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The Boy with the Bee Jar
London, England, United Kingdom
Aim
I’m producing my first play, 'The Boy with the Bee Jar', which was long listed for The Bruntwood Prize. Can you help fund it?
What's it all about?
Hi there and thanks so much for taking the time to look at my crowdfunding page.
I’m fundraising £7,500 to produce my play, ‘The Boy with the Bee Jar’.
It feels very hard to ask for help when things are so challenging for everyone, but if you can manage any kind of donation - large or small - that would be amazing.
What’s the story so far?
I was delighted when my first play, 'The Boy with the Bee Jar', was long listed at the prestigious Bruntwood Prize just before lockdown. Now, a multi-award winning London Fringe venue has offered me a slot this summer with a three-week run starting on the 29th June.
'The Boy with the Bee Jar' is going to be one of the first shows on the London fringe coming out of lockdown.
Because of the uncertainties caused by COVID-19, this has all happened incredibly fast. The Arts Council's resources are currently stretched to capacity with extended turnaround times for processing applications, which means the only way to support 'The Boy with the Bee Jar' is crowdfunding and donations. Please donate if you can.
In order to produce my play, I've formed a theatre company called The Bee Jar with my partner, Zoë Waites.
Our hope is you might be able to contribute and that you would consider sharing this campaign among theatre-loving friends and supporters.
As you can see, we’re offering ‘rewards’ although of course the real reward is knowing you are significantly supporting actors, directors, stage managers and other creatives back into work, as well as helping to create a beautiful piece of theatre. All at a time of bleak deprivation for everyone whose livelihood depends upon a functioning theatre world, and for audience members who love, miss and value what theatre brings to their lives.
What's the money for?
Most importantly, your donations will help us achieve our commitment to paying our actors, stage management and creatives as fair a wage as we can manage. You don't need me to tell you about what a lean year this has been for the artistic community.
Other costs include:
- The set (which includes a practical climbing frame)
- Costs related to COVID-19 (like daily professional cleaning of rehearsal rooms)
- Insurance
- Transport & Storage
- Marketing & Publicity
If we exceed our target figure, we'll be able to employ extra creatives and boost our marketing, press and publicity budget.
The play
THE PREMIERE OF A NEW PLAY ABOUT UNEXPECTED BONDS FORGED IN TIMES OF LONELINESS
On a North London estate, a swarm of bees attracts an environmentally minded schoolboy who feels lost now that his father’s no longer around. In the estate’s playground, he is drawn to an old punk called Euston — the sole witness to the horrific stabbing of a teenager — and together they try to exorcise their feelings of guilt and shame as the lives of the people on the estate fall apart.
“I don’t want to celebrate this. This thing we share. This lacking. This shame. This inability to do the right thing that should come easy as waking.”
“Easy as sleep.”
The play is influenced by my own experiences growing up on a council estate in Glasgow in the 1970s and more recently in London. However, I didn’t want to write about these experiences in a naturalistic way. I've tried to experiment with a sort of stage poetry and a hyper-reality that chimes with my own response to witnessing violence. To living with fear and guilt and shame.
I hope the play evokes something of the inner lives of these characters and at the same time finds a beauty in the most unexpected of places.
So who are we?
John Straiton - Writer/Producer
John's first two plays have been long listed at the Bruntwood Prize and shortlisted at Outside Edge’s Phil Fox Award respectively. As an actor, his theatre credits include: Roberto Zucco, The Tempest, Bartholomew Fair (RSC); The Gentlemen from Olmedo, The Great Pretenders, Madness in Valencia, Hecuba (The Gate). Television includes: 2000 Acres of Sky, Taggart, The Bill and Casualty.
Zoë Waites - Producer
Zoë trained at RADA, where she is an associate artist. As an actor, Zoë's roles include: Juliet, Desdemona and Viola all at the RSC; Rosalind at The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC; Goneril to Jonathan Pryce's Lear at the Almeida and Cassius in an acclaimed Julius Caesar at Sheffield Crucible. She has most recently been seen on television in the Netflix series Cursed.
Philip Wilson - Director
Philip Wilson’s recent directing credits include: Grimm Tales (Shoreditch Town Hall, Oxo Bargehouse), A Fox on the Fairway (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), Beacons (Park Theatre), The Star, The Norman Conquests (Liverpool Playhouse), As You Like It (Storyhouse Chester), Perfect Nonsense, After The Dance (Theatre By The Lake). He is the former Artistic Director of Salisbury Playhouse (2007-2011)
Trevor Fox - Actor
Theatre credits include: The Jungle (Young Vic, Playhouse Theatre, New York, San Fransisco); My Brilliant Friend, Macbeth, Common (NT); People, Places, Things (Headlong, NT); Amedee (Birmingham Rep); The Tempest, Cymbeline (Shakespeare’s Globe). Television: The Moonstone, Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, Joe Maddison’s War, Doctors, The Walk, Daddy’s Girl, Emmerdale, Our Friends in the North. Film: Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason, Gabriel and Me, Billy Elliot.
Maria Cassar - Movement Director
Maria is originally from Malta, and moved to London to study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Maria is a dance practitioner, choreographer and movement director. Maria believes that movement is an instinct. Her ethos is to make movement accessible to all. She works with dancers, actors, intergenerational groups and people with physical/learning disabilities.
Raffaela Pancucci - Sound Designer
Raffaela Pancucci is a freelance theatrical sound designer and composer. Raffaela enjoys designing sound for theatre and live performance, with a specific focus on devised pieces, new writing, and immersive theatre. She brings an innate musicality to her work, with an awareness of rhythm, cadence, and tempo. She enjoys working in a collaborative and interdepartmental way with directors, creatives, and dramaturgs to fully support the storytelling.
Maximilian Licari - Photographer
Researcher of beautiful things. Living life as Mod/Suedehead.
Vinyl collector, nostalgic dancer, music lover and music maker. See Max's work on Instagram @sdentalesphotographer
We'll keep you updated as the team grows.
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our page.
Bee well. Bee safe.
Much love from John, Zoë and all at The Bee Jar x
This project successfully funded on 31st May 2021