Let us now praise donors and sponsors of the arts

I want honour all donors and sponsors of the arts. They have made our production of The Secret Lives of Extremely Old People possible.

That sounds like a cliché but it is literally true.

In the past, I would glance at logos on a theatre programme with barely another thought. I’ll never do that again. Let me walk you through “our” logos, and show the crucial role of their support at every stage of our project.

Funding a new play from conception to production

The first stage: research, writing, workshopping and pitching

1. Two years ago, I received a grant from Creative New Zealand. The grant gave me confidence to rip into the project. Four months later I had researched the topic and written the first draft of the script.
2. Then a tiny group of theatre people got together to push for a production, and we called ourselves the 90 Plus Group: Theatre Against Ageism.
3. Playmarket quickly entered the picture, providing rooms for workshops and rehearsals as well as ongoing script advice. Playmarket is New Zealand’s agency for playwrights and performs impossible feats of professional support.
4. Next we pitched our play to the Council of Circa Theatre. They programmed us for three weeks before Christmas the following year, 2023. Circa doesn’t directly fund our production but provides an excellent central venue, rehearsal rooms, and essential services such as box office and marketing. That’s worth a lot!

The second stage: fundraising in a vacuum

1. Time to seek funding for the production. (Box office returns alone fall far short of expenses.) Actors and producers and technicians cannot commit to a future job unless the budget shows they will actually get paid. So a flurry of funding applications followed. The first organisation to grant us funding was the Nikau Foundation. They were enormously helpful and genuinely interested in our project. That first donation encouraged other donors, I think.
2. Now Quaker Peace and Service Aotearoa New Zealand contributed. I should say here that we see our play not only as a cultural event but also as a community one. That’s because the characters show audiences the realistic possibilities of late-life pleasure, despite the trials.
3. Out of the blue, Dr Judith Davey joined us as a Silver Sponsor. She sponsors a matinee performance and we’ll promote her chosen cause, Age Concern Dignity Champions. Dr Davey has spent much of her career researching, writing and teaching about issues related to ageing.
4. Next we received not one but two grants from the Wellington City Council. The first was from their Arts and Culture Fund, which supports the arts in our city. The second was from the Living Wage For Events Fund, which did for us what it says on the tin: it topped up the wages of our cast and crew so that they can expect at least New Zealand’s living wage for the hours they work. This was the grant that made our bank balance look healthy. It was even healthy enough to contract a director, actors, and other key personnel. Imagine, until then we didn’t even have a producer!

The third stage: extra donors and sponsors

1. I’m still not done! Suddenly we gained another Silver Sponsor: Summerset Retirement Villages. With a head office in Wellington, the lovely Summerset people quickly saw the benefits of associating with this particular play and Circa Theatre as a venue, and jumped on board.
2. I was especially delighted when Wellington City Creative Communities gave us a grant on the strength of our community impact. We do have a mission. It’s to nudge communities to be kind and respectful towards older people — including towards ourselves as future old people.
3. Donations in kind have come from many sources. We list Illumination + Optics, because of their assistance with lighting equipment.

Many more donations in kind and in money

I can’t begin to estimate the support we’ve had from other people and companies. Two friends made spontaneous donations. Experienced theatre people gave time and advice, which was incredibly valuable in the months before we had a producer. (For me personally, Kate JasonSmith gave generous guidance.) Key friends actively publicised our show out of sheer goodwill. In the theatre programme, some of these helpers are acknowledged but certainly not all of them.

Please forgive my mistakes

Have I listed everyone who has helped with time, money or goods? No way! It’s impossible.

If you have contributed in any way to The Secret Lives of Extremely Old People, we are so so grateful. If we have left you out of our acknowledgements, we’re appalled at our mistake. And I have made many mistakes, blunders and stumbles. Please forgive me. Despite having had plays produced in the past, some many times, I’ve never been involved in anything quite like this before.

And please appreciate those donors and sponsors of the arts

I do, as never before.