It was May of last year when I was approached by Yoni (my co-producer) saying he had a crazy idea. He wanted to do a student run production of Dog Sees God. We both felt that there wasn’t enough student produced work here, and what better way to start than with such a poignant, funny, nostalgic, and relevant piece. I was totally on board, and I expected him to ask me to be a producer, as well as acting in it. When he offered to let me direct it, I was taken aback. Me, an actor with no experience directing or producing, trying to suddenly take on a full length work with no official help from faculty, seemed absurd. However, Yoni assured me that it could be done. It was a daunting task, but I eventually decided to go for it. We wrote up a proposal and went in for a meeting with Bill Church, who gave us the go ahead, but told us that the responsibility would be on us to make this happen. So we did it. At first one of my worries was that we wouldn’t have support from the community: I could not have been more wrong. We set up a GoFundMe in order to raise money to pay for rights, sets, costumes, etc. I expected raising the money to be an arduous task, which could take weeks, but with the overwhelming support of our friends, family, and a few strangers, we managed to raise the budget within three days of setting up the fundraiser. And when it came to getting a cast together, we couldn’t have had a better group of passionate, hardworking actors. Everyone was ecstatic to be a part of this project, and was fully willing to dedicate a good chunk of their free time to the production. Every member of this cast and crew has been so instrumental to the success of this production. We couldn’t have done it without them, and we couldn’t have done it without the wonderful support of everyone who has helped us along the way. Bill Church and the Theatre Company faculty, everyone at It Gets Better, our wonderful cast and crew, and of course, anyone who has donated or helped us in one way or another. It has been so humbling and I couldn’t be more thankful for all of your help.
—Mark Mazzarella
To donate to our It Gets Better Project campaign, go to:
www.itgetsbetter.org/dsg-event
