We are funding for a 3 week run of Valeriy Pecheykin's A Little Hero, and DoneDid's debut production.
ABOUT THE SHOW
Fourteen year old Vovochka idolises president Putin and seeks to put the world to rights after learning about homosexuality in school. He terrorises his neighbourhood and pledges to do his work in the name of his great leader.
The spotlight is on Russia once again this summer for the World Cup, and spies are being poisoned outside Zizzi. We're quick to throw the propaganda out of the pram, but what is it really like to be gay in Putin's Russia?
A Little Hero was written by Valeriy Pecheykin, a talented young, gay Russian playwright, in January 2014 and published in Russian in the alternative literary magazine, Mitin Journal. Because of a 2013 law banning distribution of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" among minors, the magazine must be sold in a black plastic cover with a note announcing that it contains information unsuitable for persons under 18. For the same reason, the play stands no chance of being staged in Russia in the foreseeable future.
Charlotte came across A Little Hero when her university tutor, Bryan Brown shared it in a lecture in 2015. After a few emails back and forth to Valeriy, as well as translators John and Zhenya; a successful reading at the Drayton Arms paved the way for the play to be given a three week long run in August 2018 at the White Bear theatre.
WHY WE NEED YOUR MONEY
Your donations will fund our propaganda (marketing), design and artistic support, with 10% given to the Russia LGBT Network.
Funding for these types of projects can be difficult at an early stage, and with your help we can mount the first step of what will hopefully be a long journey for the piece.
We're all early career artists, and unfortunately vaulting ambition means a fat purse full of cash that we don't have. Charlotte has cut corners by learning how to use photoshop, but there are some things she can't do, such as programme a lighting board.
The White Bear have been really generous, and we have been given most of our rehearsal space in kind, but we need a little bit more help with the production costs. Here's some numbers:
£700 - Lighting designer fee (ITC RATE) + Equipment hire (This one is especially important. An experienced and knowledgeable lighting designer is crucial and the projectors and extra lighting that we are using must be safe for use within a theatre)
£350 - Set (No spoilerzzz)
£150 - props and costume (We're not performing Equus. The actors need clothes)
£250 - Marketing (posters and flyers and Facebook marketing and stuff)
£350 - Additional rehearsal space (This is for the days when we cannot use the White Bear)
If you feel as though you could help us in another way than through donations, please get in touch.
You can also help by sharing the link to this page.
About the rewards: You'll get tickets as a thank you, and our production assistant Charice Bhardwaj is also a great artist who has offered her skills so that we can show our gratitude through the medium of pen and paper. (You'll get paint if you donate the big bucks).
ABOUT DONEDID
DoneDid is the theatre company that Charlotte made up for this show when everyone kept asking her company was called. It makes marketing easier, and it might have legs. Who knows.