First Meeting Notes : June 17th 2008

The first Abbie fest meeting was June 17th, 2008 at 7:30

Richard Cotovsky led the meeting detailing information about this year's festival.

This year being the 20th anniversary of Abbie Fest, everyone involved wants to make DOS EQUIS (XX) a special celebration of the Chicago Theater community. Our goal is to encourage you to recruit as many groups to participate in the festival as possible. It would be an amazing feat and truly make DOS EQUIS a special occasion!

Here is the run down:

The Festival will be August 22, 23, 24 2008 and will begin with the ceremony in Daley Plaza and march back up to the Angel Island Theater (735 W. Sheridan Rd.)

Applications are available for download from the Mary-Arrchie website:
http://maryarrchie.com/abbie/Abbie20docs.doc
We need 2 copies of the contract and 1 copy of the group informational sheets from each participating group. Please hand in to Rich Cotovsky at the first meeting you attend. You may also email Applications to Rich (rich@maryarrchie.com) to get the ball rolling, then hand in signed contract at the first Abbie Meeting you attend.

Abbie Fest Meetings: There will be 3 other meeting which are touch base meetings and important to the cohesion of the group for our 20th Annual festival. This will be on Monday nights and you will be notified in advance. The meetings are informational and attendance is not mandatory, unless you need to fill out an application and contract, then attendance is encouraged.

Material Info:
Length of piece: 1 hour or less
Original material is encouraged. Individuals will be responsible for any royalties for material, if applicable.

Timeslots: In an ideal world, everyone would be given one slot in the ideal time to maximize your target audience. With that said, you will be assigned a time slot between 8PM and 3AM, there may also be times that may need filling in, in that case an additional slots will be offered.

Artist and Day Passes: Each group member performing will receive an Artist Pass, which will allow entrance to the facilities all weekend. These passes must be visibly presented at the door each time a person enters, this is very important to the integrity of the door. If you are carrying a box up the stairs, the door personnel will need to see your pass, so *pin it to your shirt or wear it around your neck, so you don't have to dig for it. The same goes for Day passes purchased by audience members. Everyone must show there pass at the door each time they wish to enter the space.

The prices of day passes is the same this year, Single Days $10, Weekend Pass: $25, Sat/Sun Pass $15.

Tech: The week before the festival will be TECH week, you will have the option to choose one 1 hour time slot to come into the space and TECH your piece before the festival. We will need to keep this to 1 hour time slot per performing group. The slots will be filled in as First Come/First Served. So, reply back to RICH once that Tech schedule is opened for requests.

PROMOTION: Word of Mouth is huge. Not only for the Festival performances, but also for encouraging individuals and groups to submit. As we near the festival dates, posters and flyers will be made available for all groups to distribute if they prefer. Social Networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, etc.) are a great resource to tell your friends to participate as performer or audience. It's been done in the past by some groups, but feel free to make a flyer/poster for your piece to promote as well (just remember Mother Earth and recycle).

HAVE FUN: The greatest part of this festival is seeing participants and audiences interacting, having a good time, and being a little subversive. So, stick around and support your fellow festival, treat everyone and the space with respect, and have a good time. Abbie will think that was real cool.

Please be patient and participate in all aspects of the fest including the meetings, the barbeque kickoff, the teching, the march from Daley Plaza back to the theater and of course the 3 days of non-stop theatrical entertainment.

If there is anything that you would like to see happen to help this growth don’t hesitate to offer a suggestion. We look forward to everyone’s participation in this year’s fest and a continuous dialogue to keep the lines of communication going.