jackie smith

Finucane & Smith's Glory Box has been invited to Cuba! To become a centrepiece of the 26th Havana International Theatre Festival, with its themes of "resistance, solidarity, intercultural "dialogue and great theatre as a live reflection of who we are today." They are so excited about the work, which they saw in Brazil, they have programmed us for 8 nights, across the whole Festival, at the legendary Riviera Hotel with its 1950s cabaret room, and its circular stage that raises and lowers as we like!.

This is the beginning of the next decade of evolution and revolution for The Glory Box!

All we need is your help to get us in the air. Cuba will take care of the rest.

The rewards are stupendous. We are having a Gala fundraising night Glory Box La Revolución! There will be Cuban songs, rum, nudity and wild dancing. It will be all star, revolutionary art. And you'd be crazy to miss out. You can have an entire booth named after you & decorated to your themes. Postcards from Cuba, picnics with Australia's "national treasure' (that's Moira), nights in luxury. Cuban lullabies. yes lullabies. La Revolución. Join us.

AND EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR YOU CONTRIBUTE WILL BE DOUBLED through Creative Partnerships Australia's MATCH funding! (and be tax deductible through our entirely awesome project partners Auspicious Projects!)

(AND with invitations to Slovenia & Mexico on the way there and back you know we will drive your dollar further - those plane tickets will be round the world in tatters!  VIVA!

IT ALL BEGAN TEN YEARS AGO, ON A DARK & STORMY NIGHT
If it wasn't for you, our supporters, The Glory Box wouldn't even exist. Here is the incredible story of a show made by audiences voting with their feet. 


{Moira Finucane attracting the attention of cherished supporters by being on top of the table)

Ten years ago, on a dark and stormy night in Melbourne, Finucane & Smith’s Burlesque Hour was born. Everyone who "knew anything about theatre" said it would never work. They said the work was "too full on". They said audiences weren't "ready for it". They said it would "never reach more than a Fringe and alternative audience". So, of course, we opened our gorgeous seductive subversive salon anyway. On the smell of an oily rag. We don’t like being told what to do or what audiences aren't ready for. 


{Here we are on opening night 2004. Ten years ago. Would never work? Poppycock!}

And we sold out the night we opened. And won 8 awards. And toured the world. And you, our audiences and our greatest partners in adventure, who don't like being told what to think either; well 300,000 of you so far have given us standing ovations and sell out seasons across 5 continents. You have funded us, supported us, and inspired us with your joy, discussions and insights. Thank you! 

WHICH BRINGS US TO CUBA!


{And this is The Famous Spiegeltent. Ten Years Ago. See the sign that says SOLD OUT? Yes!}

Two years ago we began to tour to Latin America. And the people really went nuts. They called Moira Finucane La Doisa (The Goddess) and critics compared us to theatre giants Artaud, Beckett and Ionesco and Jarred. 10,000 people came to see us play in a square in Sao Paolo. In fact we were the first Australian theatre company ever to be invited to Latin America's most prestigious international arts festival The Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires. And they called us superdivas.


{That's Moira performing in Portuguese in Brazil, which is harder than you think!) 

And then we turned Ten! And nearly the very next day, Cuba wrote to us. With great passion, about how their audiences needed us and would embrace us from every part of the city. in a festival that everyone can afford. 

They said "The minute I saw your production (and I saw it more than once), I pictured that it could have a wonderful response in our audience. It was the opinion of all the Cubans that saw you there. This is the reason why we are making the plan of eight performances of your show to draw the curtains of our program every night with a loud YES! This will be the first time an Australian company will take part in our Festival, and we are very much looking forward to it. Meaning that no matter how far we can be in distance, theatre can put down powerful bridges to bring us very close." Manolo Garriga, XVI Festival de Teatro de la Habana

This is the very next evolution and revolution of The Glory Box (it's called that now because it’s a glorious box of treasures, it’s more than an hour long, and the Latin Americans call Moira Finucane ‘La Gloriosa’, so we just had to!)

From 22-30 October 2015, thousands of Cubans will enter The Glory Box Revolution. What a way to start the next decade.

You got us this far. ALL WE NEED ARE THE AIRFARES. And every dollar you give us will be doubled.

Our Supporters

Credits

The OMG Update! (YOU, our supporters, are Angels of Provocative Art!) Fri 17 April

Finucane & Smith Artists

Update! We're throwing caution to the winds!

Every dollar you pledge will be doubled, and every dollar will be used to buy an artist an airfare. The Festival will take care of the rest. And with Festivals & theatres in Mexico saying, “HOLA! if you are over this way, perhaps you could come do a few nights at our legendary theatres” you KNOW that every dollar you donate will see extraordinary Australian art reach thousands of people in Latin America.

But not just Latin America! Finucane & Smith have been invited to Slovenia’s wild City of Women Festival to unleash Moira’s gothic solo work for one of Europe's most thrilling contemporary arts festivals. 

And! On the way back, Holly Durant will do a Cuban artist residency, Finucane & Smith have been invited to do a Day of the Dead residency, and Finucane has two Edvard Munch Museums in Norway eagerly awaiting her arrival for a gothic expressionist artist residency. On the way home!

Your dollars will, in fact, mean thousands of people, all over the world see us, work with us, collaborate with us, and get glorious with us. Just get us on the plane(s).

AIRFARES ARE VERY EXPENSIVE (a legacy of the embargo and limited carrier options) it will cost $55,000 for our team of 10 Artists. BUT we already have $20,000 from our Christmas Cocktail Party (thanks to you!), Creative Victoria have kicked in $5,500, and MATCH funding from Creative Partnerships Australia will match EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR we raise through Pozible to $10,000. (we raise $10,000, they match us $10,000 = $20,000! VIVA!). We'll raise the rest through our Gala Night, selling glorious undies, or an avalanche of generosity right here on Pozible! We can hear those rocks rumbling! Viva! We can't fail!


{This is Holly Durant. Ready to fly. Oh put us in the air!}