We are three friends, two current Middlebury seniors and one alumnus, who have created a theatrical production company, On the Brink Productions. The work we plan to perform this summer is a four-person play called Harriman-Baines, a dark look into the world of loneliness and the illusions humans embrace to protect themselves from it.

Our goal is to create new, artistically challenging theatre while promoting the Middlebury community that we have grown to know and love.  In order to reach our goal, we have set ourselves a budget of $4000, which will allow us to focus heavily on the artistry without having to worry about monetary shortfalls.  The funds we raise through MiddSTART would go towards application and participation fees, rehearsal space, advertising & marketing, costumes, properties, and stipends for our student and alumni collaborators who cannot afford to work without compensation.

We are very pleased to announce that we have accepted a slot in the prestigious DreamUp Festival, run out the Theatre for a New City.  We have received overwhelming excitement from both current students and recent alumni, many of whom have already agreed to help us mount our vision. Amongst recent graduates living in New York, we have recruited Michaela Lieberman ’10.5 as an actress, and Denise Hofmann ’11, who is currently attending a graduate program at the New School in Music Composition, to write an original score for the production.

The competition in the New York Theatre scene is steep for recent Middlebury graduates, as they are competing against students who graduated from conservatories with much more name recognition.  The opportunity to learn practical lessons is invaluable, and the first credit is widely regarded in the theatre community as the hardest to acquire.

For many, however, these first projects are prohibitively expensive. This is where MiddSTART can help us continue our education.  With MiddSTART’s support, our show will be performed at DreamUp, a widely renowned festival, and will give us and many others exactly that unique opportunity graduates in the theatre need to succeed.

Any donations that you are able to give are mightily appreciated.  This is a large undertaking, particularly for such recent college graduates, and any help that we can get is going to be integral to our final product.  With your help we will put up a fantastic production, we will provide a practical, collaborative and creative experience for Middlebury students and alums, and we will promote our Middlebury community far from the green mountains of Vermont.