Your Support (Means So Much)

Dear Friend of Control Group,

Here we are. We are here.

This has become a bit of a daily ritual through the last year. Each morning, we look around, get a handle on the shifting topography, check in with ourselves and the people around us, and set out together to find some goodness to share.

Through that process, in dialog with community and situation, I’m humbled to realize that we’ve managed some pretty potent work over the last twelve months. Things continue to be [what’s the opposite of smooth? Yeah, that]. But it’s good to feel the successes, and some strong momentum in exciting directions.

I’m writing today with a humble request for your support. In this wild time in the world, your donation will help us navigate the next year with grace, generosity, creativity, and resilience.  

Already convinced? Awesome! Make a tax-deductible donation now on Colorado Gives, or pick your preferred method at: http://www.controlgroupproductions.org/donate/

Need extra incentive? Absolutely! A visionary donor has offered to match every dollar donated up to $15,000. Make your donation go twice as far! Double-donate now!

Want to hear more? Sure! Check out our NEW website (huge thanks to our new Director of Marketing, Katie Weisberger!), or read on for more on where we are and where we’re headed.

Prefer real human interaction? Great! Me too. Call anytime (303-947-2827). OR! Join us for…

A Happy Hour Celebration of Mortality, Liminality, and the Imminent Darkest Days of the Year
(a SuperFUNdraiser!)

December 7, 4-8pm at Local 46 (map)
Details here.

A laidback Colorado Gives Day hang-out… Hear what all we’re up to, tell us all the things you’re excited about, raise a glass together, and enjoy the first public screening of our new documentary film Immateriality…

2021: NEW GROWTH

We’re feeling incredibly lucky. We’ve managed to find safe ways to get back to making and sharing some really potent art in 2021. We’ve done a ton of work re-envisioning what Control Group is and does. And we’ve spent some time laying solid groundwork for great things to happen in 2022. Here are some highlights:

Sojourners Project: Busing
video excerpts   |   project info   |   trailer

…with the agency to tell their own stories.

Sojourners started in August 2020, in conversation with IDEA Stages visionary founder Alicia “Lisa” Young. It led to the powerful production Busing this past September, created by a majority African American artistic team, unpacking important unheard stories of Denver’s past and present.

Treeline: After the Flood | burn scar  |  Tent
video   |   project info (After the Flood)
video   |   photos (burn scar)
project info (Tent)

A meditation on disappearing wilderness.
An earth-based spiritual journey.
An Anthropocene call to action.

We commenced a new works series exploring evolving human relationships with wilderness and the natural world in the era of the human-driven climate crisis. After the Flood (June) took guests on an immersive hike through South Platte Park and the 1965 flood. burn scar, our first ever gallery exhibition, featured photos and video from the East Troublesome burn area. And Tent is trading stories of floods and other disasters at locations along the Platte (ongoing).

Rebuilding
We welcomed some awesome new folks to the Control Group family, alongside our stalwart veteran team. Click through for more about our growing team!

Staff & Collaborators

Kit Baker (Development)
Adrienne DeLoe (Design)
Danielle Dugas (Performer)
Adrienne Martin-Fullwood (Performer)
Patrick Mueller (Chief Vision Holder)
Caroline Sharkey (Artist Services)
Peter Trinh (Writer)
Katie Weisberger (Marketing) 
Kristine Whittle (Associate Director)

2022: DESTINATIONS & TRAJECTORIES

Here’s a bit of what your donation this year will help us create in 2022…

THE END (June-July 2022)
An immersive bus ride through Denver’s climate futures.

I know, we’re just working through the current crisis, and I’m sorry for this, but… it’s time to stand together and look this global crisis in the face. In an immersive hijacking of a traditional civic bus tour, THE END reveals the near future we’re all aware of, over the horizon – water scarcity, rising heat, mega-fires, extreme weather, and the cascade effects of accelerating climate crisis. Along the way, we’ll work together to find reasonable hope, to metabolize our grief, and to galvanize action as individuals and a community.

Sojourners 2.0 (ongoing 2022-  )
“Sojourner: A person who resides temporarily in a place.”

In 2022, Busing is heading into local public schools, equipped with study materials to help students grapple with this complex local history and present. Meanwhile, the Sojourners creative team is getting to work on the next project in the series: Harlem of the West. Stay tuned for more, and please reach out if you’d like Busing to come to your school!

SAIVUE!
We’ve spent the last year building in-house plans and policies around safety, accessibility, and equity in our work and at our events. In 2022, we’ll translate this work into a free online community resource for Safety & Accessibility in Improvised Venues & Unconventional Events – the SAIVUE! Created for and in collaboration with other self-producing artists and companies working outside traditional venues, SAIVUE lowers barriers to entry and elevates standards of practice in our community and throughout our industry.

Equity-Driven Staffing
If you know many artists, you know we tend to work long hours for little or nothing in pursuit of our passion. There’s a ton that’s wrong with that (hit me up sometime if you want the full soapbox). But the bottom line is: let’s change that.

The leading light in our growth over the last few years has been to better serve and reward our collaborators for their exceptional commitment to our shared work. In 2022, we’re taking a leap that feels remedial for most small businesses, but is a radical break with standard practices among independent performing arts companies: we’re putting all ongoing collaborators on payroll.

Thank you for reading this far. If you’re in a position to make a donation to fuel our 2022 programming, please click on a donation link below, visit controlgroupproductions.org/donate or contact us at patrick@controlgroupproductions.org. 

Yours in gratitude,

Patrick Mueller
Artistic Director
Control Group Productions

 A beautiful, tender, cryptic tale – a truly unique Denver experience.

–Crystal Jacquez, KGNU, 4/12/19

Control Group’s Aggregate Immateriality reaches beyond entertainment into a world of deep personal reflection.

–Cori Anderson, 303 Magazine, 4/17/19

Mueller was “immersive” long before the word emerged as the next big thing in arts. For Cutting Room Floor, a Halloween-themed collaboration with the Aurora Fox Arts Center, Mueller has come up with something that is both innovative and accessible.

–Susan Froyd, Westword 10/17/19

Control Group is a 501(c)3 organization and a Colorado state registered non-profit corporation. All donations are fully tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.