We're still collecting donations
On the 5th August 2024 we'd raised £1,067 with 24 supporters in 42 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
A queer musical comedy extravaganza is coming for ya... but Alexis+team need YOUR help! **COME TO OUR NEXT SHOW! JULY 20th SOHO THEATRE**
by Alexis Sakellaris in London, Greater London, United Kingdom
On the 5th August 2024 we'd raised £1,067 with 24 supporters in 42 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
https://sohotheatre.com/events/alexis-sakellaris-a-stan-is-born-edinburgh-preview/
WAYS TO SUPPORT THE SHOW THAT ARE FREE!!!
Broke girlies, we gotchu :)
HELLO DIVAAASSS!!!
Pride month is in full swing and you know what THAT means... time to support your local queerdos!!! :') My Austrian grandmother used to sigh and say "brotlose Kunst..." or "breadless art..." Well, it isn’t 1956 anymore and now we have crowdfunders so we can get SOOO much bread! We know we're like the 24845th show doing this but WE ARE UNIQUE WE PROMISE *cue Mia Goth screaming I'M A STAAARRR* <3
I have a few questions for you... Do you like GAY sh*t? Or do you want to support people making GAY sh*t? OR do you owe the GAY community reparations for one reason or another?! If any of your answers are "Yes"/"Maybe"/"Well, technically yes, but I'm trying to forget about it", then you're in the right place! Welcome to A STAN IS BORN!, a show that I, Alexis, wrote in my tiny gay bedroom with my tiny little gay hands. I'm a queer international artist who's queer (in case that wasn’t clear) and I wrote this show as big F$*% OFF! to all the boxes and categories that queer people in entertainment are forced into. After years of not seeing my life experience reflected in theater, I decided to just write it myself. Now I'm finally playing my dream role... ME!
A STAN IS BORN! is a musical comedy with 10 original songs about divas and stan culture that is unapologetically queer and damn proud of it. Future hits include “Stand Up For Your Stan”, “A Stan Is Born”, “The Divas All Around Me” and the ICONIC “Lil Gay Diva”! (iykyk…) I play keyboard, SING THE HOUSE DOWN, talk about my life, specifically my family's DRASTIC move from New York City (queer mecca) to rural Germany (queer... desert) when I was 8 years old. Thanks to the internet GODS, I discovered my identity as a STAN, an obsessive fan of pop divas! Céline, Whitney, Mariah, Beyoncé... you name em, they became my singing teachers and BEST FRIENDS and gave me something to hold on to in these quaint but homophobic German surroundings. Through trial and error and some more trial and some more error, I learned how to perform and believe in myself. But then I realized something insane... I'M NOT LIKE THE OTHER BOYS :'( Shocker, I know… How does a boy who loves women SO MUCH somehow end up... gay as F*CK?! This conundrum and so much more is explored in my show, through song and act and a little bit of dance (very minimal, don’t worry).
This is my very first solo show, and it feels a bit insane!! My background is in musical theater, and we don't really get encouraged to write our own songs or plays. Something that I feel very passionate about changing! I also really want to see more comedians who can sing well and write their own songs. My biggest inspirations for this are Bo Burnham, Rachel Bloom, Matt Rogers (who INSANELY I got to tour with last year and became a friend) and my greatest goal is to spread QUEER JOY with this show. I would love for it to reach young queer audiences, so they can feel inspired and validated, just as I would have liked to be! It’s especially relatable to anyone who identifies with the queer experience… but of course, there is something in this show for EVERYBODY. If you like original music and a unique story, WE GOT YOU :)
BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP! It's trickier than ever to produce new theater as independent artists. We are so lucky that we got accepted to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a massive annual theater arts festival that acts as an international trade fair for new work, especially comedy and solo shows. The exposure here is high, and the possibilities are ENDLESS. Successfully developed shows that originated at Fringe include TV shows like Fleabag (Emmy winners), Baby Reindeer (Netflix, potential Emmy nominees, watch this space lol) and Juice (BBC, BAFTA winners) as well as musicals like Six (Tony winners) and Operation Mincemeat (Olivier winners). Because of this, the price point has risen considerably and it costs THOUSANDSSS to produce a show they’re DAHLING. Venue costs, travel, accommodation, props, set, marketing... not to mention compensation for work! This show has become the one thing I didn’t want it to be, but which all shows inevitably become… a HASSLE!
So PLEASE consider donating :) any size and type of contribution matters so much and goes a long way towards reaching our goal of putting the show on. It would be an absolute dream to cover all expenses and be able to pay our creatives on top of that, even just a tiny bit. Everyone on this team truly believes in this show and the potential it has to spread that QUEER JOY throughout the world. We are OUT and PROUD and HERE, MAMAS!!!
MEET THE TEAM
Alexis Sakellaris – writer/performer (any)
This Is Me...Now. Lol. I am such a pop culture STAN, it feels like I’ve been living my life through other people for so long… but here goes! Hi! I'm Alexis. I was born in New York City BUT I'm Italian, Greek and Austrian BUT I grew up in Germany, so that makes me WHAT? GAY! Only I didn’t realize this right away… Oh no, I was so straight, I ended up going to med school for 2 years (so straight, I know) in Salzburg, Austria (so gay, I know) before breaking free and escaping to Vienna, also Austria, to SNATCH up a BA in German Musical Theater at the conservatory. And German theater is great, don’t get me wrong, but by the time I was translating Fleabag into German and transforming it into a queer musical theater character who stripped to songs from Hair in front of a committee of 6 old, straight white men who just did NOT get it… I realized it was time for me to leave. So I gracefully made my exit to LONDONTOWN where I promptly got my MA in Musical Theater, English this time, at Mountview Academy. And I of course definitely totally did that to learn and grow and not at ALL to get a UK visa… lol. Mountview actually is very much the reason this show exists, because when push came to shove and I was forced to create a master’s project in April 2023… A STAN IS BORN! was literally… BORN! So thank you Mountview, Sherrill, Merryn… y’all are real ones :) and slackers CAN amount to something!!!
Jessica Phillippi – director/dramaturg/producer (she/her)
Jesse and I met while working front of house at Soho Theatre and she is the FIRST person to see the show and volunteer her services! As a multilingual American (rare!!!) Jesse has created work across Europe and across the pond. She first snatched up a double BA in Theater and Government at Wesleyan University (Lin-Manuel’s alma mater!) before swooping into the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for an MA in Acting! A surrogate Scot, Jesse founded her very own Glasgow-based production company Scandal Theatre and has been going to the Fringe for over a decade. She has taken 3 of her own plays there as a writer/performer (ILLEGAL, My Sister and The Translator’s Dilemma), so safe to say she is a fringe veteran! Her shows have been on at Underbelly and at the Free Fringe as well as touring to festivals in Glasgow and Germany. STAN is Jesse’s directing debut and her first musical (yay!) and she has been pouring her blood, sweat and tears into it, giving up her living room and free time for some looong rehearsal sessions and the occasional nervous breakdown (LOL).
Mischa Alexander – producer (he/him)
Mischa and I ALSO met working at Soho Theatre (lol) and he was the first person to hit me with the hard reality that Fringe is NOT easy. Even though he sure makes it look easy! Mischa has an MA in Creative Producing from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama as well as a BA in Theatre and Performance Studies from Warwick University. So we can safely say… Smart boi. Very smart boi. Previous credits include producing the Fringe-First-Award-winning Beasts (Why Girls Shouldn’t Fear The Dark), also at Zoo Playground. Mischa has recently been getting his BAG producing the smash hit Blizzard, which just finished its run at Soho Theatre (slay) before transferring to OFF-BROADWAY IN NYC (MASSIVE SLAY) !!! The show has earned rave reviews from critics and is a testament to his taste in choosing shows… hehe… We’re so lucky to have him!!
Madison Cole – assistant director/dramaturg (any)
Madi is VASTLY overqualified to be doing any unpaid work but here we are… GRATEFUL!!! An Irish-American director and creative, Madi went to Yale University, graduating with a dual BA in English and Theatre Studies last year (okay flex!!!) They directed LOADS of insanely complex shows and musicals during their time there, including a full-scale production of A Chorus Line in ONLY 7 DAYS?!?!? Insane. Other credits include directing the sold-out world premiere of Daughters of the Pirate Queen at the National Concert Hall of Ireland and assistant directing Bronco Billy - The Musical at the Charing Cross Theatre in London’s West End. They moved to London last fall and we promptly met at the most random scratch night known to humanity… in Stratford. We instantly hit it off and when Madi volunteered to help out with the show, I said YES PLEASE!!! It means so much to me to share this deeply queer story with someone as deeply queer (complimentary) as Madi.
Zoe Mavrides – assistant producer (she/her)
My fellow Greek sister Zoe is an actor, actor trainer, director and producer and also… a Greek person with zero Greek speaking skills LOL. We have that in common! She trained at Court Theatre Training Company, graduating with a BA in Acting. Following this, she went on to train at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating with an MA in Actor Training and Coaching. She is currently freelancing as an acting teacher and is acting and producing for the Camden Fringe as well as for THIS HERE SHOW in Edinburgh! So random how we got together, I know Zoe through her best friend Jared, who taught me at Mountview. One day, I see her gorgeous face on the program of the SAME project Madi was working on at that scratch night, so I walk over to Madi and say “GURL how do you know Zoe???” and the rest is history!
Cerys McKenna – musical supervisor/musical producer (she/her)
The lovely Cerys and I met studying together at Mountview, where she graduated with an MA in Musical Direction, and she is actually my earliest collaborator! Our first project was developing a pitch for a new musical at school, and together we created the concept for The Song of Achilles – The Musical (which WILL happen one day, mark my words! If SIMS – The Musical doesn't happen first...) Cerys helps me out with the keyboard-playing (is that what you call it?) and is also producing ALL the songs for our show album. She recently made her West End debut as musical director of Standing at the Sky's Edge and is currently working on ANOTHER West End show, Your Lie In April. She is absolutely SMASHING IT MUTHAAA.
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