THE YEAR IN BRICK: 2010

Dear Supporters of The Brick:

We are writing to ask for your continuing financial support to help The Brick continue its programming in 2011 and beyond.

The Brick has been running strong now for 8 years, and we couldn't have gotten here without you.

Below are some of the highlights of 2010!

And here is where you can help us make 2011 possible!

http://www.bricktheater.com/donationpage

THE 8^TH YEAR IN BRICK: 2010

THE BRICK IS CROWNED KING OF THE NERDS & OUTCASTS!

(1) Time Out New York featured The Brick as one of 17 "Essential New York Theater" venues and shows, along with The Public Theater, St. Ann's Warehouse and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Time Out's verdict: "Williamsburg's scrappy proliferator of smart-alecky themed festivals (Moral Values, Anti-Depressant et al.) is for the nerds, outcasts and mad experimenters of theater. That includes both creators and spectators."

Read here!

"A FOR-REAL, ONLY-IN-NEW YORK KIND OF THEATER"

(2) Metromix featured The Brick in a Thanksgiving tribute on "The top 10 reasons to be thankful for New York's wild and wonderful theater scene." Its description captures the spirit of The Brick well:

"Hats off, please for a moment of silence as we remember the late Ohio Theater. But their questing, DIY spirit lives on across the river in Williamsburg's only full-time theater space, The Brick. The constant churn of new work by local theater artists on the cheap ($15 to $20 tickets) is a plus, not a minus. Summertime means festivals like 'Fight Fest' (showcasing the art of stage combat) and 'Game Play' ('video game performance art,' which is as cool as that sounds). The Brick is a for-real, only-in-New York kind of theater. Thank goodness there are a few left."

Read here!

BRICK SHOWS TAKE TOP HONORS AT THE NYIT AWARDS!

(3) Brick shows from the 2009-2010 season again made a big splash at the annual New York Innovative Theatre Foundation awards. Brick shows took 11 nominations (Infectious Opportunity, Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury, Samuel and Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot Wars, and The Vigil or the Guided Cradle) and 4 awards (Samuel and Alasdair - Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Sound Design; The Vigil or the Guided Cradle - Crystal Skillman, Outstanding Original Full-Length Script).

Read here!

THE TIMES RAVES ABOUT GAME PLAY

(4) The New York Times raved about our second year of Game Play, The Brick's new festival dedicated to the art of video-themed performance:

"... what if the characters and stories of classic video games were reimagined and reinterpreted as live theater in front of you? Even as someone who writes about video games for a living, I had not imagined such a thing possible until attending 'Theater of the Arcade,' the most provocative and intriguing of four different shows I recently saw as part of the Game Play festival at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn."

Read here!

CLOWNS INVADE YET AGAIN

(5) This year brought back the biggest, craziest and best attended New York Clown Theatre Festival yet. The festival began with the traditional Union Square-to-Williamsburg parade and public pie fight, then proceeded to 21 Mainstage shows, 5 cabarets, 2 workshops, and a closing day clown funeral through the streets of Williamsburg.

See Rocketboom's video feature here!

THE BRICK EXISTS! GETS A WIKIPEDIA ENTRY!

(6) View here! At last! We're as real as the history of Pomerania!

FIGHT FEST WARPS CHRISTMAS!

ENCOURAGES CHILDREN TO RESORT TO VIOLENCE!

(7) Evil Santa Claus, Busty Medieval Vixens, Bloodthirsty Clowns, The Three Swashbuckling Kings and Warring Inbreds fought to redefine the holidays at The Brick's Fight Fest 2010! As promoted by The New York Times here and here!

Which just goes to show: A little, 50-seat Brooklyn theater with heart and great supporters can get a lot done.

Please help us keep doing it! Please consider a generous one-time donation, or a monthly subscription plan. It's extremely easy at our donation page -- or by mailing in a check using our donor form.

We share 50% of the box office from each show with the artists. The other 50% doesn't come close to covering our costs to keep The Brick going. We need your help to keep our pro-artist, pro-audience, pro-quality-theater model alive. Thanks again.

Best,

Michael, Robert, Hope, Jeff, Gyda, Ian, Berit and Roger

and the 240-plus Bricklayer volunteers.

www.bricktheater.com

P.S. On tap for 2011: The Iranian Theater Festival, The Comic Book Theater Festival in June, the third annual installment of Game Play in July, Late Night & Kids' shows and Mainstage World Premieres from tomorrow's "Mad Experimenters!"

A copy of our latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from us directly or from the New York State Attorney General's Charities Bureau, Attn: FOIL Officer, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.

THE NEW SUMMER FESTIVAL THEME IS...

The new Brick Summer Festival theme trumpets the end of print media, the Haitian Earthquake and the triumphal return of Republican power to Washington.

What.

Too Soon?

From June 4th to July 3rd, 2010, The Brick Theater, Inc. proudly presents

THE TOO SOON FESTIVAL
A premature summer theater festival.

Is the future happening now? Is the world whizzing past at a dizzying pace? Are you both running to catch up and hiding away from it all? Half-baked notions, frustrated youth, uncomfortable trends, traumatic events, terrifying predictions, raw nerves and un-come-upon comeuppances will be exploited, filmed, published, performed and presented before their time at THE TOO SOON FESTIVAL. Only at The Brick.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR AMAZING FESTIVAL NAME SUGGESTIONS! You contributed over 400 festival theme names (!) on

• Our Facebook Fan Page
• Our Twitter Feed
• The B(rick)log
  

The festival name was inspired by Adam McGovern, who suggested "The Too-Far Festival", and by Moira Stone, who commented "Too soon?", and many others who suggested a festival name involving themes about the encroaching future. Moira and Adam will receive Full-Festival Passes.

More to be announced soon, including awards to the winner of the Most-Posted Suggestions and to 3 random posters from each of The Brick's Facebook, Twitter and Blog pages! Check back here, here and here to find out who won!

To apply for The Too Soon Festival (and many other Brick programs), please click here.

MAKE GOOD ON THOSE CRAZY IDEAS YOU TELL US ABOUT WHEN YOU'RE DRUNK.

Every year around this time The Brick's staff gets together and discusses possible themes for our upcoming Summer Theme Festival. After a few weeks of heavy drinking and chasing each other around the office waving blunt instruments, we come up with something satisfying and run with it.

This year, however, we said to ourselves, "Hey, you know those thousands of people who support The Brick by attending shows and reading our emails? What if let them in on the fun this year?"

And so here's our offer:

Between now and Friday, January 15, we ask you to share your suggestions of a possible name and theme for the Summer Festival.

You can make as many suggestions as you like, and you can do it in any of three places:

• Our Facebook Fan Page
• Our Twitter Feed
• The B(rick)log

We will take a look at every single response we receive and use them to select a festival theme that strikes our fancy. We'll be sending out daily challenges on Facebook and Twitter to help stoke your creativity. And, to sweeten the pot, we will offer THREE FULL-FESTIVAL PASSES to contributors chosen at random - one from the blog, one from Facebook, and one from Twitter. The final festival theme will be announced on Tuesday, January 19.

So seriously, what are you waiting for? Start churning out some ideas. What would YOU like to see on the Brick stage this June?

THE YEAR IN BRICK: 2009

Dear Friend, Supporter, Fighter:

The Brick has always felt a little contrarian.

Take fundraising letters. We admit we don't like them. Don't like sending them, because talking about how broke you are and how important your mission is and how we need your support this year more than ever, more than any year ever in the history of The Brick, even more than last year (when we said the same thing), and how we heard just the other day from a charmed theatregoer who saw his first show at The Brick, it was a riveting experience and his eyes glistened with moist happiness as he told the story of how ..... how .....

Sorry, where were we?

Yes. Money. Yes. Need. Please send.

Go here: www.bricktheater.com/donationpage

To the point, here is

THE YEAR IN BRICK: 2009

BLOOD, CARTILAGE AND PROTESTANT CLOWNS ABOUND!

(1) The Brick's stage was awash in blood this year. From the conclusion of Penny Dreadful, the smash horror series, to the medieval surgery of The Nosemaker's Apprentice to the Vampiric Space Amazon of Fassbinder's Blood on the Cat's Neck to the chef stylings of Titus Andronicus and the carnage of The Blood Brothers present ... The New Guignol. Also, there were Protestants and clowns. Who drink blood. (For the full 2009 line-up: click here.)

"SMALL BUT MIGHTY"

(2) Time Out New York measured our bust-line in an elite roundup of the Best Cheap Off-Off Broadway theaters. Called us "small but mighty." That's right.

THE BRICK PROVIDES DRUGS!

(3) Theatrical drugs, that is. We cheerfully raised our collective finger to the Depression (sorry, Recession) with The Antidepressant Festival. The New York Times responded, "No one tops the Brick Theater when it comes to oddball concepts for theater festivals." One drug-addled piece, Suspicious Package: Rx, was chosen for publication in Plays and Playwrights 2010 (New York Theatre Experience). Audiences also raised their collective finger to the Recession: attendance increased a whopping 43% from The Brick's prior summer fest.

HAILED AT 30,000 FEET!

(4) The Brick goes global: United Airlines' flight magazine, Hemispheres, featured The Brick in an article on Game Play, our month devoted to video game theater. Awesome.

STUNNING HONOR BESTOWED, DANCING ENSUES

(5) The New York Innovative Theatre Awards bestowed its honorary Caffe Cino Fellowship Award on The Brick - given annually to "an Off-Off Broadway theatre company that consistently produces outstanding work" (as featured in The New York Times). The Brick accepted the award by sending 20 of its loyalists (including roller-skaters) onstage to dance to the Commodores' "Brick House." The awards host then stated: "I don't really know what we just saw."

MORE DAMNED BLOOD!

(6) You wanted more mayhem. We gave it to you, with Fight Fest: the first ever festival devoted to the art of stage combat. (Click here or an exclusive Brick video promo starring

Taimak of the legendary fight film, The Last Dragon). Among the offerings, Piper McKenzie's Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury cut a swath through Man's bloody evolution, Last Life had the world's final inhabitants literally wrestling for control in a "fightsical," while The Ninja Cherry Orchard racked up a puzzling Chekhovian body-count of 63 characters. We're still cleaning the blood off the marleys.

BRICK ALUMS OVERWHELM "PEOPLE OF THE YEAR"!

(7) nytheatre.com's annual "People of the Year" awarded 7 out of 15 wins to Brick Alumni! Congratulations to Inverse Theatre, Nosedive Productions, Alyssa Simon, Shannon Sindelar, Paco Tolson, Matthew Trumbull and Richard Lovejoy (whose two-part magnum opus, A Brief History of Murder, will out at The Brick this January)! Congratulations, also, to our other friends and colleagues on the list!

And, last but not least:

YOU ARE AMPLY PRAISED!

(8) You: You answered our fundraising plea last year, radically increasing our donor pool, and bolstered our ticket sales by coming to see many, many Brick shows. Our tentative conclusion on reviewing the year-end books (subject to the accountants!) is that for the first time in The Brick's 7-year history, we're covering all of our costs in 2009 through outside donations, grants and ticket sales. Wow.

We could wrap up with the typical fundraising plea and exhort: It's not enough! We need to do more! To get to that next level! etc. etc.

But for a moment we want to celebrate. You out there made all of the above happen in 2009. The Brick is a unique place. Please continue to give (www.bricktheater.com/donationpage - only 10 more days to get that tax write-off!) - and to come see the shows. You keep us doing what we're doing.

best,

Michael, Robert, Hope, Jeff, Gyda, Ian, Berit

and the 200-plus Bricklayer volunteers

www.bricktheater.com

----------------------------

A copy of our latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from us directly or from the New York State Attorney General's Charities Bureau, Attn: FOIL Officer, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.

THE BLOOD BROTHERS JUST WANT YOU TO EAT RIGHT

The Paper of Record has seen fit to pick The Brick and The Blood Brothers as a very cost-efficient and satisfying way to spend your All Hallows’ Eve goodwill, cheer, and cash.

Come closing night for a spookily fun post-show celebration and maybe gore effects-guru Stephanie Cox-Williams will let you snack on some of the props.

Buy your tix fast-like and marvel at the scary smoothness of the brothers’ heads in person!