Over the last month, I've been pounding Facebook’s virtual pavement to garner votes that will qualify Heliotrope for a grant from Chase Bank. We will use the funding to develop TheaterEbooks — the working name of our distinctive mobile app for teachers and students. With this cutting-edge technology, videos of theater performances are embedded into eBooks. For the first time in history, students of literature and drama may opt to read, hear, and watch a play through one digital portal. Students can view TheaterEbooks on electronic tablets, smart phones or computer monitors.

 

We hope that this format will freshly engage students with great works of theater. Studying Shakespeare and other complex drama can be challenging, even for bright students. It’s difficult to follow nuances of plot and character through text alone; plays were meant to be witnessed. TheaterEbooks puts any student in virtual orchestra seats for top-notch performances of the world’s most popular and studied plays.

 

Community support for this project has been resounding. As the sun shines its longest days upon us, we've gathered nearly all of the 250 consumer votes we need to qualify for this program sponsored by Chase and LivingSocial called Mission: Small Business.℠  By the time the Autumn Equinox rolls around in mid-September, we’ll learn if we’re one of 12 small businesses that’s been awarded this generous grant. Hopefully I will be sharing that happy news with you then. Meanwhile, thank you ever so much … family, friends, colleagues, and people I’ve never met  … each of your votes has been precious and vital!