Fearless Comedy Productions is now Fearless Theatrical Creations
In recent years, community theaters in the Twin Cities have faced a growing number of challenges. Since the pandemic, it has been harder to attract audiences to in-person shows, and equally challenging to recruit and retain artistic talent for productions. At the same time, growing inflation has meant that performance spaces and production expenses have gotten more expensive. Moreover, since Fearless’s founding, the local community has seen an explosion of theater companies and improv groups, which on the one hand means more artists making art, but on the other hand means greater competition for artists, audiences, and resources. All of this has taken its toll on Fearless, and our company has struggled to make ends meet.
This past year, Fearless’s leadership decided they had to make a change. The Twin Cities area has a wealth of talent, so we spoke to current and past Fearless members and conducted a survey of local theater and comedy artists to better understand their wants and needs. The artists expressed a need for more sketch comedy and original plays, a desire to perform in comedic and dramatic plays, and a strong interest in more opportunities for staged readings and workshops of new plays. The artists we heard from also suggested that Fearless should work on improving its quality, its professionalism, and its marketing, as well as creating a more inclusive and cohesive community.
With this feedback in mind, and given the current political climate and its impacts on the arts, our leadership has decided to refocus the company on its core mission: providing opportunities and support to help artists develop new and bold works for the stage. We want to help local artists develop daring ideas and make them successful, creating high-quality shows that entertain, engage, and challenge people’s thinking.
How will Fearless do this? First, we will focus on creating opportunities to present original, bold works to audiences. This includes our upcoming Fearless Five, an annual production of original short plays around a common theme, and Fearless Presents, a showcase of new works and our spring fundraising event. This fall, we are also producing The Leftovers Theater Festival, for bold new scripted works that were not accepted into Minnesota Fringe or Twin Cities Horror Fest.
Second, we will focus on providing support to develop new ideas into high-quality productions. We believe theater is at its best when it is collaborative – when different artists come together and contribute their ideas, perspective, and experience to improve an idea and help an artist realize their vision. We have already created the Brain Trust, an advisory group that reviews script submissions and provides constructive feedback to writers, and we have implemented a three-step script development process to provide helpful feedback to writers working on new scripts. This spring, we are also starting a new play reading series, In Development, where artists can workshop their plays with a director and actors before having them read for an audience. Starting in the fall, we will also be offering mentorships and trainings to help artists develop themselves and their talents in different aspects of theatre-making.
Of course, none of this will be possible if we do not improve how we operate. Our top priority will be delivering professional and rewarding experiences to both our artists and our audiences. We must organize, execute, and manage our productions and programs so our artists feel safe, valued, respected, and included. We must also create a best-in-class audience experience through the quality of our shows, our customer service, and the environment we create for our guests. We want everyone we work with, entertain, and interact with to have a positive, rewarding experience, no matter their background, experience, identity, or walk of life.
To reflect this change of direction and give us a fresh start, we’ve given our company a new name and look. “Fearless Theatrical Creations” reflects our dedication to bold new works for the stage, and a shift towards scripted works of all genres. Our new visual brand conveys our focus on quality and professionalism, with a pop of color and some creativity in the mix. We are serious about making good theater, but we do so with passion, joy, and good humor.
Making changes of this kind isn’t easy. Our leadership has drafted a new strategic plan to chart an ambitious course over the next three years. While we are being thoughtful and mindful in what we do, we are also living up to our name and taking some risks that we believe will add real value to artists and the local theatrical arts community. Our mission is to lift up the artists in our local community and help them create great theater, and we will stay focused on doing just that.
We invite you to learn more about the new Fearless by looking around our new website at fearlesstheatricalcreations.org. There you can read more about our mission and values, our productions, the opportunities we plan to offer artists, and ways to get involved and support our work. We also welcome any feedback or suggestions on how we can best serve you and our local theatrical arts community.
In times like these, we need daring theater more than ever. We hope you’ll join us as we move into this new chapter. Together, we can create a thriving theatrical arts community where artists can take risks, push the boundaries, and make bold theater that entertains, engages, and challenges audiences.
