The Actors Table of Eugene is a labor of love for all involved - a small showcase production company, we offer 4- 5 showcases performances per year, featuring local actors and actresses performing pieces of their own choosing. It is a labor of love for our founder, who started the program in honor of her late sister, and to give back to the Eugene theater community. It is also a labor of love for all of the actors and directors and writers who give their time for free. Since our very first show, we have been hosted by Tsunami Books. Donations are given by audience members at the events, and Tsunami and T.A.T.E. split that pot.
Those donations have been (almost) sufficient to help T.A.T.E. sustain its costs (printing of programs, posters, and refreshments for the audience), but have never covered the costs that Tsunami sustains in staying open extra hours to host the shows. Tsunami Books is known for its dedication to supporting the arts in this community, and it is important to us at T.A.T.E. to assist Tsunami in doing so. We would like to be able to increase our annual budget enough to actually reimburse Tsunami and the staff for their costs, and cover our costs 100%. An additional $1,000 would do that for us, and for Tsunami.
There are some who support the arts no matter what it costs them, personally or professionally, and we at T.A.T.E. feel that we should do everything we can to reciprocate for the incredible support Tsunami has given to our program. Please help us to show them that we appreciate the work they do for the arts in this community by helping us to pay them their actual costs for hosting our shows.
If our full amount is not raised, all funds raised will be used for T.A.T.E. production costs, with paying a reasonable rent to Tsunami Books as first priority,
For those who help us, we are offering a variety of perks, from professionally made buttons supporting T.A.T.E. and our partner company, Found Space Theater, to tickets to Found Space’s next production, Talking With, to gift certificates for a night on the town.
If you can’t contribute funds, or want to do more to help, you can also help us considerably by:
Getting the word out via social media - share our campaign on Facebook, Twitter, everywhere!
Send emails to your friends with a link to our campaign.
use the Indiegogo share tools to share our campaign anywhere - send it to your friends and family, and share it as OFTEN as you can on social media!! The more exposure we get, the more likely we are to be successful! Thanks so much!
BACKGROUND:
In the 1980s and 1990s, a talented young actress in Seattle, Washington founded an itinerant performing group she called “The Actors’ Table.” Following auditions and performances, she and her theater colleagues frequently gathered at a local tavern called “The Comet” to discuss theater, performances, and simply to be together. They always sat at the same table, near a stage in the back room, which the owners began to call “The Actors’ Table.” One evening, when no performance group was scheduled, the actors got up and began to perform short pieces for the gathered crowd, and, before long, it became a regular “event” at The Comet, drawing large crowds every time. That actress was Jean Marie Kinney, a long-time Seattle stage presence with experience on Broadway and in film.
Ms. Kinney passed away unexpectedly and tragically in 1998, and, shortly thereafter, her sister, Judith McKenzie, moved to Eugene and became involved in the local theater community. Always in the back of her mind was the notion of the energy and passion that her sister had brought to her performance group, and the energy and enjoyment those events brought to the Seattle crowds. Ms. McKenzie, recently retired from a faculty position at Lane Community College, wished to do the same thing for her theater colleagues and the Eugene community. In 2012, having gathered backing for the events and the participation of a committed group of actors, she founded The Actors’ Table of Eugene.