MURROW - Production and Educational Outreach

Bren Rapp is organizing this fundraiser.

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WHY ARE FUNDS BEING RAISED?

This Go Fund Me is raising money to offset some final production costs of MURROW, a multimedia, one-man show making its 10 performance, regional premiere in Dallas, April 11-21. By offsetting some production expenses, educational and community outreach efforts can accompany the show. Things like further reducing student and senior ticket pricing past normal discounting, some free ticketing to students with an inability to pay, supplemental outreach to schools and other groups, production of study guides and other informational content, post show programming and more. All while still allowing for truly impactful production values in its presentation.

Although this production was selected as part of a special program, The Elevator Project , production costs are incurred by the producer. The generous support of The AT&T Performing Arts Center and the City of Dallas comes by way of giving this project a top tier space for performances and a platform to reach many more people than an independent production could alone, providing an incredible opportunity to affect change.

THE PRODUCTION-MURROW by Joseph Vitale

The words belong to American icon Edward R. Murrow. The events belong to history. The circumstances they can change are ours. The regional premiere of a powerful, multimedia, one-man show explores Murrow’s life and work, becoming both a lens to examine where we are now as a nation of media consumers, and a mirror providing reflections of much needed lessons from our modern history.

In an age of fake news, info-tainment and clickbait, Edward R. Murrow’s life and work stand out as beacons of integrity and professionalism. His courageous radio reports from London during the Blitz brought the war into American homes and made him a household name. His broadcast from Buchenwald concentration camp is as chilling now as the day it was aired. His groundbreaking television work unearthed injustices in our own country, like the blacklisting of citizens by Senator Joseph McCarthy, making him a hero to many but an enemy to entrenched interests, ultimately forcing "the conscience of America" off the air by an industry that had grown more interested in profits.

WHY NOW?

We have entered this presidential election year as a people more divided than ever. Regardless of where we fall on the political spectrum, or what marginalized group we are a part of or stand allied with, regardless of who we view as "us" or see as "them", we ALL have allowed and continue to allow an age of misinformation to hinder our ability to ever come together.

2/3 of all American adults have little to no trust in the nation's mass media to report news accurately or fairly. 30% believe national news organizations attempt to mislead the public.

47% of adults 18-44 get their news from social media while a recent study by MIT shows that there is a vast increase in the inability to decipher accurate information if presented in an environment to be "shared" than if sharing content were not a concern.

Adults 55+ experience an increase, as age increases, of vulnerability to prior exposure effect meaning the more often they see a headline or news item, the more their belief in its accuracy increases.

...and yet we consume, and tune in, and click, and share

WHO AM I AND WHY DO I CARE?

My name is Bren Rapp and I have been producing theatre for a LONG time. I usually get hired to use my skills to bring someone else's vision to life. A playwright's, other producers', a company's. This one is mine. Three years ago, as we were all in throws of pandemic lock down, and political and social unrest, in a monent of despair, or defeat, or perhaps disgust, I asked myself what I would even want to say if I ever had the privilege of putting something in front of a live audience again. It was Edward R. Murrow's voice that came to me. The words I felt missing in the arts (and elsewhere) being the ones I had believed, up until that point, went without saying but now needed to be heard. A voice championing only unbiased truth. I sought out a script and found this amazing work. I acquired the rights and could never have imagined how, with each day that has passed since the summer of 2020, it has become even more vital to share those words.

As Executive Producer, I am incurring the production costs, and forgoing the financial support of sources like sponsors and advertisers in an effort to truly walk Mr. Murrow's walk. Aside from the nickels and dimes of this Go Fund Me, (and no amount is too small) what I hope it creates is a MADE POSSIBLE BY list, pages long, in the playbill of this production of the names of people from all ilks and ideologies, across the lines that currently divide us, who want to be counted among those who demand better, of our media and of ourselves. Who believe in the need for truthful information in a democracy and realize that there are no ends that justify the means of straying away from that principle.