! Stop Press !
We have reached our initial goal of £3,000 so we are setting 2 Stretch Goals - one for £800, and another for £750 - so we can make the show even cooler.
Scroll down for more information about the project and our Stretch Goals.
The Play
"We want to be supermodels or get on TV, because otherwise we'll just sit at our computers anonymously hating each other."
And Now:The World! is about being young in a digital world; about being a superhero caught in a web; about being able to spend more time with your friends online than face to face. If your whole life is online, can you start a feminist revolution and stay #ontrend?
The internet is a world of possibilities, but what happens to humans when we get information overload and our interface points don’t overlap?
! WARNING ! OpenWorks Theatre are NOT putting the internet on stage. We are staging the effect of the internet on human beings. Expect an unfamiliar visual language, arresting imagery and unusual devices.
Public Performance Dates:
- Platform Youth Hub, Islington, 24-25th September
- Derby Theatre, 2nd October
- The Moor (Sheffield), 15th-17th October
- The Edge (Manchester), 23rd-24th October
- Hackney Showroom, 27th-31st October
- Bristol Tobacco Factory Theatre, 2nd-4th November
- Travelling Light Community Centre, Bristol 7th November
- Arts Centre Washington, 12th November
Education and Outreach work:
In partnership with Platform Youth Hub in Islington, we are providing 5 paid traineeships for local young people. Roles include trainee director, trainee designer, trainee lighting designer, trainee sound design and trainee stage manager. They will spend half a day a week with us in rehearsals, attend all production meetings, be there for tech week. They will have the option of being mentored by the relevant member of the creative/production team.
The trainees will act as ambassadors for the shows at Platform, at their schools/colleges and for the shows at Hackney Showroom. They will give out word-of-mouth only discount codes to first time theatre goers.
In partnership with Derby Theatre, we are providing one week of intensive traineeships for 5 young people in care. As we enter into our fourth week of rehearsal in Derby, we will explore their response to the play, share our process with them, pass on our skills and offer them traineeships and mentoring with relevant creative team members. They will also act as ambassadors for our performance at Derby Theatre, where their peers have the option of coming for free through the theatre's plus one scheme.
In addition to this, we are doing 5 in-school performances (3 in London, 2 in Bristol) and 1 performance in a community centre in BS5 (Bristol). We will run free pre-show workshops and post show discussions and workshops in all 6 of these venues.
New Stretch Goals:
The first £3,000 will cover thet extra money needed to make sure the show looks as good in a school as it will in a theatre, and it covers the cost of our amazing production manager who will make sure our set is tourable,
1. We want to try and raise an extra £800 to pay for an amazing PA to make sure the show sounds as BOOM-TASTIC in every single venue.
2. We would like to raise an extra £750 to pay for an awesome operating desk to make it possible to operate the show to a professional standard in non-theatre spaces.
OpenWorks Theatre:
OpenWorks believes:
1. Excellent art should be available to everyone
2. Everyone should have the opportunity to make excellent art.
3. The wider the range of people who make art, the more reflective of society and the more relavent it will be.
So, our audience development and outreach work are integrated into all our work from inception to delivery.
Why do we do it? 28% of people go to the theatre because of word of mouth. The biggest barrier for non theatre goers is the price.
Basically...We're bored of seeing the same type of work made by the same type of people for the same type of people.
How do we do it? We make it easier for word of mouth to spread and make cheap tickets easily available.
What?! OpenWorks creates a new theatre going audience by involving them in the production from the beginning.
With DEBRIS we piloted a scheme which does just this. It involved work experience for 9 young people from the local community and a word-of-mouth-only discount code for first time theatre goers.
With And Now:The World! we are giving paid work experience to 10 young people (5 in London and 5 in Derby). In return, they will act as ambassadors for the show to their peers.
Oh, and by giving a total of 330 free tickets away to young people from schools/colleges/youth organisations in ALL 6 CITIES, it is our hope that they may tell their friends and family to see it at to their local arts venue. We'll keep you posted.
Results:
41 people who had never been to the theatre independently came because of this scheme.
114 young people who had never been to Southwark Playhouse before came because they were given exclusive online discount codes for first time bookers .
We are looking forward to seeing the new audience data for And Now: The World!
For more information please go to www.openworkstheatre.co.uk
The Creative Team:
Playwright - Sibylle Berg was born in East Germany and lives in Zurich. She has published numerous novels and plays, and her work has been translated into 26 languages. In 2014 She received Theatre Heute Play of the Year Award for And Now: The World! Her other plays include - A few people seek happiness and laugh themselves to death (2000, based on her novel of the same name), Helge's Life (2001), Dog, Woman, Man (2002) and The Golden recent years werewolf nominated for the most prestigious award for German speaking playwrights, the Mülheim Dramatists' Award. In 2008 she received the Wolfgang-Koeppen-Literaturpreis. Her novels include include - A few people seek happiness and laugh themselves to death (Reclam Leipzig, 1997), Sex II (Reclam Leipzig, 1998), America (Hoffmann und Campe, 1999), The Unpleasant first - Mr. stories (Kiepenheuer and Petrovich, 2001), Ends Well (Kiepenheuer and Petrovich, 2004), the ride (Kiepenheuer & Petrovich, 2007), the Man Sleeps (Roman, Hanser Verlag, 2009 - nominated for the German book Prize), Thank you very much for Life (Hanser Verlag, 2012 - nominated for the Swiss book Prize).
Director- Abigail Graham.
Work as Director includes: Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were made (assembly Rooms, Edinburgh 2015) Lines in The Sand (Soho),Black Sheep (Soho); DEBRIS (Southwark Playhouse); Molly Sweeney (Print Room, London and Lyric Theatre Belfast and Northern Irish Tour); Agent 160,Four Short Plays (UK tour); The Censor (JMK Award Runner Up, Young Vic); Blue Heaven – Three Short Plays by Tennessee Williams (Finborough Theatre); Jacks Quest (Company of Angels Theatre Makers Award winner.); The Boy and The Dog Who Walked to the Moon (Pleasance, Edinburgh.)
Abigail has also directed large scale community theatre projects for the Almeida, Young Vic theatres.
Dramaturge- Clara Brennan
As a playwright her work has been performed at the Soho Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, York Theatre Royal, The Duke's Theatre, the Arcola Theatre and the Traverse Theatre. In 2012, she was awarded the OffWestEnd Adopt a Playwright Award for her play The Vendor. Other stage work includes Spine which premiered to critical acclaim, including winning a Fringe First, at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014 and then had a run at Soho Theatre. Her play Boa was shown at Trafalgar Studios starring Harriet Walter earlier this year.
Designer - Sarah Beaton is a UK based designer working in theatre, opera and dance. She studied Design for Stage at The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, graduating in 2011 with First Class Honours. In 2011, Sarah was awarded The Linbury Prize for Stage Design. She was nominated for the Arts Foundation Fellowship 2013 by Katrina Lindsay and was selected to exhibit her work at World Stage Design 2013 in Cardiff. Recent Theatre Work includes: Crocodiles (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Good Person of Setzuan (CSSD, Directed by Nancy Meckler), Missing (Underbelly, 2013, Scottish Daily Mail Best Drama Award), Diary of A MadMan (Living Pictures Welsh tour) Babur in London (Sadler's Wells/Opera Group) and house on the edge (jerwood dance house).
Translator - Ben Knight has lived in Berlin for 14 years. He translated Sibylle Berg's most recent novel "Vielen Dank für das Leben," published in 2014 by Thames River Press under the title "Thank You For This Life." He has also translated several screenplays for the production company Schiwago Films, and previously worked in theatre, directing plays in German and English.
Production Manager - Sam Paterson is a freelance production manager. Over his extensive career, he has worked in subsidised, touring, commercial theatre and international transfers of UK work. He has worked for The Young Vic, Headlong Chichester Festival Theatre, ATG, and most recently The Children’s Theatre Partnership on the tour of Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Producer - Ania was Assistant Producer for Actors Touring Company. Prior to this, she worked as as a freelance arts producer and manager for LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre), Katie Mitchell and Shunt. Ania completed MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy at Goldsmiths. She previously studied performing arts in France and Poland.
Associate Producer and Voice of Youth - Desara Bosnja is currently working as an Apprentice Producer at the Bush Theatre as part of the LTC Apprenticeship Schemes. Prior to joining The Bush, Desara was an Artistic Director on the Young Friends of the Almeida Creative Board for four years where she co-curated the YFA Almeida Festival in 2011. In 2012 she became Young Producer at the BAC for 6 months, where she supported the Freshly Scratched Festival in December 2012 & produced Brave New World in March 2013. Desara also has experience in Community Arts after Project Assisting at All Change (Community Arts Organisation in Islington). Desara won Runner Up Young Achiever Award in the Arts in 2010.
Risks and challenges
There are the usual risks with theatre productions: the van could break down, the technical rehearsal could over-run by hours, the actor could decide that she won't come out of her dressing rooms.
However, we are all experienced theatre makers. Abigail has directed shows in theatres across London and Northern Ireland, and in schools, community centres and on housing estates across London and the South East.
Sarah has designed shows in London, Scotland, Manchester and one which toured all over Wales.
Sam is one of the best production managers in the business. He has over 20 years of production management experience. He has just finished production managing the UK tour of Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Basically, we are in safe hands.
Our amazing producer Ania has produced tours for Actors Touring Company which have been all over the UK, Europe and beyond.
Theatre is a wholly human art form. Things will go wrong. But we have the team who know how to handle it when they do.
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Funding period
- (36 days)