Mandel Community Fellowship with We are Waltham
The Mandel Center is pleased to offer a community fellowship with We are Waltham, a performance arts platform that draws communities together through storytelling. We will offer a $750 stipend for this professional development opportunity, geared towards Brandeis graduate students. For questions or to register interest, please email Esha Senchaudhuri at esenchaudhuri@brandeis.edu.
About We are Waltham
We are Waltham is a story telling show modeled after ‘The Moth’ and other shows that curate true, personal stories from ordinary people. The goal of the show is to increase empathy and reduce hate and distance between diverse groups of people with varied outlooks so the people of Waltham can feel more connected, supported and engage with others across ideological divides.
The show is run by its creator Chandreyee Lahiri, Waltham resident of 15 years and a well known story teller, having appeared on national story telling shows. She is also a story telling coach and consultant to other organizations. In addition, she writes and teaches flash fiction (for which she has won awards).
Fellowship Duties
Social Media Engagement
Includes FB, Twitter, Insta & posts on Waltham FB groups
- Pre-show: create posts according to a preset schedule to promote the show.
- Post-show: keep the channels active with periodic posts (flashbacks of past stories, audience reactions, sharing info about other shows)
Website
- Pre-show: Update event details as needed
- Post-show: Upload videos to the YouTube channel then update website with content and links to YouTube.
Outreach
- Pre-show: Reach out to journalists, media sites etc to cover the upcoming show, complimentary tickets so they can write reviews afterwards.
- Post-show: post photos of past event on socials.
- Between shows: Liaise with communities and demographics within Waltham that have either not appeared on the show or are under-represented. E.g.: Latinx, African, Jewish, LGBTQIA+, Neurodivergent, etc.
Ticketing
- Set-up events
- Monitor sales and report to Chandreyee to tweak outreach.
- Mass emails before show (reminders)
- Mass emails after with a poll to get reactions and testimonials.
- Video: filming & editing of audience response (at event & possibly later) teller reactions (at event & possibly later) Wee-WaW story video. Creating trailers and teasers to be used for promos and outreach
Possible project: create, film and edit episodes for Waltham Channel. Project is in its infancy but may mature into a show if WaW has support.
Event Support
- Create a playbill for each Big WaW from a template.
- Help organize and run raffles
- Take photos (day of)
- Take videos of reactions from audience and tellers (day of)
- Setup and breakdown (day of)
Story Telling
This is an optional duty.
- Sit in on a few coaching sessions with Chandreyee to learn about the craft
- Provide feedback to Chandreyee with objective opinions and suggestions
- Creative visioning: observe processes and suggest improvements and solutions. Join in creating a vision for the show and help guide it towards success.