Catapult Love is a high-wire musical-comedy adventure of a woman in search of herself crow-barring her way through a catastrophic line-up of lovers. It is a head-to-head onstage throw-down between the comedic genius of Katie Goodman, her co-writer Soren Kisiel, and the high-energy, addictive wit and music of Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Tom Toles and his riotous band, Lethal Bark.
Who The Hell Are We?
Okay, half of you know Tom and half of
you know Katie & Soren. And we’re betting there’s some overlap due to their
careers and senses of humor. And if not, there is about to be. Ya love Tom?
You’ll love Katie and Soren. If you enjoy the
liberal-climate-change-feminist-satirical-anti-Tea-Party mischief of one of these guys you’ll love the same artistic shenanigans of the other. This unexpected and hair-brained
collaboration between three of the country's most dexterous comedy writers,
along with performances by Katie Goodman (it’s a one-woman show, people), Tom
Toles (the band leader and lead singer)
and Lethal Bark (the on-stage band), is a project that so far is proving to be
unique, smart, energetic and hilarious.
Why This Show Matters
We’re all looking for ourselves, and most of us are looking
for ourselves in the wrong places. Does that resonate with you? No, not at all?
(Maybe you should ask your friends before you answer that one…)
Catapult Love traces the
adventures of a woman trying to locate her authentic self. Katie has made a career out of writing from her authentic
voice (okay she writes with her husband, but let’s not start out such a nice
relationship with you guys undermining things with ironic commentary, okay??).
Her TED Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_em...)
and her book (http://katiegoodman.com/katies-book) both stress the importance
of finding ones voice. But what happens when you want to connect deeply with
others but don’t want to merge so much that you lose yourself in it?
Catapult Love
helps us answer the question: “Who The Hell Am I??” A stage aswarm
with come-to-life cartoon art, a rare happy collision of collaboration of
artists with comic talent in tubfulls, strange and unexpected new takes on
stage traditions, and a narrative as
dense with humor as stand-up comedy.
Help us breathe some fresh life and fire
onto the stage, and create a show of pure delight, surprise and adventure.
What We Need
In order to free up our time from other
paying projects, so we can focus on the development of this one, we need to
raise moolah. This is really simple and straight-forward. We are seeking $9,000
which breaks down to $3k for each writer: Tom, Katie & Soren.
What you are helping us achieve:
This is stage one-- development of the
script which is what is going to make something like this a success or not. No
whipping out quick-o first drafts! (Well, actually Tom already did that but it
was far from "quick-o." It was terrific. Wait, now that we think about it, he
didn’t actually show us his veeeery first draft…) So, we need this support and
time to really work through it and get it into shape ready for our first
reading where we will shop it around to theatre companies that will want to
jump on board and produce it.
The Impact of Your Donation
Seriously, if we can’t raise this we
can’t do it. Plain and simple. The days of writing in a coffee shop for the fun
of it are, unfortunately, over. Please, please don’t make us take that job
writing funny slogans for Victoria Secrets' spring sale instead of writing this
musical. Okay, that comes with some perks and Soren is across from me saying,
“Did they offer?!?!?” Writing a musical is a long, hard, concentrated project.
We can’t do it in our spare ten minutes a day. Because by the time we’d finish,
well… we’d be dead. And then who the hell is gonna perform this thing?
What Will You Get?
#1: PERKS:
Check em out! They are on the right
side of your screen! Buy an original caricature of you or your kids or partner
drawn by Tom! Or signed original one-of-a-kind Washington Post political
cartoons – you pick your fave! Books! CD’s! A show by Katie at your event! VIP
theatre tix! Scroll down on the right!
#2: Bragging Rights Will Abound:
YOU WILL BE IN ON THIS FROM THE VERY BEGINNING!
Setting: Opening night after-party. Dimly lit swanky club.
YOU: So, you know I was in on this from
the very beginning…
PERSON YOU’RE HITTING ON: Really?!?!
How did you know it had such
potential to be an Obie award winning musical?
YOU: Oh, I just felt it in my gut. I
have an instinct for these things.
PERSON WHO’S NOW REALLY IMPRESSED WITH
YOU: Wow. Well you really knocked it out of the park with this one. And you helped
support them from the start? That really was so gracious. And so dedicated to
supporting the modern American theatre scene. You’re not only good with your
instincts, you’re good-hearted as well. You support art and know a good investment when you see it. Wow…
YOU: (Smiling seductively, staring into their eyes.) Yes. Yes I do. (You pull out your phone.)
PERSON WHO IS NOW TYPING THEIR PHONE
NUMBER INTO YOUR PHONE: (Giggles shyly.)
Fade to black.
Okay A Little More Detail on the Plot of
Catapult Love:
The story follows a smart yet utterly lost single woman, as she launches
herself into relationships with all the power and inaccuracy of a catapult.
Mid-air she questions her aim, her destination, her sanity and her mother as
she chronicles it all for the audience with her lacerating narrative and loopy
artwork. Yes, like co-author Tom Toles, she is a cartoonist and illustrates her
stories and struggles with a dizzying constellation of caricatures, which come
to life in animation and full-size two-dimensional puppets, designed by Toles.
Her fatal flaw? Wanting everything to be one-dimensional. Life doesn't seem to
want to comply.
The music, quirky original up-tempo quasi-rock, chronicles in song the
cast of narcissists and losers that Lurid has the uncanny talent for
attracting...and latching onto. Looking for wisdom in all the wrong places, she
has asked the audience’s help in making a fateful decision, as she tries to
sort out what she is learning in the middle of the maelstrom.
(Note: support of this project does not bestow or imply investment in or ownership of the material or production.)
Wanna see what we’ve done that’s rocked
so far?
Go here for Tom:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/toles/
And here for Katie & Soren:
http://katiegoodman.com
TOM TOLES is the Pulitzer-prize winning Editorial Cartoonist for the
Washington Post. He has won the Herblock Prize, The Thomas Nast Award, the
National Headliner Award and numerous other prizes for his editorial cartoons.
He has been Editorial Cartoonist for US News and World Report, The New
Republic, The New York Daily News, The Buffalo News and the Buffalo Courier
Express. His cartoons are syndicated nationally to over 100 publications. He
has drawn and syndicated two comic strips, Curious Avenue and Randolph Itch,
2am. He has published several books of cartoons, and a short novel, My
School is Worse Than Yours. Tom draws six cartoons a week for the Washington
Post and blogs for the Post daily. Tom is also a musician, a singer and
songwriter and drummer for two DC bands, Lethal Bark and Suspicious Package. He
has performed in Washington, New York City and Europe.
SOREN KISIEL & KATIE GOODMAN are playwrights, humor
writers, actors and directors, and the co-Authors and co-Directors of Broad
Comedy, an all-women sketch comedy and political satire troupe, which
has played to sold-out houses in extended
runs at Boston’s Stuart Street Playhouse and at the Acme Comedy Theatre in
West Hollywood, and has been showcased at Caroline’s
Comedy Club in Times Square, won the Pick-of-the-Fringe Award at the
Vancouver Fringe Festival, was listed as one of the top ten sketch troupes at
the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in
Scotland and were also nominated for The EPIC Award from The White House Project. Soren and Katie have also used this material to
create a one-woman show for Katie that is currently running monthly
performances at Joe’s Pub at the Public
Theater and at the Upper West Side’s Stage 72 in New York City. This work
was also featured on Showtime’s The Green Room With Paul Provenza,
as well as being the basis of numerous hit YouTube videos. Katie
is a featured blogger for The
Huffington Post, has contributed to O, The Oprah Magazine and
is the author of “Improvisation For The Spirit.” Soren and Katie have been nominated
for a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant for their unique work in theater. Soren’s
award-winning short play, Smooth Landings,
is currently receiving a revival in the Los
Angeles Science Fiction One-Act Festival.
Share
Please post this to your Facebook or
email it to one friend you think might love to be involved in creating a brand
new feisty musical from the ground up. You can use the Indiegogo share tools
right at the top of this page. Thank you! You rock! Which is appropriate since
this is a rock musical.
Catapult
Love: Find yourself.
