NOTE FROM GREG

Hey guys, I’m overjoyed to announce that my new play, Rated M for Mature, has been accepted to the 2012 New York International Fringe Festival!  YAAAY!  WHOO-HOO!  <clap-clap-clap> I spent the last two and a half years working on Rated M for Mature.  The play was inspired by recent news articles involving teens who violently lashed out when their gaming consoles were taken away. 

When I sat down to write Rated M for Mature I knew it was essential that I depict the hardships of teenage life truthfully.  I wanted to draw from my own experiences but it took me a while to accurately recall my teen years. I would remember places and people but they all had the happy gleam and shininess that time tends to adorn the past with. I had buried my true feelings about my teenage years underneath the fabulousness of my twenties (as I think many of us do).  Undeterred, I broke out my yearbooks and journals and started digging. Maybe it was seeing the class picture of the bully who pantsed me in front of my choir class.  Or maybe it was re-discovering that someone had written “FAG!” on the front page of my yearbook.  Or maybe it was reading the awful names I’d call myself in my journal.  Whatever it was, the feelings of being a teenager came flooding back to me. Powerlessness, isolation, inadequacy, humiliation, anger, confusion, and of course, sexual frustration.  ...Seriously guys, being a teenager sucks.  Looking back on it, it seems a miracle we survived it.

That’s much of what Rated M for Mature is about- how some people are able to survive their teen years with just scratches and bruises while others need to create and occupy a whole other world.  A world in which they feel a sense of order, control, safeness and self.  We underestimate the vulnerability of young adults.  These people are at the crucial stage of forming their own opinions and moral codes- and yet it is at this time when they have the least familial and societal support.  Anytime a tragedy occurs involving teenagers lashing out, the media loves to parade experts in front of cameras who swear up and down that it’s the fault of violent video games and movies. Is the answer really that simple? I doubt it.  We need to start looking deeper and examine possible answers that may make us feel uncomfortable.   Rated M for Mature does exactly that.  

WHAT YOUR PLEDGE WILL HELP COVER

Producing a play is expensive! Your pledge will help cover:

The 2012 New York International Fringe initiation fee.

Insurance

Rehearsal space rental

Publicity

5 actor stipends

Director stipend

Stage manger stipend 

Props and costumes

Printing costs

and much more!

Kickstarter is an all or nothing fundraising tool- that means that I either meet my goal of $6,500 or I don’t get anything (and your credit card will not be charged).  

HOW TO PLEDGE

Pledging is EASY!  Kickstarter is linked to amazon.com. The advantages of that are: 

it’s safe and secure 

if you’ve ever ordered anything from amazon.com, then kickstarter will link directly to your already existing account!  EASY-PEASY!  

AND!  If you look to the right of your screen you'll see all sorts of nifty, cool gift for different pledge levels! 

CREATIVE TEAM

Paul Dobie is directing

Ryan Duncan is producing,

Please pledge.  Any amount will be appreciated.  Thank you!