2021-604-E-Arts Commission-OdysseyStage-Restart the Arts

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Provide a brief description of your pre-pandemic core arts-related programming or offerings. OdysseyStage typically produces between 3 and 5 unique and original productions a year. Just prior to the stay-at-home orders in March 2020, we were in pre-production for three shows: The Suffragist Project, After the Thin Man, (part of our Liv e Radio series), and the NC 10by10. The Suffragist Project was to be performed in three locations in the Triangle; The Seymour Center, Pure Life Theatre (in Raleigh), and at the Durham Library. Ensuring a div erse and extensiv e audience. In prev ious seasons we hav e done the NC 10by10 in partnership with Cary Playwrights’ Forum. W e perform the show in two locations; the ArtsCenter in Carrboro and at the Cary Theatre. Ov er 1,000 people typically attend performances. Audiences come from all ov er the Triangle and beyond. The audience age range is teens to seniors, and most ethnic groups are represented. Our audiences lov e this show and look forward to it ev ery year. One audience member ev en attended all 8 performances in 2019! The benefits to the audience include: exposure to North Carolina playwright’s work, a div ersity of v oices and styles of plays, the opportunity to see local actors perform and a fun and entertaining night out. For our liv e radio series, performed at both the ArtsCenter and the Seymour Center, we tend to attract a slightly older demographic who remember the old Lux Radio program. Howev er, our Christmas show “Miracle on 34th Street”, was a family fav orite, sold out and had audiences of all ages in attendance. Our audiences benefit from this series by experiencing the golden age of radio shows: the fun, nostalgia and imagination of liv e radio with a foley artist creating the sounds right in front of them. W e also did a v ersion of “Sitting Pretty” at both locations that was also v ery family friendly and big hit with all who attended. W e did a series of monologues called “Past Imperfect: Voices from North Carolina’s History”. This was first done as a staged reading at the ArtsCenter. W e had a full house for that reading, made up primarily of local Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents that skewed to a more mature audience as did our performance at the Seymour Center but the performance at the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham was by far our most div erse audience in both ethnicity and age. Our audience ranged from one year old to well ov er sev enty. After each performance we had a talk-back with the audience. They lov ed the show and learning about the famous, not-so-famous, and infamous people portrayed. W e literally had to ask the audiences to leav e the v enues because they were closing for the night. The benefit to our audiences was learning about some of the people who helped shape North Carolina (for better and for worse), getting some insight into who these people were, what motiv ated them and learning about people they may nev er hav e heard of like the courageous labor balladeer Ella Mae W iggins and many others. DocuSign Envelope ID: 89A43E1A-61F4-4254-A2D4-4FCB2AB5935F