Labels goes to Edinburgh!

Joe Sellman-Leava is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

‘Powerful, important and funny’ Emma Thompson
"Stunning" ★★★★★ Broadway Baby
(On Worklight's How to Start a Riot, 2012)

Hello!

We're Worklight Theatre and we're developing our third show, Labels, in four venues accross England before premiering it at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015!

Labels

Written by Joe Sellman-Leava
Direction and dramaturgy by Katharina Reinthaller

Labels tells the story of Joe growing up in rural south west England in the 90s, the questions and comments about his dual heritage, where he is REALLY from, and the story behind that long name.

This forms the backdrop for a study into burning contemporary questions: what do we think about immigration? What's our future in Europe? And what can Joe do with his Ed Miliband impression now?

Amid the cacophony of statistics and soundbites surrounding the immigration debate, Labels offers an honest, human story of multicultural Britain.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015
Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker One
12.35pm (60 mins)
5th-31st August (No show on17th)

We're thrilled to be premiering this show at such a great venue at the world's largest arts festival! We feel this story has the potential to connect with all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds, so during the festival we want to be able to reach as many people as possible and to lay the foundations for a national tour in 2016.

Research and Development

Arts Council England have agreed to help us fund our final phase of research and development in June and July. Joe's been working on the play for years, and in earnest since January 2015, so this final push will bring together a clever team of dramaturg and director (Katharina Reinthaller), designer and techincal operator (Charlotte Anderson) and producer (Michael Woodman) - as well as few other clever folks- to help shape it into something brilliant (we hope).

To try and reflect the national context of this work, we're rehearsing in four venues: Stage@Leeds, The Barbican Theatre, Plymouth, The Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter, and Morley College, London. The development phase will include gathering thoughts from as many people as possible on some of the issues the play covers, through a series of workshops and interviews.

Work-in-Progress Showcases

We will then be showcasing the play as a work-in-progress and listening to audience feedback at the following venues:

15th & 16th July: Reading Fringe Festival

17th July: Morley College, London

18th July: Pleasance, London

21st July: Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter

How You Can Help

Worklight are investing heavily to meet the costs of taking the show to Edinburgh and developing it beforehand. As well as support from fundraisers, previews and Arts Council England, we're also aiming to raise £2,000 through crowdfunding.

This is because our current funding for development, and our own money into Edinburgh, only takes us part of the way to meeting the essential costs; we really want to make this show as good as we think it's capable of being.

The costs for development in June and July include paying the wonderful team of people who are helping us out and working on the show with us, transport, accomodation and design costs, to name just a few. For Edinburgh we also have things like registration fees, venue fees, insurance and a marketing budget that makes sure enough people know about the show to come and watch!

Prizes

There are some exciting prizes up for grabs if you donate, including postcards, free tickets and signed merchandise. We're keeping these under wraps for now for an element of surprise...

Thanks for watching and reading. If you want to donate, share this link, tell your friends or see the show (or a combination of those things) we'll be very grateful. If you want to know more then we'd love to hear from you.

Hope to see you soon!

Joe Sellman-Leava & Michael Woodman
(Co-Artistic Directors, Worklight Theatre)