Update 3/20: We've received over $2500 in off-line donations, putting us over the $5000 mark. Thank you for your support and please share to get us as far towards our goal as possible before the campaign ends tonight at midnight! Next stop: Shenandoah Fringe Festival, Staunton, VA on April 8 & 9. More at www.ptco.org/tobee


Piti Theatre Company, based in Western MA and Switzerland, has been touring a family audiences performance about honeybee disappearance in New England and Europe called “To Bee or Not to Bee” since 2012. The performance has been widely praised by audiences, educators, critics and activists. 

 

We have worked with many communities to hold “Bee Weeks” featuring additional bee-themed events like planting days, Bee Festivals, beekeeper workshops, and documentary screenings. Bee Week has become part of Greenfield, Massachusetts’ cultural calendar – it is now self-perpetuating. But you may have noticed – bees and other pollinators are still in trouble despite our efforts and the efforts of many larger non-profits working hard on this issue. 

 

BUT . . . (here comes the good part): we are ready to up our ante and tour the U.S. this spring - summer in our “Beemobile” attracting major media attention (our Bee Weeks in Maine and Eastern MA this fall generated 7 feature stories), thousands of new audience member/participants and the
stinging-focus of 15 - 20 communities across the country.

From Harrisonburg, VA to Carbondale, IL . . .

From Portola to Fort Bragg to Berkely to Los Angeles, CA . . .

From Long Island, NY to Memphis, TN to Conway, AK

People are waiting for this performance and the chance to bring their community together to help pollinators and themselves. We need your help to bring it to them.

Help us reach our $15,000 goal: 1/3 of tour funds coming from individual donors like you! This base of individual support will then be leveraged to raise additional grant and sponsorship support. If we exceed our goal, we can reach more libraries, schools, theaters and festivals.

 

The research is in - live theatre is particularly conducive to empathy. Young people are receiving many messages today, all the time. Help us make sure that the joy and importance of helping the small beings upon whom our food supply depends is a message that many, many more receive this spring. 

" . . . core messages of pollinator importance and threats truly came alive in the outstanding show . . . The theatre company was fantastic and effectively engaged members of the audience, young and old. I will do what I can to bring Piti back to the area and in particular, help get them into local schools where their workshop and performance should become part of the “learning standards.” Do what you can to bring the high-energy, talented and thoughtful Piti Theatre Company to your town and you won’t be sorry!”

- Ed Friedman, Friends of Merrymeeting Bay & Maine Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
"It was a wonderful program on so many levels. First the music and the interactive parts for children kept even the youngest engaged and they definitely learned the message about not being afraid of bees and how they can help . . . Among all of that there was even more content for the grown-ups in the audience presented in a fun and entertaining way!”
– Marcia Hickey, Children’s Librarian, Wareham Free Library

Piti Theatre Company is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Piti Theatre Company must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.