Play Cafe

FUNDRAISING 101: STRATEGIES TO FUND YOUR PROJECT Workshop. Play Cafe invites you to an on-line workshop presented by Tracy Held on Sunday, July 19, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM Pacific Time. https://www.playcafe.org/workshops

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
Do you have a story to produce, but need to raise the money to put it on stage or on screen? This workshop will help you understand your fundraising options so you can be strategic about choosing a fundraising campaign that will help you choose a practical and effective strategy for raising money. This workshop is especially geared for artists who are producing their own work and who are new to fundraising or have fundraised in the past but either struggled to successfully raise their goal amount or felt overwhelmed by the process. Tracy will help you identify a fundraising approach that will make it easier for you to fund your own projects.

In this workshop, you will gain a high level understanding of the primary approaches to fundraising: individual donor solicitation, crowdfunding, grant writing, and hosting events. You will then have an opportunity to perform a self-assessment to determine which strategies are right for your next project. By the end of the workshop, you should be able to identify an approach that is most likely to be successful for you as well as next steps for implementing your fundraising campaign.

FOR MORE DETAILS, including the instructor’s bio and REGISTRATION, go to https://www.playcafe.org/workshops. The fee to participate is $18 for Play Cafe members and $28 for non-members. Play Cafe Members, write to [email protected] to request the discount code.

This is an excellent opportunity for Northern California Musical Theatre creatives.

Musical Cafe, a program of Play Cafe, is happy to announce that submissions are now open for Songs from New Musicals - Feinstein’s at The Nikko in San Francisco for original songs from musicals created by Northern California writers and composers.

Two songs each from five creative teams will be chosen by our jury of directors, writers, and composers to be performed live at Feinstein’s at The Nikko in San Francisco on September 27.
Feinstein’s is an exquisite venue https://www.feinsteinssf.com/ This is an exceptional opportunity for visibility.

Link to Guidelines and Submission Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe_WIp73BrZ3tvHThOqTUss1bAG8PEIb83Pyn6MbWM2BkIqcw/viewform?usp=header

GREAT PLAYS PLAYWRIGHTS SHOULD KNOW Workshop. Play Cafe invites you to an on-line workshop presented by Anthony Clarvoe on Sunday, May 17, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM Pacific Time. Details & Registration: https://www.playcafe.org/workshops

Ira Marlowe’s musical THE METAMORPHOSIS OF BARRY SCHLECKMAN was selected for Musical Cafe’s 2025 Next Stages program. Jennifer and Piper Loomis’ musical BUBBLE GUM is the semi-finalist. Congratulations!

Play Café presents: AUDIO DRAMA SCRIPT MARKUPS & CRITIQUES - September 28 at 12:30PM Pacific Time. Workshop taught on-line by Rick Toscan. https://tinyurl.com/2uh4ajc3

For this workshop, participants will submit a 8-12 page audio drama script (not a musical) with no more than three characters. Rick will review a markup of your full script, providing a guide for final revisions and submission to the ARW competition.

Through analysis of participants’ scripts, we’ll cover the essentials of writing audio drama while also exploring techniques for live presentation with sound effects and musical accompaniment. Topics will include conceiving stories in sound environments; plot and scene structures in audio; visual aspects of audio storytelling; integration of environmental ambience, special effects, and score with dialogue; and audio adaptations of plays originally written for the theatre.

DETAILS, INCLUDING INSTRUCTOR’S BIO & REGISTRATION: https://tinyurl.com/2uh4ajc3

Writing Audio Drama For Live Performance - Workshop 2 | PlayCafe A pair of online workshops presented by Rick Toscan designed to assist you in developing short audio drama scripts for Berkeley’s Actors Reading Writers submission opportunity for Play Cafe members based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Musical Cafe invites you to an online workshop presented by Lianne Marie Dobbs, "SOLO" CABARET CREATION: FROM BRAINSTORMS, TO BUILDING YOUR TEAM, TO MARKETING, TO SHOWTIME! Sunday August 17, 4-5:30 pm Pacific Time.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
It's ironic how many people it requires to create a "solo" cabaret! Using her latest "solo" endeavor, FOR DUSTY SPRINGFIELD... THE WINDMILLS OF MY MIND, as a template for one of the many ways to go about forming a cabaret, Lianne will get your dormant ideas moving along.

We'll start with an artist that you are drawn to, look at some questions to help focus your theme, where to research additional information on the artist, how to supplement your personal creative team, and how branding can help focus your show for the audience and YOU. We'll get into marketing, too, and how to ask for help. There will be recommendations for podcast episodes and reference materials, and frequent reminders that artists learn from failure.

MORE DETAILS, INCLUDING INSTRUCTOR’S BIO AND REGISTRATION:

“Solo” Cabaret Creation: From Brainstorms, to Building Your Team, to Marketing, to Showtime! | PlayCafe Play Cafe invites you to an online workshop presented by Lianne Marie Dobbs. Sunday August 17, 3:30-5:30 pm Pacific Time.