Antaeus Co. sheds clothes and puts on humor for fundraising video

'Tis the season for nonprofit arts organizations to make year-end pitches to potential donors who might be induced to spread some comfort and joy while perhaps locking in a nice income tax deduction.

The most naked plea of all is probably the one above from L.A.s Antaeus Company, the North Hollywood classical stage troupe that last year launched a tradition of posting humorous year-end fundraising videos on its websites homepage and on YouTube.

This year's title is Naked Actors Need Costumes a message driven home by more than a dozen members of the Antaeus acting ensemble who make a full-frontal appeal to viewers to send money so the nonprofit company can meet its manifold needs, not least of which is cladding performers more appropriately.

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Strategic framing and blurring of critical pixels keep things decent, but co-artistic director Rob Nagle says the time-honored strategy of undressing actors to draw a crowd is having the usual effect: As of Tuesday the clip, debuting just after Thanksgiving, had been seen more than 7,000 times, or more than double last years funny but fully clothed video fundraising missive.

Maybe next year well have to remove the pixels to grab even more viewers, Nagle joked.

Like any savvy theater company, Antaeus draws on its members particular talents. In this case the key contributors are Gabriel Diani and Etta Devine, a comedy team, who bring filmmaking as well as live-performance skills to the table, having produced a growing oeuvre of indie and online videos.

They scripted, directed and oversaw production of both the 2012 and 2013 fundraising videos, and in the new one they're among the actors present in the altogether. As in last years video, John Sloan, one of Antaeus trio of co-artistic directors with Nagle and Bill Brochtrup, offers himself as the butt of a closing joke this time, literally.

Nagle said Antaeus lacks data-assessment tools to quantify how video viewings are translating into donated dollars, but clearly the exposure, so to speak, cant hurt.

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Antaeus Co. sheds clothes and puts on humor for fundraising video