Letters to.....Wall Street, the Economy, AIG, my Checkbook, my banker, my 401 K, the hole in my pocket.....etc (we're trying to figure out the title, but you get the idea).
Deadline: April 30th
Show Dates: TBA
Show Location: TBA (likely, Portland, Maine this summer).

Dear Alumni Letters Contributors and Contributing Hopefuls:

So. We've got a new show gurgling on the burners here. It's the economy, stupid.

People are losing their homes, their jobs, their cars, their 401 ks and some, even, their lives. Let's make a show about this.

This topic should give us politics, heart felt ideas, humor...we can have pieces about anything from people who are losing a home, losing a marriage because the strain is too great, to a song about AIG--think big, think outside the box, think of the small private moment, the large public moment, the internal struggles of a father losing his job, then his home, etc...

I encourage you to submit. I only have you on this list if I believe you might be able to contribute something wonderful and innovative or if I think you know someone who could produce something wonderful and innovative.

As always I will be reading and curating your submissions with the help the WHTC's advisors. We will be forming a show that attempts to tackle this particular topic from many angles. I suggest you think in terms of satyrical, funny/sad, dramatic, comedic, monologues, songs, scenes, short plays...and everything in between and above and beyond. BUT PLEASE THINK IN TERMS OF THEATRE--THIS IS NOT A READING OF LETTERS AND POEMS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS. THIS WILL BE A FULL SCALE THEATRICAL SHOW WITH MOVEMENTS, A BEGINNING MIDDLE AND AN END.

Food for thought: If you are going to write about the war, please only do so tangentially--as in how paying for the war has helped this country into this disaster, or how we might consider cutting the defense budget and giving that money to regular Americans losing their jobs.

PLEASE CONSIDER THE INSIDER VS.OUTSIDER EXPERIENCE. Write about a moment when a character 's life turned on a dime and will never be the same. What does it mean to grow up in this new America? How far will we all fall with this economy "downturn?" Or think about a moment you talked to a homeless person and they said something ...so ....perfect...Or a republican who really made you think (it's been reported to have happened to some of us)...

HERE'S THE NITTY GRITTY:
This Letters show will join our highly successful "Letters to Ohio" which had two wonderful runs in Portland, Maine in the spring of 2005; Then, "Letters to Katrina" was voted by The Maine Sunday Telegram to be one of the 10 top art events in the state of Maine in 2005. "Letters to Baghdad" opened in June 2006 in Portland to packed houses and got national buzz. Also, a section of "Letters to Katrina" opened in the fall of 2006 in NYC as part of the Impact Festival. Then, "Letters to the NRA" opened in June 2007 in Portland, also to much national acclaim. Check out www.winterharbortheatre.org for more info on WHTC.

We're looking at a Gala Opening Night sometime in the coming months. If we do it in Maine and we can--and need to--you will be brought to the location of the show from wherever you reside and we will house you and your travel will be paid for.

ALL CONTRIBUTORS WILL BE PAID AN HONORARIUM.

AGAIN, I need monologues, scenes, ideas and stories THAT WILL WORK ON STAGE, original songs or covers to songs that you'll do in interesting or new ways, music ideas, actors to submit headshots, art works for the walls, help, love and commitment, and, most of all a belief that with art, we might just do some good in the world!!

Please submit your ideas & scripts by April 30th (AT LATEST). BUT feel free to submit early as I'll be forming the show around the early birds. Please do not hesitate to bounce ideas off me. Submit by email to this address: winterharbortheatre@gmail.com with a PDF or word document OR by mail to the below Maine PO Box.

I want this will be a balls to the wall show--please pull no punches. Let's really make a strong, heartbreaking and ironically funny show about the future of America.

For inspiration I suggest you take a look at some recent This American Life shows and take a trawl through the Times archives of the last year. Check out NPR.org and read anything and everything about money. Read some columns by James Carroll from the Boston Globe. Check out commondreams.org. Read the NY Post and People or US Weekly. Read about foreclosures and then about extreme excess in a world gone to hell in a hand basket. It's all terrific fodder.