We are entirely delighted to put into your hot little hands the official New Works Festival Letter of Agreement. If you are a theater company
considering participation, this document is what you need to be officially registered. If you are a member of the Festival committee,
please also forward this document to your contacts who are considering participation in the festival.
First things first: The name
Fertile Ground: A City-wide Festival of New Work
We'll also have a website soon: www.fertilegroundpdx.org
Next: The letter of agreement
We need to receive your signed Letter of Agreement by September 30th (or else there's a late fee). But the sooner we receive your paperwork,
the sooner we can start touting you as part of the festival in our PR and on our website.
For example, the first piece of promotion for the festival will be our participation in a co-op ad in the New Yorker that will hit
378,000 households up and down the west coast. It will land in mailboxes Oct. 13. Get your LOA back to me quickly and i can
highlight your project in the copy for that ad.
The Letter of Agreement lays out what you'll get and what you'll give as part of your participation in the festival. Here are the highlights:
- There's a registration fee. Everybody pays this one-time fee no matter how many shows you are doing or how much you are charging.
The fee is only $50 or $75, depending on your PATA membership status. It makes sure you are serious about participating and is the
starting point for the fund that will cover the marketing for the festival.
- Festival Pass. We'll be selling Festival Passes for $150 that get the pass holder in to every festival related event. By participating
in the festival you agree to honor festival passes as comp admissions to your event. The upside? Your company can sell festival passes to
your own constituents and you'll get to keep $50 of every pass you sell.
- We'll be selling a button for about $9. As a festival participant you agree to provide a discount of your choice off single
ticket sales to people wearing the button. We think it will be mostly locals and fellow theater people who will buy this button.
But it becomes great marketing for the festival to have folks wandering around town wearing the button. We'll also be working with
local bars and restaurants to offer a discount or special for people wearing the button the week of the festival.
- Booklet ads. Your registration fee gets you listed in the booklet. If you want more prominent featuring, you can purchase an ad
in the booklet. The agreement lays out your ad options. If you have a show that is happening during that time frame that does not qualify
for the festival (because it's not a premiere), you can still buy an ad in the booklet to promote that show. We'll have a section for
"other cool things to see while you're here."
- Travel Portland will be putting together a hotel package that includes the festival pass (at a discount of $100) and will
be selling it through their website. They will also be working closely with us to market the festival in Oregon and Washington. Lots of
juicy details to follow at the Festival Meetings in September.
- Cross-promotion agreements. We'll ask you to put the new works festival logo on all materials related to your participating
production. We'll ask you to send an email to your patron list marketing the festival and the Festival pass to them. We'll ask you to
give us your snail mail list for a postcard mailing and a booklet mailing in support of the festival. There's some other stuff,
pretty straight forward, but you'll want to look through that section carefully and make sure it will all work for you. I'm open to
counter offers- maybe you don't have a mailing list but you can add extra people to the street team. Etc.
- Volunteers. Participating in the festival means some of your company members will need to volunteer on its behalf a bit. Nothing
to keep you up nights, just adding a little elbow grease from each of us to lighten the load for all of us.
- Venues. Got a venue you want to open up for other people to use for weekdays, latenights or whatever? Send me your specs and
I'll share them with folks. Need a venue for your show? Let me know. I can give you some options (including, potentially, the Armory).
So, read through the agreement, ask me if you have questions, and get it returned to me with your registration fee etc. as soon as you can.
You can mail or drop off the completed form to the PATA offices, c/o Fertile Ground, 1017 SW Morrison, Suite 315, PDX, 97205.
Then: SAVE THE DATE!
We'll have two Festival Meetings on Saturday September 13th at noon and Monday, September 15th at 7:00 pm. Pick one of these
dates and make sure you have a company representative there. RSVP to me at trishap@pcs.org and let me know which date you'll attend
and who's coming.
We'll use these meetings to organize committees and talk through the nuts and bolts logistics of the festival. We'll also gather your
ideas for promotional opportunities, pitfalls and etc.
That's everything there is to know so far. Send me your questions and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. And congratulations everybody.
We're going to have a festival!!
Email Committee Chair Trisha Pancio at trisha@patagreenroom.org.
New Works Festival Fact Sheet (.pdf)
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