Feed us a story...
Ghost Card is a free outdoor performance event that fuses dance, theater and public art with the connective power of the Internet. In the show, a voyeuristic gang of hungry ghosts feed on the stories of the living through an audience interactive, card-game-turned-performance. Enslaved to the rules of chance, these eight unruly ghosts and an obsessed card dealer relive true, crowdsourced tales through contemporary dance and a host of irreverent storytelling tactics.
We are collecting these "table stories" from the general public via our online story portal. The show was inspired by Allen and Ellen Wexler’s public art sculpture Two Too Large Tables at Hudson River Park, upon which we will stage the world premiere of the work in August 2016, followed by a site-adaptive performance at Socrates Sculpture Park in September.
Our source text is you.
The most important ingredient in Ghost Card is our audience. You feed us the stories that comprise the text of the show. Go ahead, click here and feed us a story! Every time we bring the show to a new public space, we’ll collect new stories from the local community to weave into the production, creating a shape-shifting collage of human identity with each new site. We map the stories to a 52-card deck of oversized playing cards, which the hungry ghosts use to play an interactive game that unleashes each story through dance, improvisation, spoken word and the laws of chance. And if the Ghost Card is played... we might just ask you to feed us a story on the spot!
What We Need
This is a free public performance. We're self-producing in a public park because we believe in creating demand for art through exposure and participation. But at the same time, we all know that art is never free. It costs a lot of time, money and creative output to produce this kind of work. We need your help to make it happen. Your contribution to our IndieGoGo campaign will fund:
Stipends ($3250). We have hired some highly trained, super-skilled artists for this project, and they've generously agreed to share their talents for modest stipends because they love the work. Help us pay our 9 luminous performers, 3 incredible designers, and our ridiculously creative production manager.
Costumes ($750). Our Hungry Ghosts may resort to desperate measures to get at your stories...but they draw the line at performing naked. Help us put them in conceptually rad, movement-friendly costumes.
The Cards ($250). It’s hard to play a card game without cards. We have a gorgeous deck of oversized cards designed by Adam Wile that we need to print and mount. (P.S. you can get copies of some of these beautiful cards as a perk for supporting this campaign!)
Web App ($150). Ghost Card happens online as much as it does in person. Our website needs hosting, and our awesome online story-collection gizmo actually comes with a subscription cost. (Check out the website and feed us a story. Already done it? Feed us another! We're insatiably hungry...)
Scenic Design ($300). Ghost Card will premiere at Two Too-Large Tables, but then it's going on the road. In order to bring the work to public sites across the city and beyond, we need to buy the materials to create an abstracted, elegant, and easily portable scenic design that emulates the concept and quality of the Wexlers' original.
Crowd Control Ushers ($300). We are performing in a nontraditional space at Hudson River Park, filled with passersby, park service vehicles and a busy bike path. We need to hire crowd-control ushers for each performance to guide the audience toward safe areas.
What You Get
In thanks for your support, we have a fantastic selection of perks. Shout-outs both virtual and literal, fireworks lit in your honor, a one-page theatrical ode by a FullStop playwright starring YOU, custom playing cards featuring the designs of the show, dance lessons, a private wine reception with the creative team, a mighty creative services package and a limited-edition artist-signed proof by Allan Wexler...plus special SECRET PERKS that will be revealed throughout the campaign. (Follow us on Facebook and our blog for the inside scoop on secret perks!)
The Impact
We all know how socially and spiritually isolating life in American society can be sometimes. And we all know how rich our culture is with artists whose work is rendered invisible to the public because of economic and social barriers. This project breaks down both of those realities with a free public offering that uses the community’s own stories as the primary narrative substance. We believe that by reflecting the myriad inner worlds of a neighborhood’s members back to itself through performance, we can begin to dissolve some of the perceived and actual barriers that divide communities of strangers.
The piece is designed to be portable, reproducible, and neighborhood-specific, situated in public parks that are regular visiting points for locals, and comprised of stories supplied by the members of the surrounding community. We hope to eventually present Ghost Card in public spaces all over New York City, and beyond!
Other Ways You Can Give
If you can't donate, or even if you can, here are some other ways you can show your support:
- Visit our website and feed us a story!
- Follow us on Facebook and our blog for updates on the show, as well as the inside scoop on secret IndieGoGo perks to be revealed throughout the campaign.
- Share our campaign with your people on Facebook, Twitter or via email.
- Come watch fireworks and drink wine with us at our 4th of July campaign finale celebration, and bring your friends! Follow us on Facebook for details.
- Most of all, come see the show! August 3, 4 and 6 at dusk, Hudson River Park at 29th Street, and September 17 from 2-4PM at Socrates Sculpture Park.
Who we are
We are Megan Weaver and Hassan Christopher, artists, partners, and co-creators of Ghost Card.
Megan is a director, teacher, and creator of hybrid theater that blends audience interactivity, digital media, mask, puppetry, live music and unconventional spaces. She is the executive artistic director of FullStop Collective, an NYC performance group in its 9th year.
Hassan is an award-winning choreographer and experimental performance artist with roots in contemporary dance, house and hip hop. He is a passionate movement educator with nearly two decades of teaching experience.
Our Ghost Card performers are Alexander Bianchi, Yuki Fukui, Naomi King, Katrina Leung, Lorenzo Sariñana, Alexia Sky, Larissa Skye Van Rensselaer and Adam Wile.
Special thanks to Hudson River Park, Allan and Ellen Wexler, and FullStop Collective for their support of this project.
Ghost Card is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Ghost Card must be made payable to Fractured Atlas only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
