Double your donation at no additional cost to you!
On Giving Tuesday (Tuesday, Nov 27) your donation may be matched if you make a gift via our Fundraiser on Facebook.
The first $7,000,000.00 donated that day will be MATCHED by PayPal, automatically increasing your donation at no extra cost to you! Matching donations begin at 7AM CST and go until all the funds are claimed, so just visit our Facebook Fundraiser page on the morning of November 27th, and you’ll be able to donate with this potential match.

Support Season 9: we're not in Stratford anymore

We are in full swing preparing readings, workshops, school visits, library story hours and of course Tour 9: Twelfth Night.

This season our goal is to take you on an adventure without you ever having to leave your backyard. In order to do that though, we do need your help. Travel costs money, so while we don't want you to have to travel more than down the block, the transformation of your "backyard" into somewhere magical requires a few dollars and cents and also requires our company to travel to you.

Season 9's Projects Include:
  • NINE workshops
  • NINE ambitious staged readings
  • NINE story hours
  • an adventurous art contest where we will announce NINE winners
  • a NINE Book Book Club
  • NINE new soup recipes
  • and TOUR NINE: Twelfth Night (we would change the name to NINE-th Night but...we had to draw the line somewhere)

Our Season Nine Over-All Budget is an ambitious *$25,000, which when you look at what we're doing...is actually pretty small. We survive by being frugal and relying on a lot of in-kind donations (housing is huge - see more below). We have several grants that we are working on and many of our tour locations are able to provide stipends for us. We are so grateful to everyone working on this, but we still do need private donations to - quite literally - keep us moving. So we are trying to raise $9,000 for Season 9 from your generosity.

If you are able to help with a donation, it means that we can keep visiting towns with small populations, schools with little or no arts budgets, neighborhoods where the community is hungry for art, but also hungry for food. We want everyone to feast, on Shakespeare and soup. Please donate today so that we can all feast together.

The $9,000 we are asking you to help us raise will go directly to taking care of our artists:
  • Food Budget ($1,800): When we can we cook and eat family style. It is our preferred way of eating, so we don't have to spend a lot. Sometimes we do have to eat on the road, and while we pack sandwiches and snacks, sometimes eating out is needed (plus, then we get to support local businesses and your local economy, and sometimes even hang-out with you). 
  • Off-set Housing Budget ($900): During our residency in Southern Illinois we rely on amazing families who generously offer beds, showers and often great conversation, but sometimes we are on the road and haven't yet made friends with beds to spare, in those instances we find homes in hotels or through AirBnB, and while we aren't staying at the Four Seasons and we are frugal - sometimes beds cost money.
  • ARTIST SALARIES ($6,300): Yes, we pay our artists, they are working 40 hours a week and are working away from home, they rehearse, they practice on their own, they become an inspirational crew of costumers, prop-makers, van-packers, sound designers, musicians and even help with some administrative duties and that's not even the performances; our artists help teach when we visit schools, are ambassadors for us, for Shakespeare and for theater. While they love the work, they have bills as do we all, and we don't want them to go into debt because of the work they are doing.

Help us take care of our artists so that they can take care of you in your backyard and others in theirs.
​​If you prefer, send tax-deductible checks payable to *Stone Soup Shakespeare Theater to:
Stone Soup Shakespeare
attn: Julia Stemper
4879 N Ashland Ave, #1
Chicago, IL 60640
*Our total 2018-2019 budget is $25,000.

We want to make sure you know how we are spending the money we raise, so below is a list of exactly how we have budgeted this year. If you would like your contribution to go to something specifically let us know and we will make sure it does.  If you see that we need something below and you can help us in other ways (ex. you have a van to donate so we don't have to rent one), please e-mail us.
$6,300: Artists' Fees
$6,000: Vehicle costs for 2019 Tour (Tour Travel - van & gas)
$2,500: Artists' Travel (National Travel)
$1,800: Artists' Food
$1,750: Printing (posters, programs and scripts)
$1,000: Insurance
​$750: Artists' Clothing (Costumes)
$750: Artists' World (Production)
$900: Artists' Room (Occasional On-the-Road Beds)
$900: NINE Staged Readings
$750: Green Project Supplies
$500: Audition Tour
$500: Education Supplies
$500: Space rentals
$100: THIS website
It's help from you that makes it possible for us to diversify the cultural opportunities available to our Tour region.

other ways to help

Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and tell all your friends to do the same.  If you know of communities that might be interested in us visiting them during our next season, please e-mail us at community@stonesoupshakespeare.com.

Additionally we are looking for some volunteers to assist in capturing images, editing video and working on a very exciting poster project for our season.  If you have experience in any of these areas, or have a quality digital video camera we can borrow (or if you are upgrading and are looking for a home for you old one) we would love to talk to you.  We are working to maximize your donation dollars and match them with grant monies.  Your help in anyway helps us as we move forward.

Additionally this season we are in need of food, a guitar, earth friendly glitter, copying, a wooden crate and a wooden ladder...and a van (we're always on the hunt for a van). If you own any of this things and would be willing to let us borrow them for awhile, please e-mail info@stonesoupshakespeare.com.

Remember not only are your cash gifts tax deductible, but certain items can be tax deductible too. Cash gifts can easily be donated online,* and other gifts can be donated by first e-mailing us (one more time send all thoughts to info@stonesoupshakespeare.com).

BIG THANKS to our supporters:
Antonio Casanova
​Connie Frazier, Law Office
Best Western/U.S. Inn
Curry & Associates Engineers
Shakespeare Reading Group
Lutz Agency
Meier Chevrolet-Buick
Little Nashville
Baldwin House Agency
Nascote Industries
Friends of the Nashville Public Library
Nashville Savings Bank
Roselie Vasquez-Yetter
Timothy Prestridge
Mark Cannon
Laura Klein
​Greg Lewis
Bonnie Goldstein
​Maren Curtis
Leigh Jameson
Kathleen Culler
Peter Bunder
Michael Jorgensen
Anika Morris
Rachael Baker
Tom Flaherty
Garth Ross
Ben and Shawna Murrie
Performics
​Ryan Nelson
Floyd McWilliams
​Kevin Purcell
Kelly Walden
Robert Price
Paul Sriberg
Frank and Nancy Stemper
​Angelia Cho
Tony Tsai
Linda Marder
Vogler Ford
Ken and Margie Collins
John Klemke
Marsha Ryan
Kathy Patton
Ann Garrett

*Stone Soup Shakespeare Theater is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit., a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Stone Soup Shakespeare are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.