want and, of course, that brings
a lot of conflict. What makes it
so funny to me is how much everybody wants what they want.
They all go to the extreme.”
Ekstrand, who is directing the
production, once served on a
grant panel for Essex County
and has experience applying for
grants for Dreamcatcher as well.
She believes the hardest thing
is to break down something that
is abstract into corporate terms.
Whether seeking corporate
funding or a government grant,
there’s a certain language that revolves around the grant process.
“There’s a whole jargon that
springs up around grants,” she
explains. “You have to translate what you do every day into
this other language in order to
express it with the grants. You
have to quantify something
that’s qualitative and I find that
very challenging. Some of the
grants that we get or don’t get
offer feedback, but some of
them are mysterious. The hardest part is when it’s a total mystery. We’ll get a yes, we’ll get
a no, yet we have no idea why.
And certainly with the no’s you
want to know why you were
turned down so you know what
to do better next time.”
If you’ve ever wondered what
goes on behind those closed
doors, check out The Most Deserving at Dreamcatcher. It’ll
have you debating what is art
and maybe even whether or not
the question itself has any merit.
Art means something different
to everybody, and isn’t that the
point?
--Gary Wien
The Most Deserving runs February 12 through March 1 at
Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre in Summit, NJ.
New Jersey Stage
January 2015
pg 102