Jeff Mosser is a man who wears many hats. Not only is he a Plays for Presidents staff member (Senior Strategist/Social Media & Community Outreach Director), he is also directing 44 Plays for 44 Presidents in Boston, MA for the 2012 Festival. For the Plays for Presidents Festival, Jeff has elevated our social media outreach and increased cross-production conversation so effectively, I asked him for his thoughts on how important platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr have been for our inaugural year – as well as how he plans to use those tools for 44 Plays.. at Bad Habit Productions.
Posts Tagged ‘youtube’
Festival Participation in the Digital Age
One of the most amazing aspects of this Festival has been feeling so connected to all the amazing artists, educators, and politicos participating from across the country. Whether it’s the behind the scenes footage shared by Drive Theatre Company in L.A. and Dad’s Garage in Atlanta, TV coverage of Little Rock Central High School we could all view from Facebook, or the “I” in Election video recorded by Forward Theatre Company… producers, directors, actors, and staff have been able to spotlight the work of their organizations in ways that enable us all to feel like we’re locally connected to their efforts.
I’ll be diving more into the tools we’ve used to help coordiate the Festival and share the digitalized efforts of others next week, but today I’ll focus on how one director in particular has utilized various platforms to collaborate cross-country with her alma mater.
The Time Is Now: We Want to Hear from You
Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to catch some of the great press we’ve received this week. American Theatre Magazine and Salon.com both did stories… and we’re pushing hard to keep the spotlight focused on our collective efforts.
This goal is two-fold: 1) We want to get more attention for the Festival in general–because we firmly believe in the impact the experience can have on the audience. We are dedicated to voter engagement, critical reflection and discourse, and the power of theatre to incite action and change. 2) We want everyone to know what you – each individual production or entity, each band of artists - are doing because there is great strength and infinite variety in who you are, what you do, and why you do it. Every story is important… and we’re hoping to find ways to share every single one of them through our various efforts and channels.
Tell Us Why You Vote
So a little while back I mentioned a project we were working on behind the scenes… which is now ready to be revealed and made loads better and more exciting by you!
We’ve created a new YouTube channel for a project aimed at getting people to vote this year. The project (and channel) is The “I” in Election – and the whole purpose of it is to hear why you, on a personal level, choose to vote.
A few Festival staff members have videos up already… and we’re throwing this out to you to ask for your help and participation in filling this baby to the brim.
Here’s how you can join in…