The Play...
"A deeply moving drama, softly tinged with a humour that lays bare the human condition"- Paul Vale, Lost Theatre One Act Plays.
This award winning play by Callum McGowan, was written to pass the Bechdel test. With women taking leading roles on a London stage, this play needs to be seen, and will be brought to you by an entirely female team. Anna and Becca aren’t where they’re supposed to be. While serving a community punishment order Becca is sent to a hospice to work and meets Anna, a cancer patient. No Place Like Hope shows the beginning of an unlikely friendship, through their conversations, their need for company and for someone to listen. In their honesty towards each other, maybe solace can be found.
After the show, we will host panel talks to inspire younger generations to believe that women roles have equal value on stage, that writers can write strong roles for women too, and that females should not just be used as plot devices. These future generations will see that women can design and build sets, direct and produce large-scale productions. 62% of stage actors are male, whilst the percentage of females working behind the scenes is even smaller. This is despite 70% of drama and theatre students being female.
Can you even imagine how many females are out of a job? We want this play to help lead the way for future productions to be more balanced.
The majority of theatre audiences are women also; over 60%. We need to see our society projected equally on all stages, on our television screens and in our cinemas.
Who we are:
We are a company who want to get the gender balance right within the arts. In theatre alone, female roles are outnumbered. Female roles tend to be plot devices and are usually surrounded by leading male roles. This play was written in reaction to the lack of material available to women and has women taking leading roles, all supported and produced by women behind the scenes. We have an experienced team and a theatre, all poised and ready to put this show on, but unfortunately our funds are very very limited.
The Bechdel test:
Can you remember the last theatre piece or film you saw that had a female role? If yes, was there a second female in the piece? Did they both have names? If so, did they have a conversation together about anything other than a man? The likelihood of a piece managing to have all these things is pretty unlikely. Now try to think of the last time you saw a female in a LEADING role, did she have a conversation with another female character? Female leading protagonists are only at 29%. That means a massive 71% of leading roles still go to men. We don’t think this is right. We want to show the world that it can be normal to have women in leading roles, and that it is possible for them to talk to each other about things other than men or childbirth. We want these roles to have a real voice, to let it reflect real society. Lets get the balance right. Please help us.
What your money will do...
We have many different people giving their heart and souls to this show. They are working for free and giving what they can. However, theatres are crazy expensive and without at least £3000, this play can’t even be put on for a week. We would like to find the funding to have as much exposure as possible; a 4 week run is our DREAM- so every penny counts. Please help us reach our goals. With your help we can change this!
Let's get the balance right- be a part of it!
Risks and challenges
We have a theatre who would love to put this play on, but our biggest challenge is affording it. A London theatre is £3000 PER WEEK!!! This is before we even add on the costs of set/props/stage managers/directors etc...
We have many amazing people in place who are ready to be on board. However, even though many people are working for free, we would love to be able to give those nice people a little wage so that they can afford their rent- that's only right isn't it? Theatre is so very expensive and it shouldn't just be for the rich.
Theatre is always a risk, and some of the payments are going to come from ticket sales after the show...we need to sell half the tickets every night just to break even- but we have an incredible marketing team with a super action plan, so we are confident that we can spread the word about this amazing play and fill those seats! This play needs to be seen, we really want to give those hard working talented people an opportunity to show their skills- back stage and on stage. Half of the work is already done with people working in kind, but we can't ask for anymore just yet. We want to let this incredible female team do what they do best, but we can't do anything without a budget.
Let's get this balance right! Be a part of it...We need YOU!
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Funding period
- (34 days)