Touch by FLOOD Theatre + workshop programme

Aim

To raise funds so that we can pay our creative team a fair wage, and facilitate community workshops combating loneliness through creativity.

Hello kind readers,

Thank you for clicking onto our (2nd) crowd funder page for our beautiful play, 'Touch'!

Unfortunately we have been given no other option but to re-launch our fundraising page for 'Touch'. The project has yet again been unsuccessful in acquiring Arts Council Funding. This is the third time the project has been declined. We are devastated and in a truly terrible financial predicament. For some context, we couldn't proceed with the staging of the work in June as our brilliant cast were hit with COVID. This put a huge strain on the company financially and emotionally as we are having to remount the work in January. To illustrate, we are having to pay all our creatives again, finance rehearsal costs, repurchase materials needed to facilitate the process and work for free once more. This project is something we have been pouring our time and love into for the past 2 years. There has never been a more important time to stage a project about hope and connection in the face of loneliness. Touch is a verbatim led play that was created following over 30 hours of interviews with people in Liverpool on what it is to be lonely, and the importance of connection. 

This project was created because we believe in the kindness of others, the meaning of connection and friendship, the power of coming together to share stories that unite us. We created this project because we believe that we all need something hopeful right now, something that will bring us together. We refuse to let financial barriers stand in the way of making work that has the power to change the world, but there's only so much we can do without any support. We want to make meaningful art that offers an insight into the lives of others, we want to make theatrical experiences that alter your thinking, connect us, inspire us, unite us. We need your help.

We now need to rely on the kindness of others in asking for anything you can spare to help us create this important work. We are committed to making this piece of theatre for the kind individuals who helped build it, the people who shared their vulnerable stories with us. 

We believe it is important to be transparent with how we intend to use any money that is crowdfunded from our donations. With just a small donation from you, we promise to use the money donated as follows:

• We currently have just enough funding to pay 4 actors 1 director and 1 writer a gestural fee for their work on the project. Becky & Jess (Co-Founders, Writer and Director) have been working on this project for over a year with very little financial support. We would really, really like to increase this fee for each member of the team so that we can pay each member a fair wage in line with Equity Minimum for the days worked. To illustrate, the Equity Minimum for one Actor over two weeks of work is £988. 
• We also intend to run a series of free community facing workshops that look to combat loneliness through creativity and connection in conjunction with local local community groups that work directly with those isolated in our society. We currently have no fee for FLOOD to facilitate these workshops, purchase materials, and extend the workshop programme to reach further audiences.
• We have a very small budget for staging this play, and where possible would like to put some money towards set, costume and props so that we can best present our play to an audience of potential future programmers and make a positive impression as an emerging theatre company- which will hopefully lead to future development and support of the work we do.

For those of you who do not know us, FLOOD is a Liverpool based emerging theatre company comprising of Jessica Meade and Becky Downing. As a company, we are committed to making socially conscious work that directly collaborates with communities and creatives around us to make authentic and responsive theatre. All of our work is made in a participatory fashion, be this through workshops, devising, interviews or in partnership with new artists - we make work that is innovative and collective. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. We hope one day that we can extend the same kindness you have in supporting emerging artists of the future. 

Please consider donating to this project if you are able - even pennies are much appreciated! If you would like to support this project and are unable to donate financially, please feel free to share our crowd funder with friends, family and anyone else who you think might be able to help support our work.

We wanted to say a huge thank you to anyone who has supported us so far. 

With so much love and ongoing gratitude, 

Becky & Jess xx

This project successfully funded on 10th February 2023