SITI Company's Extended Ensemble
Our goal is to combine SITI Company’s continuing redefinition of how to make and produce theater with “next-generation†internet technologies that can build, connect and strengthen the Company’s international community of students and audiences – creating an online tool that fosters collaboration. We call the project SEE (SITI’s Extended Ensemble).
Key to SITI’s mission is international collaboration and the fostering of young artists – and while the internet is not a substitute for live theater – it has the potential for being a powerful supplement in the creation and dissemination of performance. This is where SEE has the greatest potential for social impact. We firmly believe the internet can be a catalyst for, not a suppression of, direct human interaction – and the theater artist is the ideal candidate for bridging virtual and real worlds.
We plan to offer unique and exclusive SITI-related content online (podcasts, video, blogs, RSS, and social networking tools) to attract and retain the attention of our fans and students. We are also interested in providing live access to rehearsals, dialogues, and other conversations between artist and audience. The primary goal is to work with the community to develop a tool for collaboration and networking that can support the creation of work/live performance.
SITI Company is an ensemble based theater company led by Anne Bogart. In our 15-year history we have shared 26 productions in 55 cities in 18 countries on 5 continents. Each year SITI reaches more than 30,000 people through performances and the training of theater artists.
SITI has partnered with Erika Block, Founder of blockwork, a venture that assists clients in determining whether new “social web†tools might enhance community building and creative processes. She has an extensive background in theater as a director, writer and founder of her own company.
SITI is planning to support the venture by making elements of the community available at a premium to users. Ideally we would like to use the community as an incentive for for small donors (mostly young people giving less than $100 per year). These are donors who we currently do not try to cultivate because traditional forms of donor cultivation are too expensive relative to the size of the contribution (direct mail, events, etc.) Online fundraising has proven a viable strategy in political campaigns, disaster relief, and alumni giving; SITI Company believes its unique model is ideal for applying these tools to the not-for-profit theater community.
Because SITI is unlike traditional theaters and does not have a subscription audience, we lack the convenience of a built-in, localized, community of supporters and stakeholders. Without a base of supporters – cultivating and attracting donors and board members is more difficult. We see this community as becoming a membership-driven entity. Similar to traditional models where season subscribers pay a premium for increased access to the organization – we see social web elements as being a way to fill the void of a lack of subscribers.
Attracting and retaining users
We have the advantage of using live performance and training as the tool for attracting users to the online community. The best strategy to address retention is through content – but as a theater company - our mission for fifteen years has been to generate content. The critical thinking comes out of translating that content to web-based media.
Integration of a fundraising model
SITI will need to be aggressive in attracting donors to the premium content. The quality of the content, particularly the company’s approach to creating theater, is a selling point for our audience.
SITI’s collaboration with blockwork is designed to address the initial phases of groundwork, research and development, prototype, implementation, evaluation and revision. SITI is fundraising through a combination of foundation and individual donors to ensure the project moves forward.
On a practical level, SITI will need the expertise and assistance of coders and designers throughout the initial and follow-up phases to address use-ability and effectiveness. SITI would welcome the assistance of interested coders and designers, but we will also seek to find this expertise within the community of users - building buy-in and ownership within our existing constituency.
* Groundwork / Research and Development (ongoing)
* Secure Funding to implement and launch (ongoing)
* Launch SITI Extended Ensemble
* Expand and add features
With proper funding in place this spring, SITI can have the intial phase of the community developed and live in 90 days (by the end of summer 2007) to coincide with our 15th Anniversary Season in 2007-2008.
Our goal is to combine SITI Company’s continuing redefinition of how to make and produce theater with “next-generation†internet technologies that can build, connect and strengthen the Company’s international community of students and audiences – creating an online tool that fosters collaboration. We call the project SEE (SITI’s Extended Ensemble).
Key to SITI’s mission is international collaboration and the fostering of young artists – and while the internet is not a substitute for live theater – it has the potential for being a powerful supplement in the creation and dissemination of performance. This is where SEE has the greatest potential for social impact. We firmly believe the internet can be a catalyst for, not a suppression of, direct human interaction – and the theater artist is the ideal candidate for bridging virtual and real worlds.
great idea and good luck
I've been a longtime fan of SITI's productions and Viewpoints. Creating an online community to build and sustain a buzz not only around performances, but also to connect those interested in Viewpoints/composition work, is a great idea and seems like the next logical step. Good luck with it!
comment from Zack Rosen
I asked Zack to comment upon the SITI Proposal and he wrote back: A community sites for theatre practitioners, awesome idea! There is clearly a big need and market for such a community.
SETI seems to have a clear idea of what they are striving for. What's going to make this work is not the tools, it is the community itself. I see much in this proposal about the vision in abstract, and the technology, but very little about the strategy to actually create a living breathing active community of participants.
Building a vibrant community of theater artists and audiences
Thanks for the comment and questions.
Because of our residency-based process (mostly in universities), our community of supporters and fans is distributed all over the world making an online community the best possible tool to build and strengthen this already vital community.
Specifically we're building the community from through the following approaches:
Workshop participants SITI leads international workshops in Suzuki and Viewpoints methods of actor training. In addition to three annual sessions in NYC and a month-long program in Saratoga Springs, NY, SITI regularly leads workshops in LA, Chicago, and universities across the country. Our training methods are used in two-dozen curricula of theater programs in colleges all over the world. On average, 600 people per year take one of our workshops, the majority of which are college-aged young artists looking to expand their artistic training. This young tech-savvy audience will be the primary target for the online community.
Theater audiences On average SITI performs 45 times in 12 cities for more than 20,000 people per year. We often visit the same cities every couple of years and have long histories and strong audiences in: NYC, Boston, LA, Chicago, Louisville, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Columbus, and others. The second prong of building the community will be through the audiences who are drawn to our work. The online community will provide supplementary info that will enhance the theater-going experience by providing additional insight into the production and/or a forum for discussing it with other audiences who perhaps saw the same show in Singapore (for example).
Action Steps:
• We'll start getting the word out to past workshop participants and audience members through our monthly email blasts and annual season mailing
• We'll build the online community awareness/marketing into materials about all upcoming workshops and performances and residencies.
• Kick start the program with 15th anniversary meeting/reunion with SITI Alumni in August, 2007. Share the program with our NYC community at our 15th Anniversary Celebration that coincides with our performances at BAM's 25th Annual Next Wave Festival in October.
Finally, because of SITI's reputation in the theater community, we're positioning this project as a field model for performing arts organizations, so the long term impact will be enhanced. To this end, we are doing a series of presentations at conferences, including the Theatre Communications Group conference in June and proposals submitted to four other national arts conferences through next spring.