'Twas The Night Before Caucus

Happy Holidays, and Merry Caucus! My name is Robert John Ford, and I am the creator and producer of the short animated film "'Twas The Night Before Caucus" (viewable at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmSqoj--pN0). If the film gave you a chuckle or if you support its message, and because it's being shared with you free-of-charge, I'm asking you to consider contributing to help defray the expenses of producing it.

Every four years since 2004, I’ve produced a stage musical satire of the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses (a completely new show with each election cycle). Each version has attracted thousands of audience members and national media attention. This year, the theatre company that was planning to produce my new version expressed concern with the unapologetically anti-MAGA content, fearing it may result in the loss of patrons and funding. Understanding the difficult position in which the theatre company was placed, I chose to abandon the idea of a stage production.

But I still had an important message I wanted to creatively convey, so in early December 2023 (nothing like waiting until the last minute!) I began working with my enormously talented friends Bill Nelson (illustrator) and Lucas Tahiruzamman Syed (orchestrator and audio/video editor) to create an animated modified version of the show's opening number. Bringing together musicians, voiceover actors, and post-production contributors to create something so ambitious and expensive in just three weeks at the busiest time of year was an enormous but extremely gratifying challenge. And these artists deserve to be properly compensated for contributing their time and talents to this project.

So, if you would've bought a ticket to see the stage play, or if you would've paid to see the film on a streaming service, please consider donating. This will be the most important election cycle in history - a personal life may not be at stake, but the life of our democracy is. I'm trying to do my part to preserve it. Thank you for your consideration.

For more information about me and my creative work, please visit rjfcreative.com.