Double debut - TAP & HERE LIES HENRY @ Syd Fringe
A$4,720
of $4,500 targetyrs ago
Successful on 15th Sep 2012 at 2:00AM.
What is (our first production) HERE LIES HENRY?
Here Lies Henry is a deliberately unpredictable, intricately constructed comedy/drama about life, love and the body in the next room.
Henry is a man with a mission. He needs to tell the audience something they don’t already know. He must do so in 70 minutes. If he doesn’t, the play cannot end and Henry cannot leave. But who is Henry and why does he have such a compulsive aversion to the truth?
Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor defies traditional narrative structure, describing the play as”experimental and experiential. The narrative varies for each person who experiences its elements.”
“Daniel MacIvor is a great big tease. He keeps you in a state of constant arousal with the promise of a life-shattering moment in the theatre, an epiphany. This state of excruciating pleasure lasts the entire 70 minutes ofHere Lies Henry”(Gordon Bowness, Xtra.ca)
Henry is the perfect inaugural showing from TAP. It embodies the sort of raw, cutting edge work we would like to present and development.
TAP organically grew out of Paul's desire to put all his various entertainment and event industry hats in the one basket. It happened that this year, he was a bit light on with the performing work and wanted to capitalise on the time. After talking to some industry friends, what came back was Jason Langley and Matthew Hyde needing a producer for Here Lies Henry. They wanted to mount Henry at the Sydney Fringe Festival 2012. Hey Presto, TAP was born!
Along with the desire to create great theatre, TAP wants to assist industry newcomers with their all important first steps. The idea, as a new independent company with no upfront funds, is to "buddy up" inexperienced technicians and production staff with those who have had extensive industry experience. We provide the opportunity for them to network with people and venues, increase experience, and build up their CV. In return, TAP gains enthusiastic, skilled staff at a discounted rate so that resources can be diverted to creating greater production values. Hopefully a win win situation.
To date, we have two production tech students assisting with Henry. We have also helped place one person with casual work in two venues in Sydney.
The team of one is now a team of many. Some are newcomers who are simply very passionate about the arts and want to contribute, others are seasoned pros who have their own businesses and wish to increase their exposure. We all are basically trying to create opportunities for each other and produce some damn good theatre!
What we've achieved so far:
GETTING TAP AND HENRY STARTED
Our first challenge was to get some seed money to start the ball rolling (as we had none)! We achieved this by hosting a Quiz night at Slide Lounge, Oxford St, Surry Hills on June 25th.
We had a hugely successful night full of performances from some of the best music theatre and theatre performers in Australia. Funds raised have covered setting up TAP, the venue hire, and some advertising and printing costs. It was a brilliant start for TAP and raised a lot of awareness about our goals for Here Lies Henry and the future.
TAP cannot thank enough the performers, musicians and production staff who all volunteered their time freely. Support within the Arts community is well and truly alive in Australia.
Photography by Richard Hedger www.richardhedger.net
SPRINGBOARD PROGRAM
We also applied for Sydney Fringe Festival's Springboard program. It's a mentorship program which includes producing, marketing, publicity and creative advice. It's a fantastic start for a new company. We got through to the final round of applicants but unfortunately missed out. The panel's decision though, was more of a compliment to the TAP team. They said we had too much experience! And they were so impressed with our submission they offered to put us in contact with a UK producer who specialises in black box theatre shows at Edinburgh Fringe. BAM! Go TAP!
Your pledge here will not go to waste. We have a good team of experienced arts and production practitioners, and a growing team of passionate supporters who want to make good theatre.
THE MARKETING VIDEO
On a rainy Sunday night after we'd all finished our "real" jobs, the TAP team gathered at Sun Studios in Alexandria, Sydney, to start shooting the promo video for Here Lies Henry. Herr Director, Zee Actor, Producer, Photographer (Richard Hedger) and Videographer (Rodrigo Silva). A motley band of tired but determined men on a mission. Six hours, a bag of M&Ms, and a few bottles of plonk(!) later we had what we thought would be a great teaser for Henry.
Photography by Richard Hedger www.richardhedger.net
(An update: It's finished! Check it out at http://youtu.be/4DpyY5mlW8k)
The Future
The plan is to achieve a successful Sydney season which will springboard us to other festivals. The big one is Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013. Apart from that we're looking at all the other major festivals in Australia.
For TAP in the big picture, we are also looking for an original Australian work to support. So hit us up!
To date, we've lined up a fantastic production team from across Australia, we've secured the New Theatre, King St, Newtown, which is right in the hub of Syd Fringe territory, and (we hope) have come up with a great marketing video to promote our inaugural production, Here Lies Henry.
Your assistance can only further these goals and cement a future for TAP.
Your Pledge and our Budget
Your pledge of money will be used to finance the bare minimum -
Henry, for all it's upfront simplicity of one man on stage talking directly to an audience, is quite involved technically. It requires a full soundscape basically right throughout the show and some very specific lighting and video projection. That requires top technicians and equipment. And that costs! But, we've been incredibly lucky to gain that expertise at "fringe" prices. Rack rate fees are not reflected by the money we are trying to raise here. Our initial budget hit the $35k mark and we worked our way back from there. We could not do this without the team of volunteers who have given their passion and expertise to this project freely.
Issues With Pledging?
If there are issues with your pledge, or you want to change a pledge after it's been made, please don't hesitate to email [email protected] .
Pozible recognise that people may have reservations about using their credit card. They do not hold credit card/debit card details at all, plus they use one of Australias largest third party processing companies (called eway) to authorise, store and process credit card/debit card transactions on behalf of Pozible.
Since Pozible started accepting credit cards/debit cards, Pozible has facilitated over 6500 transactions and nearly $500k worth.
A big HUG! <br /><br /> Plus your name on the honour board.
0 chosen
Est. delivery is Aug 12
A big HUG! <br /><br /> Plus your name on the honour board.<br /><br /> Plus a HUGE thank you with your name (and URL if supplied) on our TAP Twitter & Facebook page, plus our Here Lies Henry Facebook Event page & our Sydney Fringe Festival page. WOW!
9 chosen
Est. delivery is Aug 12
All of the above!<br /><br /> Plus our really cool Here Lies Henry Mug!
2 chosen
Est. delivery is Sep 12
All of the above!<br /><br /> Plus TWO tickets to IMAX theatre, Darling Harbour (Valid Sydney only. Conditions apply).
1 chosen / 29 available
Est. delivery is Sep 12
All of the above!!<br /> <br /> Plus a cake baked by our wonderful Assistant Producer, Maria!!
3 chosen / 7 available
Est. delivery is Sep 12
All of the above!!! (except the cake)<br /><br /> Plus TWO tickets to Here Lies Henry (excluding opening night)
5 chosen / 45 available
Est. delivery is Sep 12
All of the above!!!! (except the cake)<br /> <br /> PLUS a 1 hour personal coaching session (for auditions & monologues) with our amazing Here Lies Henry Director, Jason Langley!!!
1 chosen / 4 available
Est. delivery is Oct 12
All of the above!!!!!!! (including the cake!!!)<br /><br /> <br /> PLUS!!!!!! A night out with Herr Director, Zee Actor and the Herr Producer. Pick their brains on everything TAP and Here Lies Henry.
0 chosen / 5 available
Est. delivery is Oct 12