THEATRE PRO RATA COMPANY MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

Emerg­ing young artists often find them­selves with few oppor­tu­ni­ties to cre­ate the­ater out­side of the sup­port of an edu­ca­tion­al set­ting, and the first step many take is to form their own com­pa­ny. Wel­come to our com­mu­ni­ty! We are hap­py to have you, excit­ed about the the­ater you will make, and want to pre­pare you for suc­cess with prac­ti­cal knowl­edge as you tran­si­tion to real-world producing.

The­atre Pro Rata start­ed in 2001 with lit­tle more than pas­sion. As we begin our third decade of pro­duc­ing inde­pen­dent the­ater in the Twin Cities, we have learned that although there are many styles and meth­ods of doing the­ater, some best busi­ness prac­tices are uni­ver­sal. The­atre Pro Rata’s Com­pa­ny Men­tor­ship Pro­gram is our way to sup­port emerg­ing com­pa­nies in our Twin Cities the­ater com­mu­ni­ty and pay for­ward the knowl­edge we’ve learned to the next gen­er­a­tion of small the­ater makers. 

The men­tor­ship allows access to every­thing prac­ti­cal a small the­atre com­pa­ny might be curi­ous about: board struc­ture and devel­op­ment, best prac­tices of gov­er­nance, small the­ater strate­gies for poli­cies and pro­ce­dures, real­is­tic grant oppor­tu­ni­ties, bud­get and book­keep­ing tips, find­ing rehearsal and per­for­mance space, devel­op­ing rela­tion­ships with actors and design­ers, safe and respect­ful labor prac­tices, audi­ence build­ing strate­gies… in a nut­shell: What are the real-world ways to cre­ate the­ater when you are start­ing on your own?

Com­pa­ny Mentees have a one-year rela­tion­ship with Pro Rata. Dur­ing that year they have full access to shad­ow mem­bers of The­atre Pro Rata dur­ing board meet­ings, com­pa­ny meet­ings, rehearsals, and per­for­mances. They can take our exist­ing poli­cies, pro­ce­dures, and gov­er­nance tools and adapt our doc­u­ment lan­guage for them­selves. Although this is not prac­ti­cal or hands-on expe­ri­ence, there will be oppor­tu­ni­ties to reflect and ask ques­tions through­out the rela­tion­ship. The goal is to set a new com­pa­ny off on the best pos­si­ble foot­ing for their own future. 

Application:

Send one let­ter of inter­est and two ref­er­ences to: info@theatreprorata.org. 

Deadline: 

Appli­ca­tions are ongo­ing, and the Pro­gram is avail­able each year until filled.

The­atre Pro Rata men­tors one Com­pa­ny at a time.

Timeline:

Each Com­pa­ny Men­tor­ship oppor­tu­ni­ty lasts for one year, and the num­ber of par­tic­i­pat­ing indi­vid­u­als is flex­i­ble (we encour­age an entire company’s par­tic­i­pa­tion, regard­less of size).

The Men­tor­ship peri­od can begin as soon as there is a Pro­gram spot available.

Although the offi­cial rela­tion­ship lasts for one sea­son, Com­pa­ny Men­tor­ship Alums are wel­come to con­tin­ue using The­atre Pro Rata as an ongo­ing sound­ing board for advice.

Stipend:

This is an unpaid program.