Program areas at The Jungle Theater
Mainstage productions:the 2021-22 season marked our return to three full productions following The covid pandemic that demolished our '20-21 season. Our productions included:every brilliant thing, by duncan macmillan with jonny donahoe, directed by meredith mcdonough, performed 10/13/21-11/14/21redwood, by brittany k. allen, directed by h. adam harris, performed 2/5/22-3/13/22cambodian rock band, by lauren yee, directed by lily tung crystal, co-production w/theater mu, performed 6/8/22-7/24/22bipoc representation in our productions was strong, including half of playwrights, 60% of directors, 46% of designers, and 89% of cast members. In addition, women represented half of playwrights, 60% of directors, 63% of designers, and 39% of cast members. Surveys indicate that our audiences were more racially diverse than ever before at The Jungle Theater, with 17% bipoc attendees.
Lynlake street art series:we co-sponsored The lynlake street art series, a weekend festival in july 2022. The event resulted in new visual artwork on 28 walls in The lynlake neighborhood, featuring The work of more than 40 local and national artists. We also coordinated educational graffiti demonstrations and musical performances by nine performers. The event was well-attended; 1,175 people checked in at our main information desk, while hundreds of other people visited The individual wall sites. Audiences were diverse in age, race/ethnic origin, and gender, with many families in attendance. Our partnership beautified The area, brought economic benefits, and provided a community celebration that was free and open to all.
Artistic cohort:for The Jungle Theater's 2021-22 season, we launched our new artist cohort, an inclusive group of four artists who share in all artistic and operational decision-making. These four quarter-time employees brought different perspectives to our organizational discussions while also pursuing their own artistic projects, broadening The scope of field-wide input that is more representative of The community. The group included filmmaker/director sequoia hauck, playwright/actor jucoby johnson, actor/dramaturg james rodriguez, and director/actor angela timberman.
Accessible ticketing:another success of The 2021-22 season was our implementation of The pay as you are (paya) ticket pricing model. Rather than promoting various discount offers, we invited audiences to pay what they could based on a $45 "true value" cost per ticket, typically ranging from $10 to $90. This effort, designed to create greater access to our productions, had no impact on The average ticket price paid when compared to what patrons paid on average when we maintained different and sometimes confusing discount programs. In addition to simplifying economic access to our shows, we believe this new model also helped us to engage The most inclusive and representative audiences The Jungle has ever had.