OUR STORY
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The second collaboration between Lauren Hlubny (creator/director) and Thomas Giles (composer/performer), Thoughts & Prayers explores America’s relationship with tragedy, catastrophe, and loss. This new hour-long show, set to premiere in September and then begin a tour, embodies the recycled responses to the daily, dull hum of media coverage, routines of political failure, and widening gaps of partisanship and class. All of these numb our capacity to be humane.
Today, what we crave most is what we lack most in a desensitized climate: empathy. The hour-length work is a reframing of a fictitious couple’s interactions with and to five Disasters,with dramatic mixtures of music, movement, and images: a dance-theatre concerto.
Lauren and Thomas began collaborating to create this work 1.5 years ago. Much of it was made in guerrilla-style rehearsal spaces. They would take any space they could find with any time they could spare rehearse and create the structure of this unique work.
The saxophone, when played by someone who practices as much as Thomas, can sound like almost any instrument, any vocal quality, and any thing. They quickly began including incredible musicians to workshop the music and movements, dancers and actors offering insights, and designers providing their expertise to build a new and imperfect world on the stage.
This show is not easy--all the musicians have to dance and perform fully-developed characters while playing difficult music, but using the techniques we’ve been developing over the past few years, they can do it.
It has been an absolute whirlwind, and everyone has been donating their time, and sometimes even pooling their money to rent space.
A 6-musician ensemble (3 woodwinds, 3 strings) embodies two distinct Greek Choruses, giving full voice to the acrimonious clashes of present-day America. The announcement of each Disaster is precipitated by a virtuosic solo movement and the narrative is supported by orchestrated structures of dialogue, physical partnering, and contrary staging.
THE TEAM
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We have an unbelievable team dedicating their strengths, sweat, and honed skills to this project. I can’t rave about them enough, and am a little star-struck every time I look around the rehearsal space (and design table) at these incredible artists who were willing to reach way out of their already lucrative comfort zones to work make this dream a reality. To see our full team, click here.
We have team members that work at Alvin Ailey, at the Met Gala, with Meredith Monk, have graduate degrees from Juilliard, are masterful improvisers, tour the world performing and creating, direct rooftop Shakespeare shows, write dialogue for television, and much more. Up to this point, we have had over 30 artists involved in the creation and development of this piece (pro-bono), and their hard work shows in every measure.
WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO?
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With your help we will:
1. Cover basic expenses for mounting a two-week run of an original performance work in an Off-Broadway Theatre in NYC (just to have typed those words is a dream!)
2. Pay everyone on our team a small stipend for their extremely valuable time.
(Artists can make a lot more money when they don’t take on soul-driven works like this, and we want to give them the respect they deserve)
3. Put any remaining money towards touring (we think ahead!)
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We want to make this work accessible, and a part of that is offering a sliding scale ticket and not depending on show income to compensate our team.
We know your time is valuable, and with your help we hope to start a sustainable model of funding future tours of the work using net profits from ticket sales, so that it can reach more communities without new crowdfunding campaigns each time.
RISKS/CHALLENGES
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Putting Ourselves Out There
We have paid the down payment for the theatre. This show can’t happen without you.
We’ve put a lot of our own personal money, health, intellect, creative drive, and intense emotions into developing this work, and we need your help for the last step. We are very grateful for your support and belief in us and our persistence to figure out how to make new work, make it well, and make it with an impact. Making art is scary, and asking for support and faith is even scarier...But, we can’t do it alone.
How Hard the Show Is
This show, even though it is only an hour, is an absolute marathon for the performers. Each of the eight performers on stage has to act, play music, and perform movement just about the entire time. That, coupled with the intensity of a tennis-court style seating arrangement and a strong artistic vision make the work extremely detailed and difficult to perform. With the real challenges of time and expense of New York City, we are sweating our way through the summer to make this work incendiary for the audience.
The Conversation
Thoughts &Prayers is important, not only because it is being delivered by a team of first-rate artists, but because it is theatre for a cause. We are offering youth workshops. We are devoting a percentage of ticket sales to an organization (chosen with the help of our supporters) dedicated to proactive disaster support.
We are also putting money earned from the show straight towards touring, so we can commit to engaging with more communities. This is more than an art piece, it is an ongoing conversation. It’s important, but it’s a terrifying amount of work to undertake, and important to do so with thoughtfulness.
The Future
We are a very small non-profit determined to make a difference, but we are working on very little money and the (wo)man-hours add up. With your help, we will be able to take the right steps to secure a future for this work and for future workshop programming dedicated to activist art paired with top-notch professional artists.
Thank you for supporting us, it means the world to our team.
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