David Finnigan

Dear Pozible People,

I would like to ask your help to fly two Filipino theatre artists to Australia for ten days this October.



The Sipat Lawin Ensemble is a site-specific experimental theatre company from the Philippines. Formed in 2008, the collective produces work in theatres, cafes, galleries, abandoned schools, stadiums and carparks around Manila. They've made large community performances, small touring works, massive public interventions and everything in between. You can check them out on Facebook here.

THE AUSTRALIANS

My name is David Finig, and I'm a theatre-maker from Australia. I first collaborated with Sipat on one of their first projects in 2009. In 2011, myself and three other Australian artists (Sam Burns-Warr, Georgie McAuley and Jordan Prosser) went over to Manila to collaborate with the Sipat Lawin Ensemble on Battalia Royale, a stage adaptation of Koushon Takami's Japanese pulp novel Battle Royale. This show featured nearly 70 performers and 39 onstage murders, was seen by almost 4,000 people over 18 performances and was covered by international press including Reuters, CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera. This August, we're collaborating with Sipat again - more than 20 Australian artists are ravelling across to Manila in August to take part in Sipat's LoveNOT: This Is Not Yet A Musical, a massive multi-arts spectacular exploring love in all its facets.

We've been travelling to Manila and working with Sipat since 2009: it's now time to repay their hospitality. In October, Sam Georgie Jordan and myself are presenting a show about Sipat and the Battalia Royale project entitled Kids Killing Kids at the Melbourne Fringe and This Is Not Art festivals. We'd like to invite a couple of the Sipat crew over to Australia to take part in the show, to present a workshop about their practice, and to begin meeting with potential supporters for a Sipat tour in future years.

The thing is, it's fairly easy for Australians to travel to the Philippines - it can be more challenging for Filipinos to go the other way. Minimal arts funding and the exchange rate are weighted against them. So for that reason, we're putting together this Pozible campaign to help pay for their tickets and travel costs over.

THE PROJECT

We're fundraising to pay for Sipat Lawin artists JK Anicoche and Sarah Salazar to travel to Australia for ten days in October. First they'll fly to Melbourne, where they'll attend our Melbourne Fringe show (and every other Melbourne Fringe show we can fit in) and begin planning for a full Sipat Australian project in 2014-15. Then to Newcastle to take part in This Is Not Art, Australia's leading media arts festival.

JK and Sarah will be meeting with organisations to begin conversations about a future Australian Sipat Lawin tour, they'll be presenting workshops about their work, they'll be meeting with Australian artists and getting their heads around the scene, they'll be speaking on panels and exchanging knowledge. We think this is a pretty exciting opportunity for Australian theatre-makers to meet and make connections with some of our brightest young peers in the region.

HOW THE MONEY WILL BE SPENT

We're looking for $2500 to help us pay for JK and Sarah's tickets, their travel within Australia, their accommodation in Newcastle and a little bit of money for food.

This is not a junket! JK and Sarah will be working hard while they're here, and living as thriftily as possible. Couches will be slept on, mi goreng will be devoured, friends with cars will be imposed upon. But we'd love to be able to treat them to a decent Australian cup of coffee while they're here.

If thanks to our lucky stars we get more than our target, we'll be able to provide a little more in the way of living expenses, and maybe even extend their stay or bring out another Sipat artist!

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. Pledge money and claim your reward.
2. Share this around your networks and talk about it.
3. Get in touch and say hello while JK and Sarah are in the country!


THE ARTISTS

JK Anicoche is the Artistic Director of Sipat Lawin. He's directed Sipat Lawin productions including Haring%20UBU-L (Ubu Roi), R'meo Luvz Jhulz, Battalia Royale, Happenings: Project Banig, Book-on-the-Spot. He is a founding member of Acting Without Borders and Acting Coach for GMA 7 and TV 5 networks. JK juggles seven jobs at a time and is known for coaching TV actors in warehouse kidnapping / hostage scenes. Most of all, JK is a storytelling and action star.

Sarah Salazar is a performer, curator, teacher and Sipat Lawin company manager. She's performed in shows with Sipat including Pragres, Imperio Animalia (Animal Farm), Battalia Royale and Mahiyaing Manok. Sarah documented the early works of Sipat Lawin through her paper "Cultural relativism in site-specificity: Sipat lawin ensemble's practice towards creating and sustaining a theater community". She teaches pole dancing part time.

JK and Sarah are both currently working on Sipat Lawin's Love: This Is Not Yet A Musical, a massive crowdsourced play taking place in August in Manila. LoveNOT will attempt to win the Guiness World Record for play with the most number of playwrights.