An Experimental Year of Inclusive Theatre-Making
OTP2020 SERIES & COMMUNITY UPDATE IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19
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It is with a heavy heart but a fierce dedication to the health and safety of our community amid such uncertainty that we formally postpone the majority of our spring and summer programming at Open Theatre Project.
The OTP Board, Core, and our production teams have done an exceptional job in the past few weeks assessing our response to the crisis. While we wish the impact was minimal, we still don’t know how far-reaching the effects of the pandemic will be. The best we can do right now is postpone and ensure the company and artists have the time needed to adjust to any new normals we find when we return to our theatre and our community. Most importantly, we will return thanks to your support and our amazing team.
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In true OTP fashion, we want to keep our doors open to all throughout this crisis—digitally, at least. As we look ahead, we are making a few promises, as we did when we started OTP 2020:
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OTP is a THEATRE company, focused on creating art in a shared and connected space… this is contradictory to the world we live in right now, but we promise we will be ready when we can gather again.
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We promise to take care of our team 120%. For any OTP team member who was interrupted in the middle of work on a production, we’re making sure they are paid before we pause. For those who have yet to begin work, we will prioritize accommodating their schedules and availability for our return.
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We promise to support our venue partners at St. John’s Church, Club Cafe, and the PAO Arts Center when we return to make sure their spaces are FULL of theatre, connection, and community.
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We promise to keep moving forward and stay connected (while we practice social distancing). The OTP Board and Core will be gathering regularly to keep our mission moving forward and will provide regular updates to you all.
Official Updates to our 2020 Series
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Everyone is Dying and So Am I - POSTPONED to Aug - Dec 2020
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Gay Shorts 4 : Across the Ages - POSTPONED for Later in 2020
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PlayFeast : A Banquet of New Asian American Plays - POSTPONED for Later in 2020
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PlaysInProgress - PLANNING ADJUSTMENTS for 2020 Dates
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TheatrePorch as part of JP Porchfest - CANCELLED
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JP Concerts remainder of 19/20 Series - CANCELLED, returning in the Fall
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SLAM Boston - DATES BEING REASSESSED
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OTP Core & Board Meetings - CONTINUING Virtually
Ways we’d love for you to stay involved:
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Stay Safe - The CDC and specifically the Massachusetts State Department have been diligent in sharing updates on the best ways to be stay safe, this is our #1 Priority.
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Stay Informed - We will be sharing regular updates with our community including artistic relief opportunities, community engagement opportunities and the best ways to stay safe during this time. We thank our partners at Stage Source for their on-going support of our artistic community & their Resources on COVID-19.
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Stay Connected - Tell us what you’re doing, engage with us on Social Media, Send Us an Email, share new stories you’re reading, and connect with one another.
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Support our Upcoming Work - If you have the means to give right now, we’re only going to be using this time to make what’s to come even better. We want to make sure our community has something bright to look forward to, and as always, that means helping us pay our artists and open our doors as wide as possible.
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Keep sharing your ideas for the future! There is a lot of unknown right now, but just as much potential as always, if you have an idea to share, we’d love to hear it!
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As we move into uncharted waters, we do so together, as a unified company and community. OTP’s mission starts and ends with the idea that theatre should be for everyone, and with your help, we’ll weather this storm and come back better than ever.
All the Love and MANY Thanks,
The OTP Core, Board & Staff
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Open Theatre Project announces OTP2020, An Experimental Year of Inclusive Theatre-Making celebrating 9 years of Professional Theatre with a Community Spirit. OTP2020 is about hindsight and turning what we’ve learned into more impactful experiences for our audience, staff and artists. It’s also focused on finding new ways to put our signature style of theatre-for-all out into our community in bolder, bigger and more accessible ways. You’ll see familiar productions that have represented our mission best, new work, partnerships and programs that open opportunities for a wider range of voices, traditional theatre experiences flipped on their heads as we try to find exciting new ways to tell our story, and most importantly, you’ll be a part of it all with ways to get involved and find your voice at OTP.
To make sure this year of experimentation and exploration ends with a clearer focus for the future, we’ve set some goals for ourselves and need your help to hold us accountable.
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Ensure our Leadership, Board of Directors & OTP Core continue to reflect the identities of our community in even more inclusive ways with our Open Door Initiative. Within the year we will be hiring 3 more Board of Directors, and 8-10 new OTP Core Members, our community advisory board, to develop additional programming that speaks to a wider range of voices. We are specifically advocating for our leadership to represent a wider range of Gender, Racial & Socio-Economic identities at our table.
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Provide more opportunities for our community to engage with us at all levels: more Productions, Town Halls, Events, Public Readings & Workshops where all are welcome to participate and engage with one another.
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Forge stronger partnerships with Local Business and Artistic Leaders to better leverage change in our community. Theatre that does not change us and challenge us to see our world differently is left on the stage, we hope to find great partners who can help us nurture the dialogue our work creates in careful, impactful & effective ways.
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Create an updated production & funding model that continues to prioritize fair pay for our artists and staff in incremental and sustainable ways. Theatre is art, but it’s also a business and we want to find the perfect balance to ensure our artists are paid fairly, our art is supported and never censored, and we aren’t beholden to an inconsistent infrastructure of support.
Welcome to OTP2020, it’s going to be something new, something beautiful and something entirely ours to create together. We hope this glimpse at the year ahead inspires you to get involved and as we open our doors even wider, once again we say, welcome home.
OTP's Plays in Progress
DATES THROUGHOUT 2020 & 2021
NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT | WORKSHOPS | READINGS | & MORE
New work is a tent poll of our mission and has kept us closely connected with our community since day one. Our Plays in Progress series focuses on new and local stories being given a chance to find their light.
Everyone is Dying and So Am I
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POSTPONED to AUG-DEC 2020
Created & Performed by Michael John Ciszewski
Directed by
Tyler Prendergast & Sarah Gazdowicz
Join our hero Michael John as he transforms his story of loss, fear, and regret through an experience in the crowd of a concert headlined by celebrated pop diva The Priestess. Together, you'll dance through a collective creative process that looks fearlessly to the past in order to make a more fabulous future for us all. Turn up the volume and move through the agony and ecstasy of life, towards understanding the unifying truth that Everyone is Dying and So Am I!
Gay Shorts 4 | Across the Ages - POSTPONED
POSTPONED to LATER in 2020
INter-generational LGTBQ 10 Min Plays
Open Theatre Project’s GAY SHORTS is back for its fourth year in a row at Club Cafe with ACROSS THE AGES featuring an evening of short plays by, for, and with LGTBQ artists as they explore inter-generational stories. Funny, Heartfelt & thoroughly Queer, Gay Shorts has something for everyone and always leave you wanting more.
TheatrePorch 2020 - CANCELLED
CANCELLED
Featuring some of OTP's Favorite FRINGE Theatre & local artists
Every year, thousands of Jamaica Plain residents share their neighborhood and porches with over 100+ musicians and artists from all walks of creative backgrounds for an out-door festival of community. OTP's TheatrePorch brings the best of Boston Theatre home to JP with a day of outdoor theatre, music, comedy, improv and more on the lawn of the Eliot School.
PlayFeast: A Banquet of New Asian American Plays - POSTPONED
POSTPONED to LATER in 2020
A delicious festival of 10 Min Plays inspired by the Asian American Experience, & the food that brings us all to the table.
Produced in collaboration with the Asian American Playwright Collective. This Original short-play festival features plays written with food & the Asian American experience at center stage. All in partnership with the Pao Arts Center in Boston's Chinatown.
OTP's Ninth Birthday Cabaret
St. John's Church | DATE COMING SOON
WE Turn Nine this year and the OTP Core, Board & Creative Teams are coming together to entertain YOU!
Join us for an evening that celebrates the best part of Open Theatre Project, YOU! Some of our favorite OTP Core, Board, Artistic & Community members will come back to our stage to put on a Cabaret of sorts, all to say thank you for keeping our doors open.
SLAM Boston
Diverse Voices in Theatre
FINAL DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED
Boston's Favorite 10-min play Competition featurinG Stories by, for & with women, artists of color & the LGTBQ+ community.
SLAM Boston Diverse Voices in Theatre (a trademark of Another Country Productions) is a ten-minute play competition modeled on a traditional poetry SLAM. The night is focused on fast-paced, diversity driven theatre bringing together 20+ local artists for two nights you won't want to miss.
JP Concerts | Season 11
Staring Oct 2020 | ST. JOHN'S CHURCH JP
World-class MUSIC in the heart of JP featuring local ensembles with music from all around the world
JP Concerts is a community concert series at St. John's Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain. Our programming of concerts reflects the diverse sounds and faces of our community and our beautiful home provides world-class acoustics in a historic location along with a partnership that has helped us explore new music opportunities for over 10 years.
THE OTP CORE
2020 and beyond | St. John's Church & more venues throughout Boston
where mission meets community
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The OTP Core is the Community & Artistic Advisory Board. As audience members, creators, collaborators and trusted voices in our world, they bring to life many of the ideas that grace our stage. Most important is the voice of each CORE member, they will get a say in what we produce, how we engage our community and more.
Artistic Partners​
Praxis Stage
Hub Theatre Company of Boston
Footlight Club
Acropolis Stage
JP Open Studios
Flat Earth Theatre
Community Partners​
St. John's Church
Spring House Senior Living
Eliot School
Club Cafe
PAO Arts Center
Loring Greenough House
JP PorchFest
JP Local First
INDIVIDUAL SPONSORS
June Leonard, Ben Ngai, Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich, Wen Wen Teh, Joyce Kim, Keihly Moore, Philip Patterson, George Smart, Rowan Toner, Yahaira Soto, Vivien Singer, Kate Jacobs, Patricia Bell, Alex Haeseleer, James Sotis, Annie Hochheiser, Lauren Elias, Joanna Mahoney, Autumn zandt, Nathan Zielonka, Hannah Oyedeji, Jack Boyle, Joanna Lubkin, Victoria Isotti, Lynda Bachman, Liz Adams, Mecca Levesque, Jaryn Wilcox, Zadie Ross, Matthew Garlin, Ryan Uriarte, Kimberly Klasner, Matthew Litchfield, Dawn Davis, Audrey Seraphin, Gwendolyn Meredith, Rachael Bernstein, John Travers, Mary Thames, Roberta Myers, Kelly Smith, Shaun Dubash, James Paul Nadien, Aukasz Pawlikowski, Matthew Rasure, Clairees Semchenko, Peter Dakutis, Marianne McLaughlin, Briana Bensenouci, Jeffrey Nesler, Maria Blanc, James Ellis, Kahla Moon, Alicia Zipp, Curtis Shelton, Yaniv Bejerano, Philip Moss, Lynne S. Brandon, Susan Boylan, Andrew Schieffelin, Amy West, David Hill, Daniel Regis, Barbara Fontecchio, Jon Vellante, Paul Jacobs, Peter Snoad, Shana Jackson, Karin Trachtenberg, Holly Christensen, William Smith, Lindsey Jacobs, Beth Miller, Daisy Cabrera, Rebecca Pomerantz, Jeffrey Taraschi, Kirsten Wehrenberg-Klee, Amanda Lydon, Mieke Verfaellie, Marilyn Chase, Marie-Laure Grimaldi-Marvel, Joseph Kapusansky, Laura Pattison, Heidi Brooks, Ariela Nazar-Rosen, Kai Long, Andrea Lyman, Marisa Suescun, Jeanne Zimmermann, Elaine Barlas, Kelly Knopf-Goldner, Alisha Uhlenbrock-Furst, Charles Wibiralske, Jeff Koehl, Marieca Davieau, Janet Leopold, Bess Weiskopf, Beth Z Silverman, Michael Crystal, Stuart Kaufman, Sara Smolover, Karen Trask, alan starr, Ellen Jawitz, Lewis Shaw, Kevin Zilber, Matt McKee, Lydia Flier, Bob Pascucci, Elena Jay, Dustin Bell, Callah Sponheimer, Richard Horne, Lynn Osborn, James Smith, Aisha Francis, Shaun Adamec, Douglas Root, Cynthia Poor, Fabiola Decius, Randi Laufman, Michael Greene, Orly Mishan, Eric Marshall, Carmen Woodruff, Jessica Smith, Diane Edgecomb, Adam Sussman, Lynn Mullin, Rachel Panitch, Evan DelGaudio, Chelsea Unzner, Rachel Leiken, Miles Meth, Sara Bielanski, Hayden Chichester's, Alen Agaronov, Nicholas Malakhow, Deanna Dement Myers, Kristen Aldrich, Elizabeth Kerr, Simon Polakoff, Charles Knight, Grace Agosto, Kat Reszke, Chris Larosee, Mary Dennis, Donald McInnes, Naomi Olson, Meg Anchukaitis, Esteniolla Maitre, Jane Joyce, Alyssa Young, Mary Chalifour, Jay Coffelt, Stefan and Lanfer, Paul Demakis, Adam King, Ellen Davis Sullivan, Melanie Bourgeault, Anne Shackleford, Daniela Craciun, Jenna Ahearn, Matthew Noonan, Jessica Grabiec, Donna Feenan, Don Eunson, Katherine M Drexel, Kevin Kast, Robb Van Marter, Trinasia Jones, Alina Rockiki, Rosalind Greenstein, Elizabeth Wener, Phil Cox, Eileen Kakley
