My oldest daughter’s high school friend, Steven Mooney, stopped by today. He graduated this past May from the Musical Theater program at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. Unlike many theater graduates across the country, he actually has a role in an upcoming New York musical. He has been cast in one of the New York Fringe Festival productions at the end of August. The show, entitled, I Don 3 U Ne Mor, is billed as “a musical comedy about humanity in the tangled cables of modern society... and zombies.”
In addition to rehearsals, costuming, lighting and all the other components of putting on a shoestring budgeted show, everyone involved has to pitch in to help raise funding. According to Steven, the way the festival works is they turn funding over to each of the shows. “We are required to raise a minimum of $3,000 before the festival itself will aid in our funding,” he said. “So we’re using a program, along with most of the other productions, called Kickstarter. This program enables us to reach out to friends and family and ask them to pledge a donation.” To pledge via Kickstarter you just need an Amazon.com payment account, which you can sign up for quickly if you don’t have one. No pledge is too small. In fact, you can even donate $1.00 to become an official Off-Off-Broadway backer. Just remember--these are donations as opposed to an investment opportunity. If the production does not reach its $3,000 goal your credit card is not charged.
So why not considering taking the plunge? Support the arts. Support the New York Fringe Festival. Support the ambition of a newly minted college grad.
