Help Publish “Uhm…”!!
“Uhm…” is an exciting new play about the English language and African culture. It’s already won awards – help us get it published!
We are The Papercut Collective: a group of young theatre practitioners with big talent and big dreams. Our first play, “Uhm…” has already experienced a life way beyond our expectations. And now we want to take it further.
The play tells the story of Coceka, a young woman living in contemporary Cape Town. Born Xhosa but raised English, Coceka (or “CK” as she prefers to be known) has a complicated relationship with her culture, and this is explored in the story of “Uhm…”, where the ghosts of Queen Victoria, Cecil John Rhodes, and Sol Plaatje wage a war over her soul while her boyfriend Tony struggles to understand her problem.
Not that we’re boasting or anything, but the play won the Best Student Writing Award at the 2014 Grahamstown Arts Festival.
Oh, and it totally got nominated for a Fleur du Cap for Best New Director (Koleka Putuma) this year.
It was also listed as one of the Top 10 theatre productions in Cape Town in 2014 by the Sunday Independent.
And Steyn du Toit described the play as “what the future of local theatre looks like”.
So there you go.
In light of the play’s success, we were offered a publishing deal by Robin Malan at Junkets Publishers, a well-respected publisher of South African playscripts. We need R8000 to publish an initial run of 70-100 copies. Some copies will go to funders, some to state libraries, some to bookshops, and some to The Papercut Collective. The leftovers will be donated to school libraries! And if we raise more money, we can print more plays, and donate more copies of “Uhm…” to more school libraries! Yay!
And check out the awesome donation rewards. Every funder gets their name in the published play, and for more generous donations you can purchase a copy of the play for yourself, or for your favourite school (If you choose to make a school donation, you will be contacted after the campaign about your choice of school). You could also get your company’s name or logo on the back cover – next to the beautiful headshots of The Papercut Collective – or even a box of handcrafted “Uhm…” merchandise! While stocks last, of course.
Milestones:
Milestone 1 – R4 000
The Tipping Point
Halfway there!
If we don’t make the rest of the R8000, we’ll finance it personally.
Milestone 2 – R8 000
Publication!
Now we can publish our first run of 70 – 100 copies of “Uhm…”
Milestone 3 – R12 000
A second printing run!
Now we can print more copies of the play, and send it to many more schools. Awesome!
So please donate! And become part of an awesome story:
the future of South African theatre.
Buy Rewards and share the crowdfunding campaign: www.thundafund.com/PublishUhm
Contact:
Facebook
Callum Tilbury: callum.tilbury@alumni.uct.ac.za
Alex McCarthy: alex.mccarthy@uct.ac.za