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April 16, 2008

I’ve been receiving nearly daily reports on the goings-on in Franklin County, and it’s giving me chills! This is an extraordinary group putting on this project called “Land of Spirit”. They really know how to generate and motivate an entire community behind their efforts. They are building capacity for the project and creating stakeholders by charging other motivated and interested people with the responsibility of caring for and working for this project. This isn’t just about a couple of leaders delegating duties to others. iI is way more than that. It’s about the leader's ability to co-produce with the entire community. That's what is going on here. And it's exciting.

As more people become responsibile for certain aspects of the project, the entire project grows and strengthens. A mistake often made with these Community Performances, especially new ones, is that the leader -or a few leaders in a small core group- feel tasked with carrying out all of the duties required. In a very short time, the effort becomes extremenly taxing on those few individuals. When these projects work best is when leadership is shared. Because as these responsiblitites are shared, there's an entire network that gets built, assisting the growth of the project. They get the village, the town, behind this effort, and pretty soon, EVERYONE is caring for this new project, not just a few. This is how to build a strong base of support. It is also the secret to Community Performance. remember, the goal of CP isn't a play. (Haha, says the playwright.) The play is a reason, a way, to get to the goal- which is about building stronger neighborhoods and communities, as people are drawn together in celebration of their heritage and culture. Good results happen when the acotrs, about a hundred of them, come together in this celebration, and in doing so, get to know each other at a deper level, and community is strengthened that way. however, when More people have ownership of the project, in all areas, so many more people are building connections, and sharing ideas of what's worked in the past, how their community has been strong in the past, and how it can become stronger in the future. This sharing of duties and expanding of leadership beyond the rehearsal room is a theory preached during the Swamp Gravy Institute. But it's rarely followed through, unfortunately.

I say unfortunately, because these projects are just too big to sustain successfully for any length of time without taking this approach to sharing the leadership. Land of Spririt is doing it, though. For every job or detail that needs to be done- leading up to the show, durign the production, and after it- the Land of Spirit leaders have already found or are actively finding people to handle these areas.