Today I Killed My Very First Bird

Stories From the Street to the Stage

Please give what you can to help us raise the funds to bring this incredible work to the next stage of its development and the opportunity to reach a global audience.

Whether it's £5 or £5000 all donations count!

Voodoo Monkeys was founded in 2018 by theatre director Lee Hart and visual/spoken word artist Jason Brownlee. They received a seed commission from Theatre Royal Plymouth that year to develop 20 minutes of new material as part of the PlayLAB season of new performance. Using Jason's raw and uncompromising poetry as a starting point 'Today I Killed My Very First Bird' was born. Now an associate company of TRP they are poised to further develop the work into a fully realised production ready for touring in 2022.

Today I Killed My Very First Bird is a semi-autobiographical story set in the gangland culture of SE London exploring themes of violence, childhood trauma, addiction, and redemption. With a cast of 5 actors drawn from diverse backgrounds across the country, trained and untrained, and with lived experience of the play's challenging themes, the story is woven in the space around us through lyrical dialogue, live electronic underscoring, and bold visual storytelling.

The next steps...

Having now developed the writing into a 60 minute performance, in order to realise the project's full potential, we want to further expand  the sound design and compositional elements in the show, creating an immersive score that draws us deeper into the world of the story. Alongside this we'd like to collaborate with a projection designer to develop more of the visual elements in the storytelling, and be able to build physical structures that support this. 

By reaching our target of £4000 we will be able to bring all elements of our production together ahead of premiere performances at Theatre Royal Plymouth, followed by a 4-week run at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022, as well as regional and international touring.

Why Should I Donate?

As the world begins to open up again and and we seek ways to reconnect within our communities, it has never been more important for theatre to reach out to the most isolated members of society, empowering them to find their voice and finding new audiences that most need to hear them. Voodoo Monkeys are grounded in the work of community building through creative practice. By making a donation to this project you are ensuring that not only this story finds its audience, but that through our program of participation, the foundations are laid for the emergence of future artists within the community.

You scratch our back....

As well as the smug satisfaction of knowing you're supporting a fantastic project, we have a whole goodie bag of rewards to exchange for your generous donations, including digital downloads of the original soundtrack, tickets to a private preview performance, and NINE original artworks from the creative explosion that is Jason Brownlee himself.

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Thank you for your support!

Lee & Jason - Voodoo Monkeys