tribe of fools

Paying for Dracula 2

“The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.” -Lao Tzu

I was watching a documentary the other day about writing and producing movie scripts. One of the writers mentioned something interesting. He said that when he is trying to get a movie made, he spends all of his time asking for money. That point spoke to me directly. Then he went on to say that the only reason that people would ever give him money in the first place is because they are expecting to make more money back from it – like an investment. That point didn’t speak to me quite as directly.

In regional theatre asking for money is a different story (I’m differentiating regional theatre from NY theatre because Broadway and Off-Broadway operate on a similar financial model as motion pictures). When money is given to a regional theatre like Tribe of Fools, that money never makes it back to the donor. Once its donated, it’s gone. So why would anyone donate if that’s the case? What benefit does anyone get out of donating? Its not like they get a good show for a donation. They still have to pay for tickets to the show. So they get a good show for their ticket price, but what do they get for their donation? They do get a tax write-off, but how many people who give actually itemize their taxes? So the question remains: what do people get out of making a donation?

Donating money to the arts (a museum, a dance company or maybe a theatre company like Tribe of Fools) is like purchasing a gym membership. You don’t get your gym membership back. Once you’ve forked that money over its gone - it’s not a financial investment. But what you do get is better physical health. Whether it’s through lifting weights, yoga, cardio classes or a combination of those things you are transforming your money into better health and a healthier body. You can’t directly measure how much health you got for each dollar, but still you know that you are getting better health for the money you pay and over time you can see and feel the difference.

When you donate money to Tribe of Fools what you are doing is you are transforming that money into better health for your soul. Sound a bit too touchy feely? Hear me out for a moment because it’s just as pragmatic as it is philosophical. Music, visual art, and performing arts have been shown (over and over and over again not only in general day-to-day observation but in scientific studies as well) to enhance cognitive thinking, enhance spatial and visual thinking, increase empathetic thinking and problem solving skills, and specifically in the case of theatre, to promote a better sense of community. Who doesn’t want that?

Just like your gym membership there’s no definitive way to measure the results. How much empathy do you get for each dollar? How much of a creativity increase you get per donation? Or what kind of jump will you see in community relations per show produced? But just like you know the gym is good for your body (and you see the results over time) you also know that the arts are good for your soul or at least your general psychological well being. But in the case of the arts you’re not only feeding and nourishing your soul you’re helping to feed the soul of your entire community. And just like the gym, with the arts you can see the results over time.

Tribe of Fools are on the ground level building a small but specialized part of Philadelphia’s cultural landscape. The type of productions that we put on help to shape younger audiences who later grow to into older audiences who then shape the larger cultural landscape of Philadelphia by their involvement with larger organizations. This in-turn influences other cities around us like New York and D.C, who then influence larger scale productions on Off-Broadway and Broadway which then influence movies and popular culture at large. The full progression described here takes a long time, often 30 years or more. But it all starts with one donation by one person.

So if you believe in the nourishment of your soul, the soul of your community and eventually the soul of the nation consider making a manageable donation of $35.

Thanks,

Terry