changing, but there are a few things I know where we stand.  I want to make theatre for children, by children, for the public to enjoy that changes people's lives.  I want to enrich my community with an artistic experience that will engulf them when they walk in the door, to be able to change the entire theatre venue so that when a person walks into the space, they are a part of the play.  "I am on Edwina's lawn!"  "I'm in Fancy Nancy's house!" "I am experiencing and empathizing with the beauty and pain that every human experiences through a live theatrical experience."  Every theater has a goal.  My goal is to bring together our worlds, to blur the lines between the stage and the seats.  I want the parents to feel as proud of the work we did as the kids or the teachers, for the grandmothers to look at ALL of us and say, "you did that together?"  This year, I want to scholarship in more kids than we ever have.  My ultimate goal is a one to one ratio of students.  This won't happen for many years but we have to start somewhere!  Yes, these are Pollyanna type goals.  And this year has been our toughest year financially.  But it has made me realize how important this art is that we do.  We enrich each other.  We teach each other.  We have the possibility of creating a collaborative experience that no one in this country has ever seen and do it with excellence.  

None of these goals are possible without fundraising!  And the answer to my "why" from earlier is that a theatre that asks for social change and artistic collaboration seems like a place where the ugly "fundraising" word should never be spoken aloud.  But it HAS TO!  We can't reach our goals without your generosity.  We can't pay teachers, buy props, scholarship students, buy materials, without your help.  This is part of the collaboration.  If you can't paint a set with us, if you don't sew, if you want children of all ages to have an opportunity to be in a play for the first time in their lives, to have something to be proud of, all the kids that can't use a baseball bat to save their lives (me included!) to finally have their place to shine, this is the way you can collaborate.  With your help, we can change the scope and magnitude of what we do and create something worth talking about and being involved in.  

Please join us in your end of year giving.  2012 is going to bring about remarkable art, beauty, change and we want Mosaic to take those grand steps to becoming all of the things we all collaborated and dreamed it could be.  

I hope you have a had a wonderful holiday and that you will have a great new year.  We hope that you will join us at the end of this year and through 2012 as all of us come together to build a beautiful new Mosaic.  

All my heart,

Ivy Castle
Executive Artistic Director

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Mosaic Theatre Company is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation registered with the state of Texas.  Gifts are tax deductible to the extent of the law.  Oversight and accountability for financial issues are governed by a board of directors who are committed to using resources for maximum impact for theatre arts in our community.   Gifts for 2011  must be given onlline or postmarked by Dec. 31.   For more information, go to our donations page at http://www.mosaictheatre.org/donate/

Leading Man

Santry Rush in MTC's Main Stage production of The Good Thief, by Conor McPherson.

2nd week of shows starts this Thursday @ 8PM.

We're front page news!

Mosaic is on the front page of Chron.com today. Check out the half price tickets on today's DAILY DEAL.

Workin' & Chillin'

So much going on at Mosaic right now. We're working like crazy and can't wait to share all of it with you!!!

We took a little break to tell you...that's the chillin' part

More than we hoped for!

We started this theatre as a happy accident.  We were hoping to provide some fun, funny theatre for a new community.  The west side of Houston doesn't really tout the arts as a part of its culture, it started as a sleepy suburb way back when and is literally now the "center" of the city.  Hence "City Center" was born.  We brought KidzPlanet to this side of town, a multi-media theatre production, thinking that we would provide some good times for some families and also laugh as friends on stage.  In 2005 KidzPlanet gave birth to a theatre camp for kids, providing basic theatre education aligned with the same good ol' virtues of "KP" as we call it.  KP Kamp gave birth to a couple of basic theatre education classes.  Ok, I thought, that's a choice.  We'll do that for a minute.  We hired some of the best teachers in the city, and I proceeded to show them the height of disorganization.  Every flaw I had as a leader came out.  But we pressed on.  From education came our touring production, another clumsy start.  But by the time the tour came around, one...ONE of our classes was going incredibly well.  And KP Kamp was like breathing - and the kids were having fun.  We crossed the finish line of the first tour, wiped our brows and thought - never again.  But onward and upward, I guess.  KP...KP Kamp...Classes...Tour...This thing was out of control, no way to stop it and if it does....people are actually going to care.  WHAT HAVE WE DONE???

And then the strangest thing happened.  We were panting and crying, not sleeping from stress, fighting each other over scheduling and budgets....but then we looked around ourselves and were surrounded by kids with smiling faces, happy schools, actors who were having a good time, teachers who cried from joy at their student's performances, and to top it all - an adult audience saying, "don't leave us out!"  The west Houston area is asking US for more? 

So we've made the crazy decision to start our Main Stage program - MTC's professional theatre for adults!   

Our inaugural Main Stage season is one that we hope will introduce Mosaic to the West side of Houston, downtown, the theatre community and to the world as a theatre who wants to make social change.  In the same way we instilled virtues in our audiences when we were just a seedling, we want to inspire change and hope and goodness in the world around us.  Theatre can not only entertain, but it can make a difference.  By partnering with organizations for our Main Stage productions we will make our best effort to do some darn good theatre and raise awareness about social issues that we think are worth raising an eyebrow for. 

All these programs are growing and changing and breathing and living.  We have become more than we've hoped and people have believed in us more than we will ever deserve, but here we are.  Thank goodness. 

-Ivy