September 12, 2010

Dear mShakespeare Patrons,

mShakespeare is starting its Winter Season in about 6 weeks! This season, we hope to finally present the long-awaited finale of Twelfth Night – unabridged – in our usual legendary extravagance – and with more!

(Main playbills of previous acts shown above. Acts 3, 4 and 5, to come!)

Great theatre – especially on SL – is a costly thing: Aside from our elaborate wardrobe, props and sets, and everything else, we have to raise funds for tier for our home venue, the virtual Shakespearean thespian idealist’s dream of a 4-sim SL Globe Theatre. We’ve partnered with sLiterary, a nonprofit dedicated to the arts in virtual worlds, and Primtings Museum, a sim-sized art gallery of 3D paintings, to fund 2 of our 4 sims. Our artistic director has donated the fourth sim (mea culpa?). Minimally, we still have to raise tier for that peculiar sim called Shakespeare – you know, the one with the epic stage of the SL Globe Theatre, and also the world’s only full reconstruction of Shakespeare’s indoor theatre, the Blackfriars Theatre – as well as virtual reconstructions of other buildings relating to Shakespeare’s legacy. We pay our tier in 6-month intervals… And, it’s high time to get working on the fundraising!

As a pre-kickoff to our 2010 Winter Campaign, we have a pretty thing to offer as a fashionable head dress of sorts for your avatar. Ina Infinity of iC Hair has created a 100% Donation hair inspired by a certain Shakespearean character. Catch it at [iC] Hair’s Hair Fair booth before Hair Fair ends this coming Friday. Ad pic and LM below:

LM to iC Hair @ Hair Fair 2

Sincerely,
Ina Centaur
Artistic Director, mShakespeare

P.S. Be the first three to name the Shakespearean character impersonation the hair embodies, and iC Hair will name one of its future styles after you (or a word or phrase of your choice).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 8, 2010
Contact: Lora Constantine

mShakespeare’s SOS Campaign Becomes Save Our Shakespeare:  

Shakespeare, Second Life: The Metaverse Shakespeare Company (MSC), formerly SL Shakespeare Company (SLSC), today refreshes the MSC SOS Campaign, its grid-wide network of donation kiosks. The running total is still displayed instantly both inworld and on the web, but the SOS Campaign website has been updated at http://sos.mshakespeare.com and SOS has evolved from “Save Our Sims” to “Save Our Shakespeare.”

Artistic Director Ina Centaur two years ago eloquently expressed the greater significance of the Metaverse Shakespeare endeavor, “Our goal is to create a good within Second Life for the world to thrive from—because it is possible… [this] truly humanitarian cause that we are fighting for—to bring theatre to the farthest reaches of the world, to give Shakespeare to those who would not have had the chance to experience his words in the live and intimate form they were written for, to use this nascent medium to bring the most quintessential culture to the metaverse and beyond.”

In light of this abstract value which the sims have been platform for, those contributing to the cause will be effectively saving more than sims—they will be saving Shakespeare on Second Life, with its potential to unite the world. Perhaps phenomenal for a project of its scope, the Metaverse Shakespeare Company is completely independent of any external funding, resident-supported and resident-funded.

Anyone can help support the MSC SOS Campaign by donating to or rezzing a donation kiosk, available by clicking on any of the current kiosks at the SL Globe Theatre, or by visiting one of the kiosks listed at http://sos.mshakespeare.com  

Launched in December 2008, the SOS Campaign, through the support of over a thousand residents, has raised over L$1.5 million in funds to help the Metaverse Shakespeare Company cover tier fees for three of its four island sims. In February 2010, the third sim—Primtings—became self-supporting due to Primtings Campaign, but continues to donate a corner of its sim space to MSC to maintain the 4-Sim SL Globe Theatre.

The SOS is now responsible for raising tier for just two island sims—Shakespeare and sLiterary. As with previous years, unused funds will remain in the MSC Endowment until needed. Any and all uses of publicly raised funds through the SOS Campaign will be reported to the MSC Transparency website at http://transparency.mshakespeare.com

Related PR’s:
SOS Campaign Launch – November 2008
SOS Campaign January 2009 Update

About the Metaverse Shakespeare Company (mShakespeare)
Headquartered in the virtual world of Second Life (SL), the Metaverse Shakespeare Company (MSC) is the flagship project of sLiterary’s Virtual Reality Shakespeare Initiative (VRSI). MSC is a professional virtual theatre company that embraces the best of what the metaverse has to offer. While it is primarily known to provide quality live Shakespearean theatre available to anyone in any location, MSC is also the curator of the most historically accurate theatres and architecture in virtual worlds relating to William Shakespeare.

Website: http://mshakespeare.com
Press Center: http://mshakespeare.com/press
Blog: http://blog.mshakespeare.com
Playbills: http://playbills.mshakespeare.com
Programmes: http://programmes.mshakespeare.com

About sLiterary
sLiterary, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering literary and artistic endeavors in Second Life and other virtual worlds.

About Second Life
Second Life is a free online virtual world imagined and created by its residents.

Neither the Metaverse Shakespeare Company nor sLiterary is affiliated with Linden Lab. Second Life is a trademark of Linden Lab. No infringement is intended.

The Metaverse Shakespeare’s long-awaited open-ended run of Twelfth Night: Act 2 opens on Tuesday, March 2. The performances will occur Sundays at 1 PM SLT (PT) and Tuesdays at 6 PM SLT (PT). To help sponsor the event, and to invite you to take part in this historic event, we are offering advertisement space in our play program!This is your chance to grab an ad or special message space in our programme booklet to be distributed both at the show, to various inworld groups, and also on our blog and website! Below is an example of a web-based programme booklet:

OEP1: Twelfth Night, Act 1 – 2009 Open Ended Run (pdf 5 MB) or Issuu

Our four-sim venue with 3-sim audience seating is generally packed with ~300 avatars for each show in our main Shakespearean repertoire. The SL Globe Theatre is in Showcases/popular places and receives a fair amount of natural traffic on non-event days. Our website receives hundreds of thousands of views per month. We’re #1 on a Google search on several keywords for our main repertoire – here are just some examples: Twelfth Night open ended run, Twelfth Night director’s interpretation, Twelfth Night props, private performances, .

Please click here for more details on ordering an ad–or that ultimate message to that special someone!

Our past programme booklets are posted at http://programmes.mshakespeare.com

The SL Shakespeare Company is presenting LIVE – and in the flesh – at SL Convention (SLCC) 2009 in San Francisco, CA.

Sponsorship (both discreet and advertisement-based) opportunities to help support us at this seminal RL event are now available.

Any amount accepted for discreet sponsorships.

Because this is an RL event with RL printing costs, advertisement-based sponsorship start at L$11,000 (USD$50)/3″x5″-page ad to be displayed on a sponsorship poster at our presentation(s). (6″x10″ ads are at a discounted rate of L$50,000 or USD$150.) Ads must be submitted at 300 dpi or higher; inhouse design options are also available.

We are currently scheduled for a 90-minute Edu Track presentation on August 15 at 10 AM PDT at the SL Convention event located at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, CA. We are also participating in the Fashion and Music/Performance Tracks, and if space allows, your ad will receive additional exposure (pro bono!) at these avant garde performance events.

Printing Deadline: August 5. SLCC starts August 14!

Please pay at our SLSC @ SLCC Terminal at the SL Globe Theatre or Blackfriars Theatre.

Help us show the SLSC magic at SLCC! – Sponsor us!

Please contact Ina Centaur at ina.centaur @ gmail.com directly for questions or further info.

For purposes of transparency, we have released a public Transparency subsite that accounts for all SLSC public funds. Rest assured that your dollars are spent right, and that you’re kept in the know on these matters.  http://transparency.SLshakespeare.com

Please note that though we are currently supported completely via inworld means, our actual production costs far exceed what we have raised. Artistic quality has been the bane of the SLSC’s existence; you should know better than to judge us based our funds listed.

–

I’ve hesitated from doing this in the past because there was always a subset of people who would put us in the slushpile primarily because of this lack of funds. But, speaking from the point of view of an artist — someone who starts with just a blank canvas and art utensils obtained at based pricing and, after brooding for several years, creates a masterpiece that later sells for thousands of times the initial cost — I have to say that SLSC is worth far more than the tier paid. I and others who have actually seen what we’ve done know that any SLSC (canon) event far overdoes your typical big-org event that receives all the RL media. I guess cynics will always be cynics…

It’s true! We’re holding grand opening events this weekend, March 21st… and later today, the Blackfriars Theatre will be on SL search–and a new theatre will be officially open to the public!

Lora Constantine’s PR is here.

The SL Shakespeare Company’s long-awaited open-ended run of Twelfth Night: Act 1 opens in about a week and a half on Sunday, March 1. The performances will occur Sundays at 1 PM SLT (GMT-8) and Tuesdays at 6 PM SLT (GMT-8). To help sponsor the event, and to invite you to take part in this historic event, we are offering advertisement space in our play program!

This is your chance to grab an ad or special message space in our programme booklet to be distributed both at the show, to various inworld groups, and also on our blog and website! Below is an example of a web-based programme booklet:

AP1: Twelfth Night, Act 1 (pdf 3 MB) or Issuu

Get your own – Open publication

Our four-sim venue with 3-sim audience seating is generally packed with ~300 avatars for each show in our main Shakespearean repertoire. The SL Globe Theatre is in Showcases/popular places and receives a fair amount of natural traffic on non-event days. Our website receives hundreds of thousands of views per month. We’re #1 on a Google search on several keywords for our main repertoire – here are just some examples: Twelfth Night open ended run, Twelfth Night director’s interpretation, Twelfth Night playscripts, Twelfth Night scansion, Twelfth Night credits.

Please click here for more details on ordering an ad–or that ultimate message to that special someone!

Ladies and Gents… Can you believe we’ve broken and exceeded the L$1 million mark in our SOS Campaign? We are at 75.1% of our mark—that’s right, we have less than 25% more to go to meet our Campaign goal! A few short weeks ago, when we broke our 50% mark, we had raised enough to sustain tier for three sims for six months. Our Campaign date was extended in hopes that we might meet our 100% mark—and we are so close to it!

I’m going to extend the deadline one last time—because we are so close, and because it would mean so much to us… When we reach the 100% mark, we would be able to sustain tier for three island sims for an entire year. This would allow us to plan for things in the long term. In the past, we’ve struggled with our fundraisers to make tier, but we have never come so close to making it. I think the difference would be tremendous. Just think about all we’ve done in the past year even with the onerous number of tier looming over us—and all the time lost, when we had to go off a tangent to fundraise. So much more could be possible without the necessity to break our creativity to raise the remaining needed for tier for an entire year!

We have just 25% more to go to raise the funds necessary to pay tier fees to Linden Lab for three island sims for an entire year…

For the Primtings, Shakespeare, and sLiterary island sims—three islands, each with its own potential for creating what Second Life can be, and each equally pivotal in helping to sustain the premier Shakespearean theatre venue in virtual worlds—the 4-Sim SL Globe Theatre.

These are three public island sims, where all are invited to share in, to explore, to hold events in, and to help expand. We need your help to make it possible—to fund tier so, together, we can realize what dreams may come… It wouldn’t be possible without you.

Please, please continue to donate.

Let’s see if we can make full circle by Pi Day (3.14) – March 14 – our final Extended Deadline for the SOS!

Continuing our tradition in producing several plays, but focusing on just one Shakespearean play per year, to make it the *best* that it can be – this year, we hope to present a full length Twelfth Night, entertaining and educating – worth *every* minute of your time.

If you’re in the SL Shakespeare Company group inworld, check group notices archive for a HoloLight attached in the latest group notice. Or… visit the SL Globe Theatre to grab a free copy of the 2009 Edition of the SL Shakespeare Company HoloLight. Last year, we had the Ghost from Hamlet. This year, we’ve got Feste the Clown! Rez & click to find out the next show date!