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SYNOPSIS: Welcome to Independence, Iowa - the lifelong home of Evelyn Briggs, and generations' worth of familial misconnections. Evelyn's oldest daughter, Kess, a university professor, has long since decided to cut her family ties, but has come home at the sudden request of her sister; Jo, an incurable romantic, has become pregnant and is increasingly worried about Evelyn's mental health; while Sherry, salty-tongued and proudly amoral, wants only to finish high school so she can leave home for good. The sisters struggle to meet the expectations of their demanding mother, while the fight to pursue their individual aspirations for life and love test the bounds of family loyalty. INDEPENDENCE, by Lee Blessing, is a powerful, disturbing study of a family divided against itself.
About Us
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ELIZABETH A. DAVIS* — Director: Elizabeth is a Tony Award & Drama Desk Award Nominee & an Innovative Theatre & NYMF Award Winner.
SUSAN FERRARA* — Evelyn: Susan is an award-winning actor and playwright based in Manhattan. Proud member of AEA, SAG/AFTRA and the Dramatists Guild.
ERICA KNIGHT* (Producer) — Kess: Erica is an actor whose work spans across NYC theatre, film, and tv. She produces this project with Teryn and Paige, marking her producing debut.
TERYN GRAY (Producer) — Jo: Teryn is a New York-based actor, singer, and online content project manager. She produces this project with Erica and Paige, marking her producing debut. BFA graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, student of the Matt Farnsworth Vocal Studio.
PAIGE FELGER (Producer) — Sherry: Paige Felger is a NY-based actor who recently graduated with a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts '17. She produces this project with Erica and Teryn, marking her producing debut.
What We Need
In order to bring this production to NYC, we needed to raise a minimum of $3000 to cover playwrights' fees, insurance, and rehearsal space. Now that we've reached that goal, we're need to raise $5,000, to cover our venue fees and technical design fees!
Any donation, no matter how small, will make a difference to the quality of our experience with this piece—and will bring us that much closer to showcasing these female theatre-makers, while sharing important stories about women to New York audiences.
What You Get
To show our gratitude, there are a bunch of different cool perks you can choose from!
When you donate to our production, you can get behind-the-scenes videos, a signed playbill, your ad in the program, a collectible prop from the show - or even attend a rehearsal. There's something for everyone - and we'll be forever grateful.
The Impact You'll Make
We want to build a creative process that uplifts and showcases women in the industry, and your contribution will help to bring this exciting female-led project to NYC stages. INDEPENDENCE focuses on four unique women, their relationships with each other, and their individual struggles with independence, codependence, and interdependence.
Every dollar raised with this campaign will go directly to the show's expenses; primarily rehearsal and venue fees - and compensating all of our artists and crew members (something we're very passionate about)! Our total budget for this production sits at $11,000, so any dollar you can help us towards that goal would be so greatly appreciated.
Challenges
As young female theatre-makers, we face a few challenges in bringing INDEPENDENCE to life:
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Paying our artists. It has been a commitment of this project from Day 1 that we compensate every artist who is involved with the piece. We have an incredible group of (primarily women) actors, directors, stage managers, technicians, graphic artists, and more! Making sure we keep this commitment comes as a challenge for a low-budget showcase project like this one. You can help!
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Renting a theater. Finding a venue that suits our productions' needs and meets all Equity requirements costs money. That's the name of the game! Your contribution will help us raise the funds necessary to pay for the perfect theatre to bring this show to life. Our venue costs make up $5,000 of our budget.
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Rehearsal space. In order to bring this production to its fully-realized potential, we need to rehearse! And for that, we need to rent rehearsal space. While on a slightly smaller scale than the performance venue, this is still such a vital piece to the INDEPENDENCE puzzle.
Other Ways You Can Help
Some people can't contribute, and we completely understand, but there are other ways you can still help us!
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Share this campaign! Share with the people you know! Share with the ones you don't! Just share! The more people we can reach, the closer INDEPENDENCE is to becoming a reality. This one can make a huge difference!
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Follow INDEPENDENCE! You can follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for updates and more.
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Come see the show! If all else fails - we'll need an audience. We'd love to share with you this very special play. Ticketing info soon to come.
Thanks so much!
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* These Actors are appearing courtesy of Actor's Equity Association
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Artwork by Amanda Gay - @amandabeararts