11.6.0038 Application
The Manatee Players, Inc.

Applicant Information

Proposal Information

Mission Statement

The mission of Manatee Players, Inc. is to represent, enrich and stimulate people through the art of live theatre by providing entertainment, education and an artistic outlet.

Proposal Summary: Goals

Manatee Players' overall goal is

• to serve as a cultural, educational and economic resource for the Manatee County region

• to reflect the cultural needs of the community

• to strive to create a positive theatrical experience

Additionally, Manatee Players' Board of Directors recently published a Three-Year Strategic Plan for the years 2008-2011. In it, four specific short-range goals were cited:

• that Manatee Players' artistic excellence and contributions be recognized on a local, regional and national level

• that Manatee Players continue to broaden its reach for volunteers, artists, staff, board members and audience to serve the ever evolving spectrum of the county's population

• that Manatee Players place significant emphasis on building the Capital Campaign with the ultimate goal of moving into the new Manatee Players Performing Arts Center within this time frame

• that Manatee Players work toward insuring sustained financial stability

Proposal Summary: Objectives

• Produce a 10-month season of 8 mainstage productions for the enjoyment of patrons

• Provide an artistic outlet for community members desiring to perform onstage and serve as crew members backstage

• Offer professional quality theatrical training to young performers and stage hands aged 6 - 17

• Partner with the Manatee County School District to present live theatre performances in elementary and middle schools and bring students to our venue for theatrical experiences/tours

• Make available a professional performance venue and technical assistance to community organizations seeking a space in which to present their productions

• Serve as a consultant to groups/individuals seeking directorial and event presentation advice

• Offer private organizations entertainment options for their fundraisng/social needs

• Provide new directors, designers and playwrights a professional environment to showcase their talents

• Concentrate on funding the operating budget through increased subscription sales, individual philanthropy and business support

• Establish an endowment 2 times the amount of the current operating budget

• Establish a 'second stage' series of productions geared toward offering more experimental, avant garde and new plays

Proposal Summary: Activities

• Produce 8 mainstage musical & dramatic productions, rehearsing 5 days/week for 6 weeks and playing for 16-20 performances

• Run 2 Summer Camps-Broadway Boot Camp Jr. (ages 6-12) for 2 weeks & Broadway Boot Camp (ages 8-17) for 3 weeks, each culminating in 4 public musical performances

• Run a 1-week Spring Break Theatre Camp (coinciding with Manatee Schools' closure)for ages 8-17, culminating with a performance at DeSoto Historical Society's Children's Parade

• Offer Broadway Boogie after-school theatrical dance classes in jazz, ballet & tap

• Continue the relationship established w/ Manatee County's "Safe and Drug Free Schools" program and Manatee Education Foundation to bring theatrical performances to individual schools with emphasis on student safety-related issues of concern to school administrators

• Establish a for-credit Theatre Technology Apprenticeship Program(15 hours/week)for high school students aged 16 & up in conjunction with Manatee County School District's Curriculum Specialist for the Performing Arts

• Continue to provide performance space to private schools including St. Joseph's Academy and Jayde Howard Dance Legacy for school productions and dance recitals

• Continue to provide directorial asistance to Manatee County Historical Society as they prepare to take students to state History Fair competition

• Continue to serve on planning/presentation committee and assist in producing yearly Manatee Children's Summit in association with Manatee Co. Children and Family Services

• Continue to provide assistance producing Manatee County High School Theatre Festival

• Continue to provide performers for county-wide festivals including Lakewood Ranch's Arts on Main St.,Gulf Coast Rhythm & Ribfest and Hernando DeSoto Heritage Parade

• Increase the number of touring performances to Manatee County Visitors Bureau's Crosley Museum, Tropic Isles & Freedom Village Retirement Communities while seeking other outside performance opportunities

• Book new touring productions in theatre as schedule permits

Narrative: Proposal Description

All of Manatee Players' performances, classes, camps and special presentations are scheduled with the organization's mission in mind. Manatee Players looks forward to opening their new Performing Arts Center within the next few years, eliminating the need to creatively juggle rehearsals, dance classes, camp programs, auditions, tour bookings and mainstage productions. This growth in all aspects of operations, coupled with the theatre's desire to serve all members of and groups within our community, has not hindered the ability to maintain a full and vibrant spectrum of performances and education opportunities.
Manatee Players will begin its 2010-2011 season on July 12 with the 3-week Broadway Boot Camp for performance-focused youngsters aged 8-17 years. The popularity and reputation of this program, now entering its fourth year, has spread to the point that 65 students are accepted and by mid-May the program is completely booked. The intensive 5 day a week, full day singing, dance and acting training culminates in 4 public performances of a family-friendly musical. At-risk youth groups are invited free-of-charge to the dress reahearsal. The script has yet to be selected but it will follow in the custom of the past Boot Camp offerings of Grease, High School Musical and High School Musical 2.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific will open the 2010-2011 mainstage season on August 19. The remainder of the season, which runs through May 22, will carry on the tradition of presenting both classic Broadway favorites and regional premieres of newer, award-winning works. Each of the 8 productions will run for 16-22 performances Tuesday through Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees. Manatee Players never pre-casts its productions nor does it charge individuals to participate. Open auditions always experience a large turn-out of volunteer actors of all ages and diverse backgrounds. Casting of roles is non-traditional, often resulting in unique, audience-suprising outcomes. Cast size averages 30-35 multi-generational and multi-ethnic performers.
With the opening of the new Performing Arts Center, a second, more intimate arena with flexible seating capacity will host a series of musical performances and theatrical presentations of new works. Manatee Players' Managing Artistic Director is currently accepting scripts from aspiring playwrights and inquiries from musical groups who will utilize the space.
Manatee Players rents its performance hall to schools and organizations in need of a stage for their presentations. St. Joseph School presents their yearly production on the Manatee Players stage. Dance Schools including Jayde Howard Dance Legacy and SRQ Dance do the same for their recitals. Manatee Players also hosts an African-American fashion and talent presentation and a holiday Hispanic Sacred Music concert.
Special single performances have become audience favorites and are scheduled for the coming season. They include in-house fundraisers DIVOS (male performers-March), DIVAS (female performers-November) and DIVETTES (child performers-September) in which cast members from previous mainstage and summer productions showcase their talent and compete for votes. Other yearly events designed to attract specific community populations will include Teatro Latino Festival featuring Ballet Folkloric and Bright Stars Senior Talent Show.
Manatee Players maintains a close and mutually accessible relationship with the Manatee County Public School system. Manatee School for the Arts provides evening rehearsal space for upcoming mainstage productions while the current production is in performance. Many of the school's students and instructors perform and direct at Manatee Players.
The Education Program tours elementary schools with performances on topics of vital concern to educators. Last season's Tomato Plant Girl addressed the issue of peer bullying and was followed by an audience talk-back with a school Guidance Counselor. The tour was endorsed by the Manatee Education Foundation and Safe and Drug-Free Schools initiative. Plans are currently in the works for a middle school tour of The Secret Life of Girls which presents the serious effects of cyber bullying in an entertaining yet thought-provoking manner. Manatee School for the Arts has expressed an interest in casting their own middle school drama students in the roles.
Manatee Players also looks forward to the implementation of the Theatre Technology Apprenticeship Program. The for-credit curriculum, written in cooperation with the county school district Curriculum Specialist for the Performing Arts, will expose high school students to all aspects of non-performance theatre design and production. Students will receive hands-on, on-site experience leading up to and during the run of a show that will translate to better productions at their individual high schools. Additionally, Manatee Players offers technical advice, costumes and scenery to schools as well as coordination for the High School One Act Play Festival. Student Interns from Montessori School and the City of Bradenton summer urban youth program gain short term, behind-the-scenes theatre experience as well. Managing Artistic Director, Rick Kerby, visits history classrooms with his "Literacy Live" touring program that relates classroom studies of significant historical events to the play in performance at the theatre.
Manatee Players' Community Outreach program supplies service organizations, private clubs, veterans' associations, retirement communities, assisted living facilities, religious congregations and community festivals with talent for both entertainment and fundraising events. The Show Kids, Broadway Revue and Dickens Carolers are widely sought. Each holiday season, working with the Convention Bureau, Manatee Players presents an original production at the Powel Crosley Estate's Festival of Trees. During the coming season Manatee Players will create a new Murder Mystery production which experienced great touring popularity in the past.

Narrative: Culture Builds Florida's Future

1. Strengthening the Economy

   During the 2007-2008 season Manatee Players' audience participated in an Americans for the Arts survey funded by the Knight Foundation. Based upon their report presented to Bradenton City Council in the Spring of '09, findings indicated that the arts, in general, and Manatee Players, specifically, generate more than $600,000 to local government. Additionally, both resident and non-resident attendees of the arts in Manatee County generate approximately seventeen and a half million dollars above and beyond the fees from ticket sales in the form of meals, lodging and other local expenditures. That's an average of $30.89 per attendee supporting downtown Bradenton business establishments. In fact, Manatee Players participates with Mattison's Restaurant, located on the pier facing the riverfront location of the theatre, in a dinner and show combination ticket offer. An average of 50 dinner/show patrons take advantage of this package per season production. Added to patron spending is the local spending by cultural organizations including Manatee Players for production purposes. The economic activity by arts organizations and arts audiences in Manatee County totals $29,479,034.
   This comprehensive study provides compelling evidence that the nonprofit arts are a significant industry in Manatee County. Manatee Players is proud to be a major contributing economic force within that industry.

2. Learning and Wellness

   The Manatee Players' stage is the home for actors aged 2 through 85. Everyone can find their artistic outlet onstage, whether it is the toddler playing Coalhouse Walker III in Ragtime or the octogenarian cast as Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka. Manatee Players' formal youth theatre education begins with 6 year olds and allows youngsters to 'grow up' on the stage in education programs that accept enrollment through 17 years. The teens from the summer Broadway Boot Camp program ultimately end up being cast in mainstage productions, as the directors know what they are capable of doing and the teens fully understand from summer productions what is expected of them as performers. Parents love that their children spend their evenings in rehearsal and performance at Manatee Players. They are in a safe, nuturing environment, expressing themselves artistically while, at the same time, expanding their friendship base in the company of other youth who share the same interests. This performance experience allows for youngsters to realize that there are positive channels for self-expression, thus filling them with self-esteem and a feeling of personal accomplishment. As one couple so aptly put it, "We believe the program taught our children many important lessons that will serve them well as they grow into preteens and teens and into adulthood." For many preteens and teens who do not feel as if they 'fit in' at school or in their own neighborhoods, they find acceptance and strength of character on the Manatee Players' stage.
   The Managing Artistic Director also annually participates in the week-long Roots program, which offers a first time theatrical experience to Hispanic youngsters who have never before performed. The theatre, itself, is also offered free-of-charge each June as rehearsal and performance space for this program.
   The Manatee Players' building also serves as the site for clients of Easter Seals and Shepherd's Garden to learn developmental skills and on-the-job training as they volunteer their services, performing cleaning and office tasks.

3. Building Leadership

   With the tour of Tomato Plant Girl to elementary schools, students not only learned how to identify a bully, but also, through the guidance counselor facilitated talk back that followed, students learned how to counter such behavior. Students became empowered by the knowledge that they could stand up to these destructive actions through 'reporting' to their teachers and administrators as a means of protecting both themselves and their circle of friends. Students as young as 3rd graders found themselves in leadership roles as they proclaimed, "Not in my school" at the close of the performance and carried that message into their daily routine. The plan is now to accomplish the same development of leadership skills on the middle school level by touring The Secret Lives of Girls during the coming year. Students will be taught through dramatization the catastrophic effects of cyber bullying and what measures can be taken to prevent themselves and friends from falling victim to this vile behavior.
   Leadership of another kind is fostered as Manatee Players offers contracts to new lighting, costume and set designers who are just out of college. Manatee Players' stage is where they fine tune their craft under the watchful eye of experienced directors. It is a satisfying pleasure to offer new designers their start and see them make a name for themselves in the professional theatre world as they move on in their careers. The same goes for actors who have appeared on the Manatee Players stage. Many have advanced to New York and Los Angeles, being accepted to The Juilliard School and landing roles on television shows and in movies. That Manatee Players is able to play a small part in developing leaders in the entertainment industry while being a stepping stone for many careers, is quite gratifying

4. Design and Development

   Since September 2006, Manatee Players has been involved in a project that will enhance the cultural atmosphere of our community forever. The Manatee Players Performing Arts Center, now under construction 3 blocks east of the current location, will be the home for all disciplines of the arts including theatre, dance performances, musical concerts, film series and performance workshops. It will also offer a solution to the need for a gathering space in central Bradenton for community meetings, lectures and fundraisers.
   The new building will have designated areas for rehearsals, administrative offices, classrooms and storage, all of which are seriously lacking in the current 56-year-old structure. There will also be an expanded reception area. Manatee Players has worked diligently to design a facility that incorporates some of the most innovative theatrical amenities while ensuring that the architectural design compliments the Spanish facades of Downtown Bradenton. The main performance hall will accommodate 142 additional patrons while a second, flexible- arrangement, 100-seat studio venue will allow for the presentation of new works and more avant-garde productions. The orchestra pit, stage, dressing rooms, classrooms, technical control room and catwalks are all wheelchair accessible.
   Since ground breaking for the new performing arts center, made possible by a bequest from a former season producer, construction has continued in spite of the current economic climate. Thanks to generous financial support from local government, regional and national foundations and the private sector, the theatre is rising , however slower than originally anticipated. The Capital Campaign maintains a separate office from Operations at the construction site as well as a separate budget and staff. Still, the entire Manatee Players staff looks forward to moving into their new home and working to make it the cultural hub of west central Florida that it is destined to be.

Narrative: Marketing and Promotion

With increased print advertising costs and decreased newspaper readership, during the past 2 years, Manatee Players has been focusing on upgrading the technology that delivers information to subscribers, patrons and the general public. Through an enhanced website, electronic newsletter and a facebook page, Manatee Players has been able to reach a broader spectrum of theater goers and increase its visibility within the west central Florida geographic region and beyond. Success of these innovations can be measured by an increase in season subscribers. Manatee Players had 2639 subscribers during the 2008-2009 season and currently has 2695 subscribers this season. That's an increase of 56 subscribers over last season with more than a month left for patrons to take advantage of the 5 play Flex Pass Subscription. While other theaters are struggling to maintain attendance, Manatee Players is increasing theirs! Currently, should an individual ticket holder choose to purchase a season subscription, they are given credit from the single performance attended toward the package price. During the 2010-2011 season, Manatee Players is entertaining the idea of extending that offer by giving a credit to new subscribers for a play attended at another area Community Theater.
In January of 2008, Manatee Players began sending a monthly e-newsletter to their mailing list of ticket purchasers. In the past year the email contact list of recipients has grown by 1000 names and has gotten many positive responses each time the newsletter is sent. Additional names are now gathered at community events like the Taste of Manatee restaurant street fair and the Hernando DeSoto Society Seafood Fest, where Manatee Players always has a presence. During the coming year, Manatee Players plans to expand the data base even more by capturing email addresses at every community outreach performance in which it participates.
A little over a year ago Manatee Players also added the Box Office Buy Tickets Online tab to their website. This has proven extremely successful as patrons are able to purchase tickets at any hour of the day or night. In fact, online ticket sales now average $6000/month. As a result of these online sales, Manatee Players has been able to cut box office hours on weekends that fall between productions. Thus, the need to pay part time Box Office personnel during the downtime installation of a new show has been eliminated while not losing ticket sales revenue. In 2010-2011 it is anticipated that online ticket sales could equal those sold by Box Office personnel.
Every season Manatee Players has paid a printing company for the publication of 25,600 22-page playbills for their 8 mainstage productions. This has previously accounted for a tremendous portion of the marketing budget. This season the marketing department has entered into a lease agreement for a multi-function printing device (copier) that has allowed the playbills to be printed in-house. Through the assistance of volunteers and the excellence of the equipment, Manatee Players has essentially cut printing costs of the playbill by 50%. This process also allows for last minute changes in the playbill and inclusion of additional advertisers, since Manatee Players is able to maintain complete control of the publication without compromising the quality of the product. Plans are to definitely continue this 'desktop publishing' during the 2010-2011 season and to offer these services to other organizations in need of program production at a per piece price.

Narrative: Personnel and Partners

Manatee Players employs 7 full-time staff and 3 part-time staff in addition to nationally recognized guest Director/Choreographers and outstanding regional Musical Directors and Set, Lighting & Costume Designers who put their own special mark on the creative aspects of each production.
The titles of full-time staff are:

• Managing Artistic Director

• Development Director

• Technical Director

• Education/Community Outreach Coordinator

• Box Office Manager

• Marketing Manager

• Finance/Production Manager

  There is some overlap between administrative, programmatic and artistic responsibilities as the small staff, all of whom are professionals in their fields, wear many hats and accomplish an enormous amount.
  Rick Kerby, the Managing Artistic Director, oversees all aspects of theatre administration, programming and production in addition to directing 3 shows each season. Mr. Kerby, prior to taking this position 7 seasons ago, was the Entertainment Director for USO of Metropolitan New York. Other directorial credits include New Jersey's Surflight Theatre, Rhode Island's Theatre By The Sea, Maine's Arundel Playhouse, and New York City's Westbank and Duplex Theatres. Mr. Kerby has served on the faculties of Wagner College and The Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Since coming to Manatee Players, Rick has been named Best Director at the Florida Theatre Conference, the South Eastern Theatre Conference and twice at the American Association of Community Theatre's AACTFest. He now serves on the Boards of all three organizations and has recently assumed the duties of President of the Florida Theatre Conference. As a result of this new position, Manatee Players activities are impacting much of Florida, well beyond their immediate region.
  The 3 part-time staff are:

• Costume Shop Manager

• Assistant Technical Director

• Assistant Box Office Manager

  Manatee Players has 2 Media Sponsor partners:

• Bright House Networks who produce free-of-charge and run a 30 second PSA for the theatre during their on-air programming in exchange for the theatre providing talent for casting in their commercials. Also free theatre advertising on Bright House's electronic sign is available.

• Bradenton Herald who offers additional complimentary print advertising based on purchased ads.

  Other formal partnerships include:

• School Board of Manatee County to whom the theatre offers apprenticeships, in-classroom visits/training and touring productions. In exchange the School Board offers some financial support and curriculum development.

• City of Bradenton who holds a $1/year land lease agreement for the parcel on which the theatre is built. The City is also assisting with several aspects of the construction of the new building. Manatee Players representatives also serve on the Realize Bradenton planning committee.

• Easter Seals Association who provides clients to clean and maintain the theatre building while Manatee Players provides supervised on-the-job training.

• Retired Senior Volunteer Program, ManaTEENS and Mamselles all of whom fill front-of-house positions including ushers and greeters at each performance in exchange for receiving community service hours.

• Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Franchise- Bradenton is the winter home of the Pirates and they are a recurring season producer. In the 2008-2009 season they sponsored Damn Yankees and the theatre troupe received permission from Music Theatre International to change the name of the Washington Senators in the script to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The actors wore vintage Pirates uniforms and the theatre was decorated in Pirates memorabilia. Team players attended opening night and a souvenir stand was set up in the lobby. This season the Pirates will produce the regional premier of Curtains, which will continue the creative collaboration. In 2010-2011 the Pirates will again produce the February-March production, which occurs at the height of Spring Training.

• Family Resources' Safe Place Program for abused & runaway teens which does not benefit Manatee Players but provides a needed social service in Downtown Bradenton.

Proposal Estimates

Estimated Counties served

• Manatee
• Pinellas
• Sarasota

Narrative: Assessment and Planning

In the past two years Manatee Players and their patrons have participated in two county-wide surveys and benefited from the copious results of each. The City's Realize Bradenton planning committee, on which the Manatee Players' Past President and Development Director serve, conducted a Community Arts Needs Survey. The results of this effort were recently presented at a City Council meeting and have been inherent to Manatee Players' play selection. Thus, the theatre chose to present an all-musical season for 2009-2010, which has resulted in subscription sales exceeding all past seasons.
Manatee County's Cultural Alliance (formerly Arts Council of Manatee County) also conducted a phone survey in the Spring of 2008 for which Manatee Players contributed key questions to be asked. Volunteers from the theatre also participated in the phone-a-thon to gather data, the results of which continue to be incorporated into planning of community outreach programs and selection/booking of special touring productions.
Further, the Manatee County School Board's Curriculum Specialist for Fine and Performing Arts has helped Manatee Players focus on the arts enhancement needs of the County's school children. This has resulted in the soon-to-be initiated Theatre Technology Apprenticeship Program with others to follow.

Narrative: Proposal Impact

Located on Florida's southwest coast, Bradenton, where Manatee Players is located, is a historically working-class community with small town appeal that enjoys a strategic location between Tampa/St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It prides itself on its unpretentious, collaborative attitude. Home to Tropicana Products and Beall's Department Stores, the spring training location for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team and Port Manatee, one of Florida's largest deep water seaports, Bradenton's economy is based on agriculture, tourism and manufacturing. Bradenton is the county seat and the largest community in Manatee County with a population of nearly 54,000 people, in a county of 318,176 that encompasses 741 square miles, including 27 miles of beaches and 150 miles of waterfront. It was designated by America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth as one of the 100 best communities to raise young people. In addition, Bradenton is recognized as an exciting tourist entertainment, cultural and recreational destination.
Manatee County has 115,210 households. The median age of residents is 43 with a median income of $51,321. Unfortunately, Manatee County's unemployment rate is currently 12.7%.
In Manatee County there are:

• 27.4% residents under 18 years old

• 22.8% residents aged 65 and over (Manatee Players' main audience population)

  The community is made up of:

• 77.5% white

• 13.5% Hispanic

• 9% Black

• 10.6% of residents are living under the poverty level

  Noting these demographics, Manatee Players will continue its commitment to provide Hispanic programming in the form of the Teatro Latino Festival and Project Roots summer camp collaboration.
  In addition, the theatre will keep in mind the conservative tastes of an older audience while offering crowd-pleasing productions at the height of tourist season (January through March) and a family production during the month of December.

Narrative: Education and Outreach

Instructions to the Applicant

Describe the educational and outreach coponents of the proposal. Consider lifelong learning benefits and community involvement in proposal activities. State Service Organizations should also address the distribution of information to audiences served.

Manatee Players' Youth Theater Training Programs are designed to offer young actors the opportunity to participate in a theatrical experience while gaining skills in creative thinking, problem solving, oral communication, and cross-cultural understanding. An additional benefit for attendees is increased self confidence.
Manatee Players doesn't believe in teaching youngsters "to act" but, rather, encourages them to draw on life experiences in order to interpret a role and perform in a production. It is for this reason that education classes don't begin until a student is 6 years old, with most programs geared toward 8-17 year olds. The intent is to have participants learn what is expected of them both onstage and backstage at Manatee Players while the directors are able to see the strengths and abilities of a student for future performance opportunities.
Many Manatee County youth have grown up on the Manatee Players' stage, appearing in productions for more than 15 consecutive years. It not only benefits the performers, who expand their social sphere and build on their talent, but also benefits the theatre by having the security of knowing that their young performers can be counted on to behave professionally and represent the theatre well.
During the school year Manatee Players offers after school Broadway Boogie Dance Classes in Jazz, Tap and Ballet, all of which give teens the basic moves needed to audition for a role in the ensemble of a musical mainstage production.
Broadway Boot Camp runs for three weeks during the month of July and always has a waiting list, even though 65 students are accepted. Students spend the first day of camp participating in an audition process which entails singing, learning and performing a combination of steps and reading lines. By the end of the day the cast is announced and all students go home with a script and CD of tracks to learn. The next 14 days are filled with blocking and musical rehearsals directed by professionals, all leading up to 4 public performances of a full scale musical, which always sell out. In the past 3 years of this program's existence, productions of Grease, High School Musical and High School Musical 2 have been presented. Although the 2010-2011 musical has not yet been finalized, it will fall into the same youth-oriented genre. It is the responsibility of the Education Coordinator to secure scholarships for children of financially disadvantaged families in order to insure that all youth who want to attend Boot Camp have the opportunity to participate.
New this year to the Education program is the introduction of a 2-week Broadway Boot Camp Junior to be held during the second half of June. This is the prerequisite for younger students who want to attend the 3-week Boot Camp. Not only will it give them exposure to the rigors of Boot Camp, but it will help Manatee Players serve more youngsters wanting to perform. An additional benefit of offering the junior program to 6-12 year olds is that it will give them the opportunity to appear in leading roles which usually go to the teens in the 3-week Boot Camp. This summer's production will be Rugrats, A Live Adventure.
Once the performances at Manatee Players are over, the youth get to recreate their roles at community events starting with the free Manatee County Childrens Summit in August held at the County Convention Center and attended by more than 15,000. This is a much-anticipated event since many friends of the youth are able to attend and Manatee Players gets to showcase the tremendous talent of their young performers. Many community outreach performances follow including those at Gulf Coast Rhythm & Ribfest, Lakewood Ranch Ovation Arts Day and Sarasota Arts Festival.
Manatee Players also offers a Spring Break Theatre Camp, coinciding with school Spring recess. The theme of this camp, which entails many improvisational theater games, yet still culminates in a public performance at the DeSoto Historical Society's Childrens' Parade, has in the past been Alice in Wonderland and Pirates and Princesses. This Spring it will be "We're Off to Meet the Wizards" with scenes from Wizard of Oz.

Operating Budget

Proposal Budget: Summary

Proposal Budget: Detail

Proposal Summary: Evaluation Plan

Manatee Players has found the use of surveys to be the most constructive way to gather public opinion on our programs/productions. Evaluating the responses has become a means of determining the efficacy of what we do. Many times, the feedback received through both open-ended and value-based questions has proven instrumental in changing the approach to specific activities presented by the theatre.
Manatee Players intends to continue to offer both student and audience surveys to our patrons and program attendees. The anecdotal and numeric data has proven worthy of consideration.
Surveys have been completed by:

• Classroom students taking part in 'Literacy Live' production-based lessons which include subject matter-based improvisational acting experiences

• Teachers of students who have attended touring performances of "Tomato Plant Girl", a play about peer bullying, at their schools(many of these teachers also used the Teacher Resource Guides provided)

• Both parents and student participants of theatre camp programs

• Members of the Hispanic community attending Teatro Latino Festival performances

• Patrons attending mainstage season productions

Season patrons' opinions were, in fact, a factor in Manatee Players' decision to present an all-musical series of mainstage productions for the 2009-2010 season.
In addition, during the 2008-2009 season Manatee Players patrons participated in the Americans for the Arts survey. The results of that national survey determined the performing arts are essential to the cultural climate of Manatee County, Florida.

Manatee Players' Education program will add the keeping of personal journals to the curriculum for Broadway Bootcamp participants. In this way, campers will document their individual artistic growth and development while involved in the rehearsal and performance process.
Finally, success of our mainstage season is based on 80% audience capacity for each production, which is consistantly achieved and subscription sales, which have recently exceeded the all-time record.

Narrative: Applicant History

In late 1947, several aspiring actors who also were members of the Bradenton Junior Women's Club formed a community theatre group and called themselves The Manatee Players. Their first performance, a Christmas season operetta called Hansel & Gretel, was performed in the Bradenton Women's Club to a capacity audience and netted $1,600. The following year the fledgling ensemble presented a full season of performances at either the Bradenton Women's Club or Ballard Elementary School, playing to expanding audiences and gaining popularity with every production. Without its own facility, rehearsals were held in any available space. An individual season membership at that time cost $12.50.
In 1953, through the inspiration of The Manatee Players' first president, Dr. W. D. Sugg, and the generosity of local philanthropists Edward and Lillian Bishop, who provided start-up funding, an undeveloped piece of land on the Manatee River was leased from the City of Bradenton for fifty years at $1 per year. Within weeks, construction began on the new performing arts venue, to be called The Riverfront Theatre, costing approximately $60,000.
The Riverfront Theatre, Bradenton's first community theatre, opened in December 1953 with I Remember Mama. The following year the theatre's performance of Oklahoma was the first U.S. production of the musical by a non-professional group. Over the next sixty years, The Manatee Players produced some of the best live theatre in Southwest Florida. For many years, it was the only live theatre in the county.

As the years passed, the mainstage season gradually expanded from its original four productions to its current eight shows, now all of them being Broadway Musicals. In 2004, the theatre's version of Metamorphoses won the coveted awards of Best Community Theatre Production in the State of Florida as well as Best Community Theatre Production in the Southeastern United States. These achievements took the play to the national competition in 2005, where The Manatee Players won the 2-year title of Best Community Theatre Production in the United States.
Managing Artistic Director, Rick Kerby, has been named Florida Theatre Conference Best Director four times, South Eastern Theatre Conference Best Director three times and American Association of Community Theatres Best Director two times between 2003 and 2007. Bat Boy: The Musical won top awards at the Florida Theater Conference for Best Production and Best Acting in 2006 and Sweeney Todd won Best Production at the Florida Theater Conference and South Eastern Theatre Conference in 2007. Manatee Players also won the 2007 Sarasota Magazine Best Family Entertainment Award. Mr. Kerby has since retired from competition, but has served diligently on the Board of the Florida Theatre Conference ever since, now as President, involving his staff in many of its activities.
During the past two years, special programs have been developed to broaden community outreach with touring shows into the Manatee County community including recurring requests for performances at the County's Crosley Mansion Museum, Perida Country Club, Bird Key Yacht Club, Tropic Isles Retirement Community, Freedom Village and Kirkwood Presbyterian and 1st Methodist Churches of Bradenton in addition to numerous assisted-living facilities and service organization meetings.
The Knight Foundation's Soul of Community research recently recognized Manatee Players as a cornerstone of the Bradenton community in the city's revitalization process, giving Bradenton one of the highest overall scores out of the 26 U.S. cities reviewed. Manatee Players is proud to be singled out as an intrinsic part of the area's cultural environment.

Narrative: Sustainability

When Manatee Players moves into its new building, not only will all current programs be continued but they will be expanded to include a complete series of Second Stage productions and an expanded Education program. The ability to increase activities will be secured by the availability of increased rental and classroom space (and, thus, increased revenue) for outside organizations and companies to hold receptions, meetings, retreats and presentations. It is also the intention to offer the facility to concert promoters from every musical genre and local musical ensembles who play for recreation and personal satisfaction.
To further insure sustainability, Manatee Players has recently begun to rent their professionally made set pieces, painted drops, costumes and props to high schools and colleges across the country. What started with an inquiry about using the Model-T that one of the theatre's set designers built for Ragtime and posted a picture of on the Music Theatre International website, has now grown into a valuable resource. The rental program has become a means of offsetting the cost of new productions and insuring the high quality of their theatrical elements by drawing on past resources. Manatee Players' staff have developed promotional materials including color printed cards depicting sample sets, a spreadsheet of all that is available to rent for each show and a power point presentation of sets and costumes for use at exhibitions. The Model-T is now on a trailer that has since traveled to schools performing Ragtime all over Florida and Georgia. Wizard of Oz costumes have even been shipped to a high school in Oklahoma. As word-of-mouth spreads about the professionally-made items available, so has the rental program.
In July 2008, Manatee Players completed and released it's three year Strategic Plan with the intention of revisiting and updating it on a yearly basis. Five Key areas were noted:

• Recognition- that Manatee Players' artistic excellence be recognized on local, regional and national levels.

• Broadening Reach- to recruit and retain the best volunteers, artists, staff and board members.

• Concentration on increasing the Operating budget- through subscription sales, business support and philanthropy.

• Building the Capital Campaign- through continued grassroots donor recruitment and increased commitment level of current donors in order to complete construction of the new Manatee Players Performing Arts Center.

• Establish a foundation to develop an endowment- to have a reserve 2 times the size of the Operating Budget.

  Benchmarks for success have been indicated for each area and the organization is confident in its ability to meet the challenges.

Narrative: Fiscal Stability

Instructions to the Applicant

Provide information about the fiscal condition of the organization as it relates to the successful completion of the proposal. Include information about the following:

• Current debt level and reduction efforts
• Special fiscal circumstances that may exist and how they impact the proposal
• Endowments and/or savings (or plans for these)
• Acquistion of non-state financial support for the proposal

In these demanding economic times, Manatee Players is 'holding its own'. The organization has gone from being 'in the red' five years ago to currently having zero debt. This can be attributed to the generosity of 1,741 individual households and businesses, who share Manatee Players' commitment to the cultural community. As validation of fiscal stability, Manatee Players was awarded the Stanford Financial Excellence in the Arts Award for 2008. This award recognizes local arts programs for their financial responsibility and sound fiscal practices while being good stewards of patron contributions. 2008 was the first year that Manatee County arts organizations were eligible to apply, having previously only been opened to Sarasota County. Manatee Players is proud to be the first local recipient out of more than 20 candidates.
Manatee Players maintains a designated line item in their budget called "Theater Growth" which is anticipated to reach $88,000 by the conclusion of the current fiscal year.
Each year Manatee Players writes grant applications to many local community foundations and organizations including Manatee Community Foundation, Lakewood Ranch Community Fund, Service Club of Manatee County, and local Rotary Clubs. The annual average income from these grants is $20,000 with funding mainly going toward education, scholarships and community outreach activities.

Narrative: Collection Summary (GPS Collecting Museums only)

Instructions to the Applicant

Provide a summary of the applicant's collection (live or inanimate) and the collection policy. Provide information on the following:

• Size and scope of collection(s) the museum owns or uses
• Conservation and care
• Inventory and/or registration methods
No answer provided.

Applicant Accessibility

Narrative: Accessibility

In the 56 years since the Riverfront Theater was built and labeled "the most modern and beautiful theater in the Southeast", Manatee Players' staff, performers, audience and productions have grown to the extent that five years ago a serious effort began to construct a new building that would be the cultural gathering place for the community. Still, the old building has seen additions and renovations designed to insure physical accessibility for all who desire to participate. Ground level side doors leading into the House allow easy entrance for physically disadvantaged patrons using walkers and those in wheelchairs. Restrooms each have a handicap accessible stall and theater seats have been removed from the last row of the 238-seat auditorium to allow for wheelchair placement on either aisle. Although Manatee Players minimally conforms to ADA standards, there is so much more that can be done. Currently wheelchair-bound performers must be lifted onto the stage and there is no means by which to get physically impaired crew members into the light and sound booth.
The new Manatee Players Performing Arts Center has been designed to insure wheelchair accessibility to all areas of the building including the orchestra pit, stage, dressing rooms, control room, classrooms and catwalk.
Manatee Players currently invites sight impaired individuals and their escorts to preview performances and reserves front row seats for the group. Infra-red hearing devices are available at the Box Office for the hearing impaired and one performance of each production has been accompanied by a sign language professional interpreting the dialogue. Manatee Players' production of Big River had actors both reciting their lines and speaking in sign language. During the Summer Boot Camp production of High School Musical 2, performers incorporated sign language into two songs. There is also a deaf office volunteer who works at the theater with her aide on a weekly basis. In addition, Manatee Players has been working with local cochlear implant advocates seeking funding from several foundations to caption all mainstage performances above or beside the proscenium arch to assist hearing-impaired patrons in their enjoyment of performances.

1. IRS Determination Letter
2. Division of Corporations Record
3. Power Point Presentation of Set, Costume and Props Rental on CD
4. Rental 'take away' card
5. Crazy For You Playbill, produced in-house
6. Reviews of:
a.Ragtime from Sarasota Magazine
b.Damn Yankees from Herald-Tribune
c.Crazy for You from Bradenton Herald
6. Letter from Mr. and Mrs. Paul Carrington in praise of Education Program
7. Tomato Plant Girl study guide with Teacher Survey
8. Results of the Americans for the Arts Survey
9. Herald Tribune Arts Editor's Blog announcing "Manatee Players breaks subscription record"
10.Letters of Support from:
a. State Senator Mike Bennett
b. Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston
c. City Councilwoman Marianne Barnebey
d. Manatee Schools Curriculum Specialist Dr. Sherry Lawrence