Emily Cross - Butler University, USA

To the Arts Council of Wales:

I am currently a 3rd year theatre major at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana in the U.S. and would like to implore you to reconsider you're current decision to lessen funds to the Centre for Performance Research. I am currently working on receiving a research grant proposal from Butler that would allow me to go to CPR this summer to participate in their summer shift program. Most of my research for this proposal has come from CPR or from a source related to CPR, as most groups in the U.S. do not explore theatre and performance in such a way a CPR does. My proposal is focused on olfactory performance, something that yielded little to no research from libraries here. Participating in these workshops is invaluable to my project, as I will have the ability to discuss my ideas first hand with some of the most innovative artist in the world, discover new ways of approaching theatre and the arts, and have access to one of the best performance related libraries in the world. All of this will directly influence my 4th year project that I cannot graduate without completing. Most importantly, their program will allow me to make connections with artists i would otherwise never be able to meet, connections that will have an effect on the rest of life. I would also be looking into going to graduate school there.

The kind of future theatre I intend on doing and being a part of is not possible without groups like the CPR, and the kind of social theatre that has an positive effect on the rest of the world is not going to be possible without this group.

I do not want to be involved with a world of theatre that does not do the kind of innovative work that CPR does, because any possible growth will be stunted and the future of theatre unclear at best. Please re-consider you're decision, as it does effect people (literally) around the world, and the future of international theatre.

sincerely,
Emily Cross
Butler University 09'