Kristen Coury is Gulfshore Playhouse’s Founder and Producing Artistic Director.

We have a gala coming up. And, thus, we have been hard at work planning, hoping, organizing, talking and creating a video. This short video is supposed to encompass all that we have done over the past decade, and all our hopes for the future. That’s a lot to ask from five minutes.

How do you distill what an organization has done over ten years. Do you show the blood, sweat and tears, or merely the accomplishments? Do you show the underbelly, the behind the scenes, or just the glossy finished product? Do we focus more on education, or on new works, or on productions? Do we focus on what the art can do for a community or what it can do for you?

These and many others were the questions we asked ourselves.

So we devised a plan. Right from the beginning of season, when the great team at Paradise Coast TV joined us and started getting footage. Footage of the student playwrights at work, our teen STARwrights. Footage of our New Works Festival. Footage of openings, classes, tech rehearsals and behind the scenes at our production shops. Then Cody and I wrote a script, and Cody recorded the voiceover. And the team started editing.

When I went to view it yesterday for the first time, I cried. It was astounding. I truly had the reaction of “we do all that?” And if even I have that reaction, I can only imagine how amazed and surprised our gala patrons will be when we unveil this video. The PCTV team did an amazing job. Keep an eye out for our video which we will be unveiling to the public on Tuesday the 10th!

I have worked on videos and directed a film, but still I am astonished by the art form – how an alchemical reaction occurs when you get the voiceover and the music track and the footage just right. When it all lines up properly, an emotional reaction occurs and it hits you right in the gut. I am grateful for my ability to work in such a creative field as this one. And grateful to be surrounded by so many talented, creative and fabulous team members.