2015-256-E Arts - One Song Productions Arts Grant

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DocuSign Envelope ID: CAC728CC-F65E-41D2-9580-34E62F51AC3D Organizational Profile One Song Productions is a local, youth-run theatre organization founded in 2002 by Katie Yow and Daniel Elam, two Chapel Hill High School students, as a supplement to school dramatic programs. One Song's goals are to engage youth in every step of the creative process and offer new opportunities for learning and growth in the performing arts. One Song is run by a board of six to eight directors, all of whom attend high schools in the Durham-Chapel Hill area. Their aim is to provide students in the area with a fun, creative, and educational experience working on extracurricular productions. Additionally, all One Song events are produced, directed, and staged entirely by students from area high schools and colleges. One Song produces five different shows in a year's season, all of which are directed and cast by high school students from the Triangle area of North Carolina. One Song has continued to expand throughout its 11 year history as a result of the community's constant support and generosity, as the shows One Song produces are funded solely by donations and grant applications submitted by students. Current Programs and Services Each year, One Song Productions aims to produce a five-show season. One Song has three full-length productions directed by high school students, a summer show directed by a high school or college student, and a 48-hour theatre event, The February 48. The three main shows, all of which are selected and directed by the Board of Directors, provide material that students may not get a chance to work with in their school environments. These shows often push the envelope, giving participating students the chance to take on more challenging characters and content that they might not be exposed to in schools, as well as the opportunity to explore complex moral and ethical angles to modern issues. One Song also provides technical students with opportunities to be creative and branch out without the confines of a school tech department. All design and construction is headed by students, giving them the chance to apply technical knowledge they may have learned in school and take on full leadership positions usually regulated by school staff members. One Song's annual summer show provides many of the same opportunities as the main shows, but also gives local high school and college students outside of the Board of Directors the opportunity to choose and direct a show. Additionally it provides a way for students to remain involved in theatre over the summer,when the schools' departments are not active. The February 48 is also designed to push boundaries, especially the boundary of time. Unlike One Song's three main shows and summer show, The February 48 is not a full-length show, but rather a series of one-act plays, all of which are written, rehearsed, and performed by students over the course of a single weekend. Students are assigned to groups on a Friday night. Student writers are then given the beginning and ending lines of their plays and are asked to write a script over the course of that night. Scripts are passed out to groups on Saturday morning, after being reviewed by the Board of Directors, and each group is sent off to rehearse for the day,