About this project
I am Stacy Sims, a novelist and playwright, and I am working on a musical called THE VIVIAN GIRLS with the amazing composer, Peter Adams, and the fantastic choreographer, Heather Britt.
Inspired by the strange world of outsider artist Henry Darger and other contemporary artists who work in his milieu, THE VIVIAN GIRLS is set in a collage-inspired, pastel, post-technology universe. It is post apocalyptic but the end turns out to be more evolutionary and environmental than rapturous or cosmic. Technology in the 21st century speeds up everything to warp speed, including the typically slow-as-molasses process of evolution, and by the end of the century, there is an extreme convergence of global warming and nostalgia and pop culture and predators and gender bending and anime and all things “girl.”
And as the clock turns at midnight on December 31, 2199, the planet gives a final, giant sigh. And at this moment, the cultural obsession with youth, beauty and vulnerability coalesces and gives way to a final surviving species: The Last Girls. The Last Girls refer to this cataclysm of evolution and wind as “The Big Storm” with a twister named Sweetie Pie causing the most harm.
All the girls are clothed in story-book frocks and shoes. And the set has the feel of a Golden Books story book gone a little (or a lot) wrong.
But these girls are still girls, after all, and they yearn for love, a mother, freedom, and fun.
Here is a song .... this will tell you pretty much everything you need to know. And especially how talented Peter Adams is.
http://peteradamsmusic.com/vivian/SweetiePie-2.mp3
We need to raise $3000 to offset the costs to workshop this play this summer.
We have interest from various theaters and the fantastic director/actor Sam Anderson (Watch LOST on TV? Sam plays Bernard!) but we need to get in a room with actors, dancers and singers and see how the piece moves. This is an important part of the process of developing a musical, but hard to fund in this economy.
Help us make this world come alive.
And for those of you who come on our journey, we have all sorts of cool things to offer you.
Still not sure? Check out some of our work.
www.truebodyproject.org
www.peteradamsmusic.com
http://www.lastageblog.com/2009/10/14/sam-anderson/
Special thanks to Julie Sunderland for interviewing and filming us and to Richard Cawood for editing our intro video together. You are our first backers!
FAQ
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
49
Backers
$3,487
pledged of $3,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on June 18, 2010.
Pledge $5 or more
We like you very much. We will put your name on everything we can. Programs, Facebook event pages, web pages, tattoos.
Pledge $10 or more
We want to be your Facebook friend. We will send you the best thing ever. An MP3 of Peter Adams' version of Sweetie Pie Says.
Pledge $25 or more
Can we get your phone number? Seriously. You are awesome. So you get two MP3's - one of Sweetie Pie Says and another working song from the musical.
Pledge $50 or more
We want to hang out with you in real life! You get to be our guest at one of the workshop sessions.
Pledge $100 or more
We love you a little. That's why we want you to come to the special, invitation-only workshop performance this summer.
Pledge $250 or more
We love you a lot. We want to marry you and/or we want you to come to the premiere of the real deal. Our opening night. And/or we will give you a CD of all the songs.
Pledge $500 or more
You had us at "hello." Tix to the premiere and hang with us at any special anything we do. Plus the CD.
Pledge $1,000 or more
You pretty much own us. You get everything we have to give you. Copy of my novel, CD's of Peter's work, dance class with Heather. Plus you get to come to every single event that ever happens (that we control) as it relates to THE VIVIAN GIRLS.
Project By
Connected
AS WHITE AS O, Sims' first play, premieried at the Road Theatre in North Hollywood in October 2009. Variety called Sims’ writing “compelling, humorous and often fluidly poetic... " The Tolucan Times called it “a complex and disturbingly delicious must see production...a mind-bendingly hypnotic experience.” It was directed by Sam Anderson (Bernard on NBC’s hit show LOST). AS WHITE AS O was selected by LA Ovation voters as a “Recommended” production.
Stacy Sims' first novel, SWIMMING NAKED (Viking, 2004) was called "a brutally moving first novel" by the Chicago Tribune and was one of Border’s “Original Voices” selections.
Sims is also the founder of the True Body Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping girls and women identify and connect with their true bodies, grow their authentic voices, and advocate for the health and safety of girls and women everywhere. In that capacity, Sims has produced a documentary film and two site-specific performance works for CincyFringe festival. The documentary was a selection of the Cleveland International Film Festival and the Fringe works earned Critic's Pick and played to sold-out crowds in both the 2008 and 2009 festivals. In May 2009, the True Body Project took its community-based, collaborative theatre process to New York, resulting in three site-specific performance pieces at the Brooklyn Museum, featuring New York-area actresses, dancers, teenagers and seniors. Sims’ NY True Body collaborators include Cameron Anderson and Liza Zapol.
Prior to her work in wellness (she also owns Pendleton PIlates studios), she worked for more than a decade with contemporary artists and museums and as a writer for projects including the International Spy Museum and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Her first museum job was at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati during the CAC's successful First Amendment battle over the work
Visit http://www.truebodyproject.org for more information about True Body Project.
