New stretch target
stretch fnding will go into our full production costs that will follow on from this rehearsed reading.
Antigona and Me: "A Story that needs to be told"
by ionaandbobby in Oxford
Who are the refugees that come to our country?
How do they change us?
How do we change them?
Help us raise £2500 towards the Rehearsed Reading of the stage adaptation of
'Antigona and Me',
Kate Clanchy’s award winning memoir.
Playwright: Zena Forster
Director: John Retallack
Produced by 44 Theatre Productions
Everybody has a story! Antigona meets Kate, the poet, and together they tell her story:
A dramatic escape over land and sea from the terror of Kosovo. A journey through the shaky terrain of a refugees struggle to build a new life in a new country
What ensues is a friendship that exposes the deep chasms and connections between profoundly different cultures.
Kate and Antigona are two smart and funny women who in each other, meet their match.
In bringing this story to the stage, seven years on, it asks challenging and important questions about what happens when two worlds collide, divided by difference but united by simple humanity. In telling this story we are opening up the much needed shift in discussion about welcoming refugees into our home and lives.
It is a story that could not be more relevant, right now, as we face the biggest refugee crisis of our times.
‘By giving voice to a refugee and telling a story that would otherwise gone unheard, she reminds us both of the solidarity that exists between women, and how far feminism has yet to go’ - the Telegraph said of Clanchy’s Antigona.
‘Clanchy apologetically describes Antigona as her servant, but her book is more than as exercise in middle class guilt. The women develop a most unlikely friendship of equals, touchingly told’ The Independent
Zena Forster’s stage adaptation of ‘Antigona and Me’ retains the wit, warmth and drama that made Clanchy’s memoir both a popular and critical success.
Please help keep what we believe to be an important topical story alive by bringing it to the stage.
Who Are WE:
Zena Forster: Playwright
Zena has collaborated with Kate Clanchy on dramas for both radio 3 and radio 4, most recently collaboration on an adaptation of Margaret Oliphant’s Hester starring Penelope Wilton.
Her other plays include ‘The Fourth Dog’ and its companion piece ‘The Last Dog’ currently in development.
John Retallack
John is tutor in Writing for Performance at Ruskin College, Oxford. He is an associate artist at Bristol Old Vic, and was founder and artistic director of Oxford Stage company, Actors Touring Company and Company of Angels.
He currently runs Oxford Playmaker with Renata Allen.
Jude Thorp: Producer:
Jude’s twenty years’ experience in theatre stage management stand her in good stead for her transition to setting up 44 Theatre Productions and producing her first stage play. 44 Theatre Productions was set up as a vehicle to encourage topical and challenging issues to be developed and produced for theatre.
The Project
Phase 1: Script commission and writing - Target achieved
Phase 2: Public Rehearse Reading – June 2016
Phase 3: Script Development
Phase 4: Stage Production
Whilst most of our development over the past three years has been given in kind, previous seed funding has helped us gain and maintain exclusive stage rights throughout our development stage and allowed 44 Theatre Productions to engage a strong and talented team to drive 'Antigona and Me' forward. .
The rehearsed reading has been chosen to contribute to the very first Offbeat Festival in Oxford this June. This will be our first public outing of Antigona and Me.
Offbeat Festival is a new collaboration between the Oxford Playhouse and the Old Fire Station Arts Centre. www.offbeatoxford.co.uk
Your generous support will go towards paying for the following:
“What happens if I don’t tell this story?
I will join the crowds who walk past Antigona,
There will be no record – no record of this extraordinary exchange”
Thank you for reading - please help us make this fascinating and essential story come to life by donating to our project and coming along on Wednesday 22nd June, at 7pm.
ANTIGONA AND ME: A REHEARSED READING
The Offbeat Festival
The Loft
The Old Fire Station
Oxford.
This project offers rewards in return for your donation. Please select a reward below.