NEA Grant Narrative Keaton Shapiro

Major Project Activities (3000 characters)

CoHo Productions strives to produce work that both includes and supports the voices of

those who are often underrepresented. We dedicate ourselves to presenting work showcasing the

talents of women and minorities within the theatre world. CoHo Productions is requesting

funding to fulfil this goal in our upcoming production of Sarah Ruhls The Clean House. We at

CoHo believe that minority voices are incredibly important, and see The Clean House as an

opportunity to present the voices of Latina women at multiple stages in their lives. In a

community that has seen an increase of 52.11% in the Latinx community, we feel it is our

responsibility to make sure their voices are heard.

The Clean House is a prize-winning play that presents the stories of a set of people from

a diverse range of generational, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. After it premiered in 2004 it

won the 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama the

following year. The play centers around five characters, two of whom are Latina and four of

whom are women. It discusses the nature of love and the ways in which it manifests itself at

multiple stages of life through the women of the play, who are all different ages. These characters

experience familial love, marital love, infatuation manifesting as love, the idea of a soulmate,

and the desire for rational love. In presenting the numerous ways in which love manifests, the

play opens up a dialogue that we at CoHo believe is had often, but not often had

intergenerationally.

By presenting The Clean House this coming season, CoHo Productions intends to spark

this intergenerational dialogue not only onstage, but also between members of our audience. In

doing so, we will bring our audience closer together while emphasizing love within our

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community. Portland is made up, primarily, of 25-44 year olds with 45-64 year olds trailing

closely behind. This means that the majority of the audience we will draw in will be around the

ages of the characters within this play. We recognize, however, that a conversation cannot be

sparked by the play alone. In order to give the audience a jumping off point, we will be sending

out a call for love letters, which can be submitted anonymously or otherwise, to the theatres

blog. Additionally, we will be calling for personal love stories or tokens of love from our

community through our many social media channels. We will present these letters in the lobby of

our theatre during the show and have them hanging like leaves from a tree waiting to be plucked,

with the instructions read this to a stranger. We expect the letters to provide a shared moment

upon which the audience can base their conversations.

Ultimately, we expect this production to strengthen our Portland community by sparking

meaningful conversations about love across our many generations and populations. It is our hope

that all who see our show will leave feeling supported and heard.

Schedule of key project dates (1500 characters)

We will begin production meetings approximately three months prior just after the 4th of

July on July 6, 2017, meaning that all designers will have been hired by June 24th. Casting will

begin on July 17st and be finalized by July 31th. Rehearsals will begin three weeks prior to the

opening of the show on October 5, 2017, and the productions will occur over three weeks from

October 28 through November 19, 2017.

Promotion and Publicity (1000 characters)

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 In order to publicize this production, CoHo will be taking a multi-media approach. Due to

the fact that we will be calling for online submissions for our letter-call, we feel that a good

social media campaign utilizing Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram will be one of our

more effective strategies. We are working with our publicist, who is an expert in Social Media

Marketing, to develop our final campaign, but it will be a cross-platform look at the process of

creating this show as well as an open dialogue with current and future subscribers and audience

members. In trying to reach multiple generations, we will also be working closely with Portland-

based newspapers, magazines, and other publications as well as with our local radio stations to

publicize the production. Additionally, we expect that the interactive element that the letter-call

provides will draw in new audience members who hear about the project through their family

members and friends.

Accessibility (1000 characters)

Our 99 seat theatre is equipped with two ADA accessible seats which can be used during

any performance and fully complies with all ADA regulations. The production will not include

smoke or lighting effects that may trigger any medical conditions that we foresee. Our theatre is

also readily accessible by public transit, within blocks of two different bus lines as well as a ten-

minute walk from the streetcar line. We will have one production per week with simultaneous

ASL interpretation, and another performance each week during which we will provide live audio

description for those patrons who may need it.

Outcome Narrative (1000 characters)

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 This project will directly engage the community with diverse and excellent art. Inviting

the audience into the world of The Clean House with a call for their stories allows for a deep and

personal engagement with the play. The audience not only watches the world of the play unfold

in front of them, but they are also included in the dialogue through their own stories of their

experiences with love. The piece does not occur exclusively within the theatre, it continues into

the lobby with the tree of stories which the audience is invited and encouraged to add to and take

from. This leads to a conversation that will continue outside of the doors of CoHo, as well as

within the minds of our patrons. Our expectation is to ignite an interpersonal journey among all

of our patrons before they even enter CoHo.

Performance measurement (1000 characters)

Our level of success will be made clear through our ticket sales, new subscribers, and

returning patrons. In addition, the amount of submissions we receive for our lobby tree will help

us determine the level to which we succeeded in engaging the community directly. The number

of letters left on the tree at the end of the run will allow us to see how much the audience

engaged with each other either during intermission or following the performance run. Ideally, we

will have a number of new, handwritten letters affixed to the tree, and very few of our printed

letters remaining which will indicate the level of in-person audience participation to a higher

degree.

Intended beneficiaries (1000 characters)

This project will reach people ages 20-65, bridging the gap between these generations.

Today we live in a society that is increasingly stratified by age. The distance between generations

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seems to grow exponentially, and it is decreasingly likely that we engage in intergenerational

discussion or even that we have contact with those a generation above or below our own. The

project will make those gaps narrower by giving them a common ground, thus benefitting these

multiple generations.

Additionally, the diversity of our cast for The Clean House will allow for many Latinx

members of our community to experience their voices being heard and represented on stage. By

presenting Latinx people as they are, not as caricatures or token characters, we raise their voices

more.

Consultations (1000)

We at CoHo feel that the best way to consult with these beneficiaries is to invite

them to see and be a part of the production. They will be included in the creation of this

piece through both the social media publicity showing the behind-the-scenes creation

of the production as well as through their contributions to the tree of stories. By

publicizing ourselves through many different media facets, we expect to reach multiple

generations regardless of their views on or experience with things like our blog.

Additionally, we will be providing our patrons with the ability to contact us throughout

production with questions and concerns through our social media platforms.

Past work with beneficiaries (1000)

The majority of our audiences already falls into the age ranges we have identified

here. Many of our subscribers and returning patrons already belong to these

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 demographics, but have existed separately. This will be the first time we invite them to

engage with each other as opposed to just with our work.

How will it benefit the underserved community? (1000 characters)

Through our production of The Clean House, CoHo presents the representation of

multiple generations, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds on stage, allowing for audience

self-identification within the performance. The diversity of these characters will also allow for

audience members to experience cultures and languages other than their own while watching the

performance.

Additionally, this production will ignite an intergenerational conversation about the

specific topic of love. By doing this, the gates between generations open up and the gaps that

seem to be so large between different age groups begin to shrink, allowing for these

intergenerational discussions to become common and comfortable. Opening up these lines of

communication and presenting our audience with new viewpoints will create a community in

which a dialogue is much more possible, thus creating a more open community environment.