Hi!

I’m feeling overcome with love and art recently because I’m in the early stages of ~500 different projects. 

It’s a fun place to be because I’m just going to Cafe Mustache a lot with friends and talking about big plans! I’ve also been sending Brigid and Sage hundreds of voice notes about women’s rage in 2009 and half baked dance videos. I’m sure they are exhausted by me, but we are having FUN. I long for the logistical hell of sending out rehearsal reminders. I’m not built to dream so big.

Since I’m feeling creatively tapped, I’d love to share some grant application answers I’ve been working on and can you guys just like…let me know if they make sense? I’ve been staring at a google doc for so long thinking about my own creative practice that I can’t tell how annoying I’m being. 

I am currently working on two grant applications:

I’m only going to focus on the Creative Capital grant questions below because there are a lot more questions that I need to flush out. And those answers will help me finish the Red Twist grant.

Short project description: My Best Friend’s Wedding: The Play is a loud parody production of a beloved 90s romcom with live music, drag, over-the-top acting, and giant cardboard props.

Artist intro: Matty is comedian and community theater superfan making play versions of your favorite movies. Her productions involve tall wigs, live bands, and elaborate set pieces built out of trash. 

Am I talking too much about the trash?

Creative Capital supports formally and conceptually innovative and experimental work. How does your project idea take an original and imaginative approach to content and form?

On its surface, a stage adaptation of a movie is wildly unoriginal. I get it! But what I love so much about these productions is how I get to revisit a piece of art that I’ve loved for so long and dive into why I’m drawn to it. 

My Best Friend’s Wedding is not a perfect movie, but it was perfect to me the first time I watched it on a small CRT in my living room, dozing off with my mom against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crisis. With a group of actors, dancers, and musicians bringing in their own artistic baggage and vision of what this movie means, I know it can be perfect for the moment in the Color Club ballroom.

I never want to utter the words “queering the narrative” again, but when you think about it that’s what we are doing here.

What kind of impact do you hope your project will have, and why? What specific audiences and/or communities will the project engage?

First and foremost, these shows are for gay people who love a little razzle dazzle. What I’ve learned doing shows that feel like they have a set audience (i.e. Lizzie McGuire and millennials who grew up watching Disney Channel, Jennifer’s Body and young queer women from the midwest) is that you never know the people who have been moved by a low budget film.

Most of the promotion has been word of mouth and guerrilla marketing like standing outside of farmers markets handing out posters. But these shows have been able to continuously attract a supportive crowd of people who, above all else, want to see weird community theater.

When people leave this show, I hope they revisit other media they love and ask, “What the heck was going on in the world that made this movie the way it is?”

Creative Capital awards artists at catalytic moments in their careers. How is this a catalytic moment in your practice? How will your proposed project or new work act as a catalyst for your artistic and professional growth?

I’ve been able to put up these shows by fronting the cost to produce them (around $4,000) and make enough through ticket sales and small donations to reimburse myself. The cast and crew are mostly volunteers. Last fall, we were awarded a $10,100 grant for The Lizzie McGuire Movie: The Play. The entire grant went directly to paying 25 artists in the city and freed up funds to reinvest in our next show this fall. 

With a similar grant, I hope to not only pay the artists for their work, but expand the show’s run from two or three nights to multiple weeks. Expanding the run would open us up to local media coverage, reviews, awards, and more promotion that would further legitimize the work and the Derek Begrudgingly theater company.

If you have feedback or changes or just want to tell me to delete an answer and start over, reply to this email! I want to hear it! I can take it!

Ad time, sweetie!

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Next Issue(s): Fine, quit begging. I’ll do a two-parter breaking down how we did The Lizzie McGuire Movie: The Play.

Thanks for reading and, as always, don’t tell me about any typos unless they are really bad.