Shotgun Players

Shotgun Players is a company of artists determined to create bold, relevant, affordable theatre that inspires and challenges audience and artist alike to re-examine our lives, our community, and the ever-changing world around us. Our company has a reputation for presenting inventive and intellectually provocative productions ranging from new plays and commissions to reinterpretations of the classics with some of the Bay Area’s finest, local theatre artists. In the last few years, Shotgun has deepened our commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) with a new organizational model that honors the creativity of our artists and will put us on an even more sustainable and purpose driven path. Now we are forging ahead with: - DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP. Shotgun has shifted to a distributed leadership model where artists and junior staff participate in many of the key decisions for our company, starting with season selection. Instead of the Artistic Director making final decisions, a diverse, multi-generational group selects the stories we bring to life. As a result, our upcoming season has representation from Black, Latinx, Asian, and Queer playwrights. We have now embarked upon a new strategic plan that will explore more areas for distributed leadership. - INCREASED SALARIES FOR ARTISTS. Nothing is more important than honoring the work of our artists. Two years ago we created a Fair Wage Fund for Artists and drew upon this fund to immediately increase actor and stage manager salaries. This fund enabled us to honor those salaries during our closed 2020 season and issue "Shotgun Stimulus" checks to every artist with a contract for our 2020 season. Now we’re structuring our annual operating budget to permanently support these increases and extend them to designers. - LONGER REHEARSAL TIMES. Over the last few years many companies have shortened rehearsal processes due to budgetary constraints. So not only do artists earn less, their creative process becomes limited as well. Shotgun Players provides six weeks of rehearsals for our main stage productions, along with additional development workshops as needed, rather than the three weeks that has become all too common in the theater industry. - MAKE A DIFFERENCE PROGRAM. To ensure that theater thrives for the next generation of audiences and artists, our Make a Difference (MAD) program offers $7 tickets to any performance for those 25 and under. Shotgun Players also provides paid fellowships and observerships for young artists to gain hands-on experience in design, production management, artistic direction, and marketing. Moving forward, we plan to expand the fellowship program and offer one production each season for young artists to take the helm for a show at our Ashby Stage. - INVESTING IN OUR SOUTH BERKELEY COMMUNITY. Since moving to our Ashby Stage in 2004, Shotgun Players has created three community-based plays that involved years of listening to our neighbors. This autumn Shotgun Players will implement a “community ticket”, a discounted ticket for South Berkeley residents so there are no economic barriers for our work. A neighborhood committee of our board will focus upon creating connections with local businesses and participating in local activism and advocacy.