Esther’s Follies Theater Foundation<\/a> will focus on three main areas: preserving and documenting the theater’s history, expanding arts education programs for young people, and creating new opportunities for emerging performers and writers. The initiative comes as the theater approaches its 50th anniversary and as organizers consider how to preserve its creative legacy.<\/p>\n\u201cOur thinking about our 50th anniversary coming up has started that kind of ball rolling,\u201d said Ellana Breedlove, a longtime Esther\u2019s performer helping co-founder Shannon Sedwick lead the foundation\u2019s rollout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of people that love and have loved the Follies for so long,\u201d she said. \u201cSo many supporters of Shannon and [her husband] Michael\u2019s work, and so it kind of felt like a really great time to sort of combine all the talents and all the history and move forward with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so easy to have things slip away, like photographs get rained on and things like that. We are definitely interested in making sure that we don\u2019t screw up and leave the world nothing to know us by.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shannon Sedwick, Esther’s Follies co-founder<\/p>\n
Part of the motivation also grew out of lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the theater was forced to close and launched a series of online sketches funded through online donations. That move to digital performances kept the company working while audiences were stuck at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got about 1,500 to 2,000 people per month that gave a little bit,\u201d Sedwick said. \u201cWe ended up being able to make little pieces of comedy each week \u2026 and we were able to keep them all working and not having to leave town.\u201d<\/p>\n
The foundation’s preservation efforts will focus on a documentary project currently in development. Sedwick said the work will include organizing decades of photos, video recordings and news coverage documenting both the theater and Austin’s live performance culture.<\/p>\n
Local schools are expected to be the foundation\u2019s primary targets for bringing comedy and performance programming to students in Austin. Breedlove said organizers hope to work directly with teachers and theater departments, especially at the high school level.<\/p>\n
Programs could range from short performances with classroom discussions to longer workshops that help students develop their own material.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take what\u2019s in the news and we find the funny or we find how to make sense of it in our own hearts and minds,\u201d Breedlove said. \u201cAnd a big part of that with the kids stuff is really looking at kindness and empathy \u2026 how do we not put down, but build each other up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Breedlove said the foundation’s third pillar will focus on developing new artists in Austin, with plans for workshops, writing labs and performance training aimed at comedians, actors and musicians in the early stages of their careers. Sedwick said the foundation is also exploring scholarship support for young, student-age performers.<\/p>\n
The archival effort is partly motivated by the reality that cultural history can easily disappear if it isn\u2019t documented.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so easy to have things slip away, like photographs get rained on and things like that,\u201d Sedwick said. \u201cWe are definitely interested in making sure that we don\u2019t screw up and leave the world nothing to know us by.\u201d<\/p>\n
The foundation is still in its early stages. Organizers have launched an initial fundraising campaign with a $25,000 goal to support the documentary project and archival work. In parallel, the foundation’s leaders are applying for grants and assembling a small advisory board.<\/p>\n
Breedlove said conversations with local schools are expected to begin this summer as the organization prepares its first phase of programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really excited right now about where this is headed,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way that the foundation can keep that legacy going and give back in ways that it hasn\u2019t yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Esther\u2019s Follies has spent nearly five decades turning the world’s headlines into satire on its Sixth Street stage.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,81155,81156,13383,5351,81157,2509,216],"class_list":["post-206708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-esthers-follies","tag-esthers-follies-theater-foundation","tag-performance","tag-performing-arts","tag-satire","tag-theater","tag-tx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}