BY MARSHA HINTON Special to Ticket
Starting a business? Have an art project? Need to raise money for college? Putting on a production at the Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath? Crowdsourcing sites may provide a useful vehicle for fundraising — even for Gilbert and Sullivan.
Crowdfunding, or crowdsourcing, is a method through which groups or individuals can raise money for just about anything. Sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, FirstGiving, RocketHub and Gofundme provide tools and platforms for online fundraising.
When Wayne Otto decided to bring a Gilbert and Sullivan production back to Bath, he wanted to make the production one to remember.
“I selected Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore in March and decided right away that this production was going to be the most spectacular show to come to Bath in a long time,” Otto said. “To make that happen we need a really cool set — a big ship with stairs, a mast, rope ladders and lots of ornamentation. We need marvelous costumes — flowing 19th century dresses and sailors suits and an admiral’s uniform and a ship’s captain. We needed to advertise to find the best actors, singers and dancers around. We needed the finest musicians in the Mid-coast to play the score.”
Fundraising is always a large part of any theater production — and community theater groups tend to have a more difficult time with acquiring the funding they need. Making do with recycled costumes and sets and bolstered by the dedicated volunteers, they manage to stage live theater productions locally. The estimated cost for Otto’s vision for the HMS Pinafore is $4,000. The show has managed to raise $2,000 thus far.
“We are now short $2,000, so the Executive Director of the Chocolate Church, Jen DeChant, suggested the crowdfunding idea,” Otto said. “I researched several funding platforms and decided to use Gofundme.”
The cast for the HMS Pinafore, including Mike Millett, Tracy Kapocius, Charlene Schofield, Ben Proctor, Melanie Willey, Isaac Ensel, Drew Walden, Molly Cashman, Samantha Melquist, Molly Poulin, Thomas Trundy and Keagan Hennessey have been rehearsing for another production to be recorded by videographer Robert Lowrie. Otto will use GoFundMe as a platform for this video production to encourage patrons to contribute.
Otto’s goal is to launch the Gofundme fundraising project on July 10. The funny and to-the-point video performed by the cast sums up the goal of the production — “We need some cash.”
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