by HOWARD SCHOR of BEAT

One prominent local patron of the arts gave a sagacious answer when asked “How would the winner of the national elections affect the structure of arts funding?”

“It’s like talking about painting the guest room red or blue when the house is on fire.” What do we do to have the arts flourish when the first fiscal cuts are to the arts and the first arts to be cut are the performing arts and the first performing arts demographic to suffer the deepest cuts are the youth?

We must do it for ourselves. It is remarkable what happens when you have a group committed to a purpose greater than the survival of the organization.

Now in its seventh year, BEAT (Bend Experimental Art Theater) is one of the most innovative dramatic arts for youth organizations in America.

Up until last year, BEAT was a “workshop-production centered group” that attracted a fantastically close-knit group of volunteers to support such great productions as The Miracle Worker, A Christmas Carol, West Side Story, The Boys Next Door and Annie Get Your Gun.

Each workshop-production was like a powerful wave that lasted until it hit the beach of the last performance and then dispersed, until the next wave came and went.

This was by design. Our first five-year plan called for something innovative and highly unusual. Virtually all focus is on the creative, educational and social well-being and growth of our young actors.
 
Virtually no attention was placed on raising money from grantors, sponsors or individuals. We were almost entirely “self funded” (from tuition and ticket sales). To this day we operate with a skeleton staff and low operating expenses. Nearly all expenses are workshop-production related.

Our instructors, directors and crews are absolutely clear as to our guiding principle: The actors are the root and the tree. A wonderful production is the fruit. Focus on the root and the tree and the fruit will come naturally.

Part of this five-year plan was to put in place impeccable administrative, educational and production systems that can be easily passed on to new committed volunteers, directors and crew. This continues to keep staff and all operating costs at a bare minimum.

Audiences totaling 40,000, including 19,000 students have seen our productions. BEAT has grown, naturally, into a full-time organization which called for an even more innovative, ambitious plan: To open the space for the most dedicated, skilled volunteers to manage the growth of their organization.

Yes, we are finally fundraising. This year focuses on two areas that BEAT has solely subsidized:
1) Scholarships for actors and their families who are financially challenged
2) Students in Central Oregon to continue to attend live musical, comedic and dramatic performances by their peers.

In support of “The Players,” two new BEAT’s programs are in full swing.
1. The formation of “The Supporting Players:” adults and young adults who are taking full responsibility for essential segments of work that occurs year round. Marketing, social media, data entry, coordination with the schools, fundraising, grant writing, accounting and budgeting are now under the aegis of volunteers with skill sets in those areas.
2. BEAT has expanded its age limits to include college students. Why? Another phenomenon that has emerged is that many who started acting in grade school are now college age. Already ten of our former students have directed, and taught classes and full productions.

This fall BEAT’s 33rd and 34th Art of Acting workshops are in full swing. On December 20 actors will bring to life the stage version of the Frank Capra classic It’s A Wonderful Life directed by David Da Costa at 2nd Street Theater.

And in January one of Bend’s finest actors and by many accounts one of the great directors of youth in the country, Mary Kilpatrick, working with Musical Director Jimena Shepherd, a former BEAT star, and 35 actors will bring us a musical for the ages, Annie, to be performed at the state-of-the-art Bend High School Auditorium Theater.

And stop the presses – in a second weekend Annie will be performed in collaboration with BEAT’s new alliance with COCC at the fabulous Pinckney Center.

Connect and join us on Facebook, www.beatonline.org, www.beattickets.org and for information or to volunteer contact betsy.overfelt@beatonline.org or 541- 419-5558.