Help Joanna get to Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals

Friends, I need your help.

My 60-minute solo show with music, A Transcriber's Tale, is Hollywood and Edinburgh-bound, and I am raising money to get it there.

A Transcriber's Tale is about my time coming to NYC in the '90s and working as a transcriber for the mass media through the time of 9/11 and beyond-- BUT FUNNY. It's just me and my guitar, and its themes about secondhand trauma and the need to be discerning about our intake of media (with a delivery as lighthearted and comedic as my funny-lady heart) resonate today more than ever, and its moment is now.

The budget for producing at the Edinburgh Fringe, in particular, is intense but fair and comprehensive. I have top-notch producers who have let me know exactly what I'll need, and for the first time in my creative career, I am crowdsourcing funds.

More Background

I love being in a theater room with you.

I've been working in creating shows and magic in small spaces for my entire career-- from cabarets like Reddy or Not to teaching solo performance workshops at SAG/AFTRA and through my longtime gig hosting and performing at The Happy Hour Salon, comedy clubs and more. I have been working on this particular solo show since 2012, for the last few years with the help of many of you, and especially director Aimee Todoroff. We've done it in NYC and in Washington state in 2023, and this summer we're bringing the show to:

The Hollywood Fringe Festival (Five shows between June 10th and June 29th at the Broadwater):

https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10852?tab=details

AND the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (July 31st through August 26th at the Gilded Balloon Pater Hoos.)

Tickets at Edinburgh Fringe

Edinburgh is the largest theater festival in the world, and a bucket list experience that represents the biggest energetic push I've taken to date in terms of the writer/creator portion of my career (of which I am very proud). I'll be at one of the "big four" producing venues, The Gilded Balloon Pater Hoose, with hundreds of other shows, competing for butts in seats but living one of the best adventures a solo show can have.

Shows you may now that started at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival include: Fleabag; The Shark is Broken; Jerry Springer the Opera; Six (The Musical); Rosencrantz and Gilderstern are Dead; and a zillion more. Faces you know that played the Fringe early in their careers include Alan Rickman, Rachel Weisz, Robin Williams, Emma Thompson, Hannah Gadsby, and a zillion more.

My personal goal is to better position the show (and myself as a self-creating performing artist) into having a long and impactful touring life in America, as well as interacting with what feels like an entire world of brilliant artists and innovators putting stories onto stages around the globe.

My budget includes

Management/Production fee $12,500

Accommodations, Edinburgh $5000

MARKETING (for HFF and EFF)

(Publicity Services, Poster & Flyer Print &Distribution) $ 10,000

STAGE MANAGERS (for HFF) $ 500

INSURANCE (for HFF and EFF) $ 375

FRINGE REGISTRATIONS (for HFF and EFF) $ 750

HFF VENUE $ 1,250

RENTAL DEPOSIT AND MARKETING

(Including Fringe Registration) $ 3,000

TOTAL $ 33,375

This doesn't include transportation and living expenses in Edinburgh or LA. Ticket revenue in both festivals is usually not considered in budgeting, as it tends to be minimal and may help me with my daily food budget. My Edinburgh Fringe venue, for example, has 40 seats, and while I'll be performing almost every day in August, I can expect smaller audiences at the beginning of the month, and later -- well, it's up to the theater gods.

My ask of you - I appreciate my friends, family and fans so very much. NO DONATION IS TOO SMALL (or too large, obviously). This virtual ask is super weird, of course, and again-- it's my very first time doing it. But If you'd ever buy me a cup of coffee in real life and can donate that amount, great. If you could pretend we're going out to dinner, you choose the make-believe price point and donate that, great. If you'd take me to an all-expense paid luxury vacation to Maui, sure, do that bit. Or if you're just reading this and sending good will, GREAT. People make me happy, I find, and that includes anybody who's made it to the near-bottom of this ask.

Once, many years ago, I got an e-mail from Amanda Palmer, lead singer of The Dresden Dolls, who read about The Happy Hour Salon (the new works evening I hosted for years in NY) in Bust Magazine and wanted to encourage me. It was so nice. A little while later, she gave a pretty famous Ted Talk and wrote a book that has inspired and aided many fellow artists.

I'm going to let her inspire me now.

“Asking for help with shame says:

You have the power over me.

Asking with condescension says:

I have the power over you.

But asking for help with gratitude says:

We have the power to help each other.”

― Amanda Palmer, The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help

Thank you. again.

And HOLLYWOOD AND EDINBURGH, get ready to listen.

xo Joanna