Our parent volunteers are the engine of MYART's successes. Parents of MYART cast members can choose from among a multitude of opportunities to become involved in the workings of the company. These generally fall into four distinct categories:
Within these three categories, there are jobs that call for a creativity, responsibility and tenacity in varying degrees. Some of them involve hard work, while others call for supervisory skills.
However, these jobs all share one thing in common: without someone doing them, MYART could not offer our young cast members the kinds of experiences that we do. At the same time, most of our parent volunteers find their participation in our shows to be extremely satisfying, with many of them returning year after year, just as their children do.
All MYART cast members are required to participate in fund-raising activities. This may include the selling of fund-raising candy or other merchandise. If you choose this option, get involved with helping your child meet (or even exceed) his fundraising goals.
In recent years, an increasing number of families have been enrolling in eScrip, which is a cash-back program that rebates a small percentage of your normal weekly expenditures for things like groceries (if you shop at VON'S) or gasoline (Chevron). It doesn't work for everyone, but it can potentially be a very painless way of doing your part for fund-raising.
Parents can help just by organizing carpools to drop off and pick up kids at rehearsals, either for Saturday ensemble rehearsals or extra weeknight lead rehearsals. If you (or your child) is participating in a show in a lead role, consider sponsoring extra lead rehearsals at home, to provide more practice time.
Parents can also be of tremendous help in the area of costuming. Although some lead costumes are rented, the vast majority have to be constructed, either by the company or by cast members and their families. This involves many hours of volunteer effort, and is usually undertaken weeks ahead of production week.
Once production week is kicked off, a tremendous amount of all kinds of help is needed. Much of it relates to moving the physical trappings of the show from the MYART warehouse into the performance venue and assembling the sets, backdrops, lighting, etc. This activity is called "load-In", and it provides a good outlet for the mechanically inclined who wish to volunteer.
Similarly, there is a corresponding activity at the end of preformances, when everything must be disassembled and moved back to our warehouse. This is called "striking" the show and it requires similarly motivated volunteers in similar numbers.
As production week gets underway, many more parent volunteers are needed. Many help in directing different groups within our large casts on and off stage as directed. These are called "line leaders", and without them we could never manage the large casts that are such a trademark of MYART shows.
In addition to line leaders, many other parents serve as "chaperones". Chaperones stay with groups of children in our various holding areas throughout the theatre, helping them stay occupied and ready for their entrances.
While the line leaders and chaperones are managing the members of the cast, many other volunteers chip in to operate the theater facility itself. These are organised into two notional categories: "front-of-house" and "back-of-house". A summary of these functions follows: