Folks,
Take a look and please respond.
And come to the Town Hall meeting this Wednesday, RSVP at fund@litny.org.
This is a living document, based on the feedback and
response we’ve received from the independent theater territory so far. We look forward to revising, fine-tuning and
strengthening the ideas and principles below with you.
LIT FUND BASICS
WHAT IT IS
The League of Independent Theater
Fund is designed to financially assist organizations and individual
theater artists creating independent theater in the five boroughs of New York
City. The intent of the fund is to help this vital segment of American
theater thrive in a difficult economic environment and to have a positive
impact on the cultural landscape of the city.
Money for the LIT Fund comes from
contributions from a number of organizations (listed below), who donate five
cents per ticket sold to their performances. This five cent donation is not
passed on to the ticket buyer but comes from the organization.
Recipients of money from the LIT
Fund are chosen based both on a demonstrated history of work and a proven
responsibility in the independent theater sector. Recipients will be required to serve on
the Fund’s adjudication panel the year following their funding and will be
ineligible to receive funds two years in a row.
Fund distribution will be determined
on an annual basis and there will be no set categories. Our members have identified real estate
costs, artist compensation, money to create new work, marketing, equipment
purchase and touring costs as current areas of concern. We trust that the
artists and organizations we serve know best where the money is needed and we
intend to have them dictate where it is distributed.
At the core of the LIT Fund is the simple idea of
theater people helping theater people.
All money collected will go solely to the
independent theater territory, with a small portion dedicated to administering
the Fund.
We will strive for radical transparency throughout our
entire process, from collection to deliberation to decision to distribution.
We will neither accept money from nor give money to corrupt
organizations or individuals. We are
defining “corrupt” in this context as organizations or individuals that do not
honor artists and arts workers in terms of financial compensation, professional
treatment or basic human respect.
We recognize that the power of the Fund will be
measured in the level of commitment and collaboration of theater people in New
York City, not in the amount of money collected and distributed.
The money is important, of course, but finally, it’s
not really about the money. The power of the Fund is us working together and
taking care of each other.
HOW IT WORKS
The legal entity responsible for the administration
of the Fund is the League of Independent Theater, Inc. Current LIT board members are Randi Berry,
John Clancy, Jennifer Conley Darling, Martin Denton, Amanda Feldman, Chris
Harcum, Christopher Heath, Robert Honeywell and Erez Ziv.
In the inaugural year, LIT will form a committee of
nine members tasked with determining how the initial funds collected in
2012-2013 will be distributed. Three
members will be recruited from the LIT board, three members will be recruited
from the LIT membership and three members will be recruited from the
philanthropic and commercial theater sectors in New York City. This committee, after extensive public and
private discussion and review, will make formal recommendations to the LIT
board by June 1st, 2012.
These recommendations will be public documents. The LIT board will review the recommendations
and announce the first year fiscal priorities and objectives of the Fund by
June 15, 2012.
Funds will begin being collected on August 1,
2012. The first distribution of the LIT
Fund will occur no later than December 31, 2013.
LIT FUND PARTICIPANTS AS OF 3/23/12
Agony Productions, The Amoralists, Angry
Bubble Productions Art House
Productions, CSV Cultural Center, Caps Lock Theatre, Clancy Productions The Civilians, Decades Out, Deconstructive
Theatre Project, Elephant Run District, ETdC Projects Lab, Flux Theatre
Ensemble, Gemini/Collisionworks, Gorilla Rep,
HERE Horse Trade Theater Group, Inverse
Theatre, Irondale Ensemble Living
Theater, Jewish Plays Project, John Montgomery Theatre Company, La Lupa Italian
Cultural Arts Festival, Mabou Mines, Mind
the Gap Theatre, New Georges, The New Ohio Theatre, New York Neo-Futurists, New York
Theatre Experience, Inc., No. 11 Productions, Organs of State, OutOurWayProductions, P.S. 122, Parallel Exit, Peculiar Works, Present
Company (producers of FringeNYC), Purple Rep, Rabbit Hole Ensemble, Reverie Productions, Sinking Ship Productions, Small
Pond Entertainment, Sponsored by
Nobody, Stolen Chair Theater Company, Surf Reality, Tectonic Theater
Project, terraNOVA Collective, Theatre
Askew, Untitled Theater Company #61,
undergroundzero, Vampire
Cowboys Theater Company, ViolaCello StageWorks, LLC, WET Productions, White
Horse Theater Company, Wreckio Ensemble.
