Convening coverage continued

Above: Ma-Yi Theatre's Ralph Pena and Asian Theatre Workshop's Chay Yew.

A slightly worrisome trend is the lack of thought about audience development, particularly in the fundraising arena. The sense I get when people were talking about fundraising is that they were talking about the traditional three: government, corporations and foundations. However, that's not the trend among the more sophisticated fundraisers today; large non-profits such as universities are going after individuals, and concentrating in particular among the new wealth created by the growing entrepreneurial class AND in the international money that is being invested in this country.

This ties into audience development. The Traditional Three will not give money nowadays unless you can demonstrate broad support. That means a broad audience, which means a broad donor base that extends beyond the friends and relatives of the cast and board, which means individuals. And it's a truisim that your best donors (i.e., rich, i.e., entrepreneurs) are generated from you existing donor base/annual fund.....

[Above: New WORLD's Lucy Burns and Rick Shiomi.

Immediately below: Former NWAAT Associate Artistic Director Manuel Cawaling, Chay Yew, Asian American Theatre Company Executive Director Pamela Wu and National Asian American Theatre Company's Mia Katigbak.

Middle Below: NWAAT General Manager Louis Watanabe and long time NWAAT Artistic Director Bea Kiyohara.

Bottom Below: East West Players Literary Manager Ken Narasaki.]