How To Begin A College Campaign
Eleven easy steps to get started
By Suzannah Rogan
1. Find a school club or department who will support and help organize the event.
The scope of what they do can be organizational: Publicity, finding a location, choosing the dates, assembles post-discussion forums, etc. OR financial: making copies, printing posters, paying for the location, etc.
2. Choose a Director, Dramaturg, Organizer, Publicist, and Stage Manager Positions.
- Director: Directs the reading with proficiency and knowledge
- Dramaturg: This person should have an extensive knowledge of news surrounding Guantánamo and of the prisoners’ various cultures.
- Organizer: Someone from within the department or school club who is able to handle the full scope of the project. This person will work with school administration and be the main contact with the beneficiary (see number 4).
- Publicist: This person is responsible for working on posters, flyers, interviews, spreading the general word about not only the performances, but auditions as well.
- Stage Manager: Take notes at rehearsal and help with flow of the production. SM is the contact between rehearsals and the other people involved in the overall production.
3. Get a location and choose a time.
- Location: Any large space on campus that offers an elevated stage and seating will work. If you have an event support department, they may be able to provide platforms and chairs if needed.
- Determine weeks where attendance might be high or low: for instance - the last week of the quarter, finals week, and the week of Thanksgiving will not grant high attendance.
- Determine how many performances you will have.
4. Pick a charity to benefit.
Donations can fund a local group involved in this issue, the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is leading a team of 400 attorneys around the country representing detainees at Guantánamo and fighting the rendition, detention and torture policies of the U.S. government, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which leads a national grassroots campaign to restore civil liberties and the rule of law, or another charity of your choice.
The playwrights Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo have generously given their permission for amateur readings royalty-free.
6. Cast the roles.
How you do this is to the director’s discretion. Hold auditions, ask friends, have professors read roles…
7. Rehearse.
Check out the director’s notes. It is a reading, but a few rehearsals won’t hurt a thing.
8. Get help!
A great job for the Stage Manager or Organizer: In addition to your cast, send an email around asking for volunteers to help you. Keep an email address book of everyone who writes you with interest. You'll be surprised by how many people want to do something, and have been feeling powerless and frustrated about the U.S. government’s wrongful detentions and torture at Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere. The Guantánamo Reading Project is a great way to form new relationships and work together for the common good. Remember to be inclusive: Find a way for everyone who offers to get involved.
9. Make the Project Visible.
Send out press releases, post fliers, do radio interviews, wear sandwich boards... Get creative with your cast, friends, and volunteers to promote this benefit event so that your voice is heard. What will make the press show up? Even if your publicity efforts are minimal or non-existent, your participation in this event is vital to the project. We will include your reading in our press releases no matter how small.
10. Send us the details of your production so we can include it in our press releases.
Before your reading, we would like to know your school name, city, state, country, reading location & time, the organizer’s name (or club/department name), and a contact number and email address. If it is a private reading, then let us know and don’t include the location and time. (See Contact page).
11. Include discussion and action.
Another great job for the Club/Department support: Set up a table
with literature and action
materials. End the evening with a discussion or invite the audience’s
questions. If possible, have lunch forums, ask Residence Halls to
hold discussions on their floors or in their buildings, ask professors
to encourage students to go and ask them to have discussion in class
the next day. Continue to discuss these issues with friends, colleagues,
professors, family, etc. Get creative with the plentiful resources
you have at your fingertips that are intrinsic with being on a college
campus. Thank you for making a difference!