Help Ithaca Students Bring "Guns In Dragonland" to EdFringe

Fundraising Goals:

Goal 1: $6,000 One Way Tickets to Edinburgh! (COMPLETED)

Goal 2: $12,000 Round Trip Tickets to Edinburgh! (CURRENT GOAL)

Goal 3: $24,000 1/3 of our Housing is covered!

Hello!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read about Guns In Dragonland and our fundraising efforts! This GoFundMe was created to raise money for the cast and creative team of Guns In Dragonland, a new play by Eislinn Gracen, so that we can take it to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, in August 2025.

As a team, we are not only sharing the production costs overseas, but we are also expected to pay for our own accommodation while performing, food costs, travel insurance, airfare, and travel to and from the venue. This has put an incredible financial burden on the cast and creative team, so our first goal is to raise enough money to cover the cost of plane tickets to and from Edinburgh!

So . . .Why Donate?

Guns in Dragonland is a collection of 5 vignettes about young people who create imaginary dragon friends to supplement the people and care they are missing. The story explores the hardship of growing up in a country where the threat of gun violence is inescapable. By doing so, Guns in Dragonland aims to spread awareness about the unhealable trauma that fear, violence, and death have instilled in our country with the misuse of guns.

Eislinn Gracen says, “This show isn’t about gun violence, but it’s about American school culture, and gun violence just happens to be a large part of that.” The play is filled with colorful creativity, awkward existence, deep grief, and most importantly, hope.

Why Do We Care?

According to The Trace, in 2023, 36,357 US citizens were injured by firearms. That is a low-balled estimate, as injuries from gun violence are incredibly difficult to track. In 2023, 6,192 children and teenagers were shot in the US, and among them, more than 1,600 of them died.

The pandemic showed a surge in both homicidal and suicidal gun violence; in 2020, firearms surpassed motor vehicle crashes to become the leading cause of death among children and teenagers for the first time. We make it our responsibility to better understand how emotional/social isolation leads to gun violence and how our youth are still being affected.

Who Are You Supporting?

Every member of our cast and creative team is a student at Ithaca College. This is a group of passionate creatives working incredibly hard on top of our studies to take this project overseas.

The students listed below are making the trip over to Edinburgh, but we have even more students working on the show from the States.

CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION:

Eislinn Gracen (Playwright)

Zoë Bell Williams (Director)

February Schneck (Producer)

Chriss Waterman (Production Stage Manager)

Kathrynn Meuser (Assistant Director)

Ana Bernstein (Associate Stage Manager)

Sydney Hogue (Props/Scenic Designer)

Nico Padilla (Costume Designer)

Ted Heavner (Sound Designer)

Charlie Jurta (Lighting Designer)

Are Stein (Dramaturg)

MJ Jacobs (Dramaturg)

CAST OF ACTORS:

in order of appearance

Eloise Mae as Lilah and Alice

Clark Schutz asToucan and Jaxon

Andrea Chavez as Alana

Larissa Hechmer as Naomi and Casey

Bella Beauxlynn Dandrea as Breeze and Jason

Valerie Wick as Cherry Pancake and Monica

Andrew Levin as Anthony and Drill Announcer

Christian Lawson as Scabbard and Jared

Abigail Monteagudo as Jelly

Isabella Cruz as Nicole

For more information about the show and our other fundraising efforts, follow us on Instagram at @ithaca_lati ! Stay tuned for fundraising activities, local collaborations, and events.

Additionally, we are being produced by LA Theater Initiative, which has a fiscal sponsor through a non-profit organization, Fractured Atlas. This fundraiser is not done in association with LATI or Fractured Atlas, but if you would like to donate to us with the tax benefits of donating to a non-profit, please contact us to be connected to LATI and the proper payment channels.