Krystal Sweedman

In April 2014 lighting struck, rearranging events so that an emerging playwright and director could meet at a playwriting festival at the NSW Writers' Centre. What transpired from their chance encounter was the realisation that they shared a similar artistic path and, more importantly, a desire to create image-based theatre with purpose. Flash forward twelve months. New theatre collective Shot in the Dark has been created and its artists are deep into the development of their first project.

That project is Sunnytown.

Sunnytown began while Krystal was studying playwriting at NIDA. On a whim, she sent the script to Playlab, who awarded the work with a creative development through their Lab Rats program. Support for the work continued with The Arts Centre Gold Coast giving Shot in the Dark a week's residency at the start of 2015. Now, La Boite Theatre Company is providing space for the premiere production of Sunnytown, as part of their Independent program in October 2015. 

This is where you come in.

We need your help.

It is such an honour to be part of the La Boite Indie season. However, in order to fully realise the production, we need funding for essential production costs such as set, costumes, and personnel. This crowd-funding campaign and the support of Creative Partnerships Australia who are offering to match your donations dollar for dollar, will enable us to present a great show. 

Below, you'll find out more about Sunnytown and the perks of supporting us. 

Your contribution is invaluable and much appreciated!

About the play

Season info

Our team

Your support matched

Update: Campaign still open

The play's setting fluctuates between a quintessentially Australian family home and Sunnytown Municipal Extravaganza Mall - a surreal shopping centre complete with helpful Rays of Sunshine, elusive escalators and hourly marching band parades. Your funds will be used to create these two worlds on stage. For example, by donating just $50 you will have helped us purchase an essential prop, or provided fabric for the uniform of one of the Rays of Sunshine.

Your donations will also ensure that our cast and creatives are reimbursed for their time. Our brilliant team have come on board out of a belief in the project and are currently working under a profit-share arrangement. By supporting our crowd-funding campaign, you are contributing to the sustainability of these 14 artists' careers.

Specifically, the pledge goal of $5000 will be used to cover the costs of: 

- Design and construction of our costumes, props and set
- Marketing and publicity
- Insurance
- Music rights
- Fees for our ten Creatives and four Actors

Plus: there are some fantastic rewards on offer as thanks for your support!

One of the challenges faced within the Australian theatre landscape is the limited funding for which companies compete. Independent companies are responsible for raising their own funds to cover the cost of creating their productions, even when they are programmed into a professional company's Independent season. They are often working for the love of a project, which means that they may have to split their time between other paying gigs and part-time work. This is a challenge because it separates their focus. Occasionally, it even forces artists to drop out independent productions because they've been offered a paying role elsewhere. While we don't foresee this occurring with the committed Sunnytown team, we'd like to ensure that we can support the artists who are dedicating their time to this production. Your generosity will be integral to this occurring.