WHO ARE WE?
Seven Siblings Theatre was born from the shared ideology of Will King, Erika Downie, and Madryn McCabe as they embraced the ideals and practices of Michael Chekhov. Through our work we aim to deepen the actor’s psychophysical connection and tap into the distinct atmosphere of each play to produce a heightened and captivating performance for our audiences.
THE PROJECT
Through the Future Theatre Festival, we aim to promote the Theatre of the Future by guiding three different playwrights through a six month development process culminating in six live performances each. We feel very strongly that the Canadian theatre scene is lacking in plays that fit into the genre of Fantastic Realism (theatre that is inherently heightened, supernatural, or stylistically provocative). We aim to guide emerging playwrights in developing their individual voices in this genre through different exploratory exercises and artistic insight.
Your contribution will help the next generation of Canadian playwrights have a performance outlet for their work, ensuring that innovation and evolution are part of the landscape of Canadian theatre.
THE GOAL
Independent Theatre in Toronto has never been more difficult. With the rising rental costs in Toronto, most indie artists struggle to get a single project off the ground. Seven Siblings is taking a leap of faith and laying everything on the line to support three new shows, and give opportunity for our peers to grow. We believe that success requires risk, and we need your help to make the Theatre of the Future a reality.
THE FUNDING
We are looking to raise $2000. This money goes towards paying for the performance venue for these artists. This sum only covers part of the rental fee, as we plan on covering the remainder of our expenses through ticket sales. Our total expenses are $5600, and that’s before we can pay our participating artists. That includes playwrights, actors, stage managers, designers. Any extra money raised over our $2000 goal will be split evenly across all participating companies.
DONATION PERKS INCLUDE:
- An "I ♥ FTF' program shout-out
- Closing Night Party access
- Premium Tickets
- All-Access Passes
- Signed posters
- and even dinner with the Seven Siblings creative team!
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Even if we don’t reach our entire goal, the money still goes towards paying for the performance venue. If we don’t reach our goal, we will have to make up the difference by selling more tickets to the performances. That would be the worst. Help us pay emerging artists for their work!
THE VALUE
Your donation will help the next generation of up and coming playwrights, directors, actors and theatre artists create the Theatre of the Future. This is what the landscape of new Canadian work will look like in Toronto, and you can help ensure that these artists are compensated and supported accordingly for their valuable artistic contributions.
OUR HISTORY
This will be the first ever festival of new works that Seven Siblings Theatre will host, but we have successfully produced eight plays in the last three years. The most recent show was a production of Eliza Clark’s Recall at the Toronto Fringe Festival, which was well received by audiences and critics, earning us 4 N’s from NOW Magazine and an "A" from My Entertainment World.
We have experience producing seven shows as a company.
We started in 2014 with Mercury Fur by Philip Ridley, a dark dystopia where people get high on psychotropic butterflies. The play examines the extremes a person might go to to protect the people they love.
In 2015, we produced Sheila Callaghan's Fever/Dream, a modern take on Life is a Dream. A lowly customer service rep suddenly finds himself the CEO of a major corporation. Rooms turn into the ocean, food falls from the sky and a revolution is born!
We produced Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile in 2016, exploring art, love, truth, one's place in the universe, and even got a visit from a time traveling musician.
Immediately following, Seven Siblings Theatre produced The Rhinoceros Project, an intense 10 day exploration of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros. The cast was challenged to collaborate on shattering gender confinements, demanding a series of physical and conceptual challenges, and explosively imagine Ionesco's work for a contemporary audience.
The fall of 2016 saw us produce our most ambitious show yet, William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. A cast of 20 and a crew of 14 brought to life an underground bunker full of war, manipulation, deceit and revenge. One of the most fantastic elements was the use of 5 life sized puppets as some of the characters. These amazing creations were brought to life by 2 or 3 actors at a time, creating an otherworldly experience.
THEATRE IS EXPENSIVE
Inherently, indie theatre is mounted by hard working, creative people, who don’t have much money. All of the costs of producing theatre are up front (renting rehearsal space, renting performance space, printing posters and postcards, advertising, etc.) and all of the money comes in after the event through ticket sales. We have to work hard to spread the word about our festival to get people to buy tickets in advance to help offset costs as they come up.
Seven Siblings Theatre has been producing theatre for three years now, and we are now consistently making more precise and effective budgets and meeting those budgets, sometimes with money made at the end of the production to be able to pay our artists a small dividend. We are confident that we can meet our ticket sales goals with this festival just as we have with our last few individual productions.
THE PLAN
Since this is a festival of new works with three participating companies, there are that many more people involved to spread the word about the festival and encourage ticket sales from the audiences these collectives may have already built. Some of our playwrights have written and produced several works already, and have built a following of people who want to see their new plays. We are confident that we can meet our ticket sales goals along with our crowdfunding goal.
HOW ELSE CAN I HELP?
If you can’t donate but are interested in our festival, buy a ticket to a show! We have individual tickets and packages if you want to see all of the shows. A great new trend in the Toronto indie theatre community is to buy a ticket to see a show, even if you know you can’t attend. Believe it or not, a few dollars goes a long way to an independent artist. The cost of a ticket may not be much to many, but it’s everything to us!
Spread the word about our campaign! Use the Indiegogo share tools to promote the campaign on your social media and remember that the theatre community isn’t just relegated to Toronto. Let your friends across the country and around the world know about the independent artists you support, and ask them to support us too.
Having a network of people who want to contribute, but may not have the finances to do so is still valuable. If you'd like to contribute with your time, we can always use your skills! Running a festival every night can wear a person out. If you'd like to volunteer to take tickets at the door and run our box office one night, we'd greatly appreciate it. If you are Smart Serve certified and would like to volunteer your time as our bartender at our closing night party, we'd love to have you. There are many ways to contribute. Just reach out to us at sevensiblingstheatreco@gmail.com.
