Kickstarter

Dear backers of our 2011 production workshop,

It's true. We're at it again. The 2012 production workshop is underway already, and we've just put up an all new Kickstarter project.  

Please watch the video since it features moments from the last year's showcase performance and you can see how we are progressing the work as we move it into the new season of professional shows:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inventingearth/luminous-thread-dreampunk-production-workshop

Plus, it gives us an excuse to say THANK YOU again for your support last year. See what you've helped to create?

Of course we'd love to have your help again to reach our goal of $5,000 to pay stipends for this year's singers, dancers, players, costumers, prop makers, technicians, and for the space rentals for rehearsals -- not to mention materials.

But regardless, the video is yours to enjoy! You helped to make it happen. Thank you!

Ben & Mary

Hello friends and supporters! Thanks to your fantastic support last year, we completed Act One of Queen Victoria's Floating Garden of Secrets and Natural Wonders, hired a professional cast, built sets, props, and costumes, and shipped the entire show to Massachusetts to stage a showcase performance. 

We've been a bit quiet since then as Mary and Ben relocated their household, jobs, art studio, and costume shop to Denver, Colorado. We had visited L.A. and Boston and discussed options with contacts in New York and San Francisco, and also toured Toronto, Basel, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. We picked Denver because the city is going places, open to new ideas, and looking to up its game. It's a city that supports the arts and we are happy to be here.

Late last month a successful show producer in Denver signed on to help us stage three of our shows for the 2012 - 2013 season. The third and most ambitious show in spring 2013 will be the full length steampunk opera that you helped to inaugurate last year. We've formed a new production company that will manage the effort and we are writing to you tonight to invite you to visit the new website for Luminous Thread Productions: 

http://luminousthread.com/ and its blog http://luminousthread.com/blog/

There is also a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LuminousThread

Please visit us there as well, Like the page, and share it your smart, fun, theatre-loving friends and acquaintances. Thank you for your continued interest and support. 

We hope to hear from you in the digital realms or in person at one of our future shows. See you there!

Greene Fyre (Mary) & Ben

Thanks to our backers and a huge effort from many volunteers, we completed the production workshop and showcased our efforts in a single performance on September 18, 2011 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The acoustics in the hall were very challenging, but here is one outtake that came through. Enjoy! And thanks again for your support.

Text and music copyright 2011 Mary Lin and Ben Sargent

Dear Friends,

The preview was more successful than we could have ever imagined! We independently got rave reviews for all aspects of the show - costuming, singing & accompaniment, the witty libretto, acting, the music, and sets. (Robert of Abney Park was super excited about sets, and even asked if they would stay on stage during the band's performance!). Many, many people commented on the high level of professionalism and wow factor of the show in general.  We'll be posting links to media reviews in coming weeks.

We've been asked to return to do the complete opera next year and we're talking to other venues and event producers who want us to perform at their events and venues in the coming year.

We're very pleased to report that with your support and other donors outside of Kickstarter we are able to pay all our collaborating artists - an important goal for us. (Ben and I have not been paid, FYI, but we hope that might happen in the run of the first production.) 

We will be mounting a new Kickstarter soon that will allow us to create the costumes and props needed for the second half of the show, and to cover costs of a first full-on production. 

Thanks, dear friends! You are helping to bring the joy of opera to many, and to help make our dreams come true. 

In steam,

Mary & Ben

Links to photos:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150322838745742.358972.775675741&l=5da3172767&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150288772772680.337374.559597679&type=1

Here is the venue: http://www.centralmass.org/members/central-ma-expo-center

Centrally located, in the Northeast, we've got people coming from New York, Maine, Vermont and more, as well as people flying in from all corners.

The preview includes four scenes from Act I of the opera, fully staged with live piano accompanist, the talented Mr. Kent Trostel of Phoenix AZ. 

Cast: 

Amelia, sung by Kerry Ginger
Atalantea/Nina, sung by Erin Anderson
Henrietta, sung by Mary Lin
Verne Darwin, sung by Jeffrey Stevens
Lady2/Mermaid2 (silent role), Leslie Lynch
John Paul Goethe/Gerty (spoken role), Ben Sargent