A Film and Theatre project London, United Kingdom
‘A madcap frenzy of physical comedy with a political bite’. Help Silent Faces Theatre get Follow Suit to Brighton Fringe!
Silent Faces Theatre are taking their debut show Follow Suit to Brighton Fringe, but they need your help!
Supported by Stopgap Dance Company and Integrated Fringe, we will be performing at the Sallis Benney Theatre on May 9th, followed by a run at The Warren: Studio 2 from May 27th-30th, but we still need support from you to help us get to Brighton!
The Project
A madcap frenzy of physical comedy with a political bite. In this absurd office, nothing is more important than avoiding the skeletons in the stationery cupboard. Leap on the desks. Experiment with origami. Orchestrate a four-part symphony using spreadsheet data.
It’s business… but not as usual.
Follow Suit is a dark comedy that addresses the universal reality of ‘profit over people.’ Fighting to keep themselves distracted from the horror in their stationary cupboard, four office workers turn their workplace into a bizarre playground of briefcases, statistics and paper aeroplanes.
We are taking Follow Suit to Brighton Fringe Festival this year as recipients of the iF (Integrated Fringe) Bursary, awarded by StopGap Dance Company, The Point and Disability Arts Online. This has covered our entry into the festival programme and offered additional funding, allowing us to perform as part of the #iFNotNowWhen event at the Sallis Benney Theatre.
Following our initial performance at the Sallis Benney Theatre, our run at the Brighton Fringe will continue at The Warren: Studio 2. In order to make this possible, we rely on your support.
In supporting Follow Suit, you will be aiding a company of emerging artists that create work challenging convention and breaking boundaries. As an integrated theatre company of disabled and non-disabled artists, we hope to highlight prejudice and question the ‘norm’ – and, in doing so, prove that we are all able to express ourselves artistically and should have the opportunity to.
The People
Silent Faces make brave, ridiculous, unique and challenging devised theatre. Rooted in physical comedy and playful improvisation, our work seeks to go beyond the limits of words; saying something, without saying anything. Our debut show Follow Suit is an anarchic piece of devised theatre that fuses the world of naive and innocent clowning with a politically charged comment on corporate responsibility.
What do these businesspeople in their big glass buildings actually do, and at whose expense?
Silent Faces formed at Goldsmiths University in 2015. On graduating with one of the highest marks awarded to a final year degree show at the college, Silent Faces were made the inaugural Associate Artists of Goldsmiths Theatre and Performance, and are now being supported in kind by the university.
In addition to being an emerging theatre company, we operate as a integrated company of disabled and non-disabled artists, and are delighted to represent disability onstage with the help of Integrated Fringe, StopGap Dance Company, The Point and Disability Arts Online.
The Plan
Our plan is to combine the support we have already been given, awarded or earned with any support you may be able to give in order to cover our costs for the festival. This includes set, props, costume, travel, accommodation, venue, insurance and publicity. Below is a percentile breakdown of how our funding will be spent.
(Rehearsal Space 47%, #iFNotNowWhen Performance 8%, Brighton Fringe Registration Fee 3%, Set, Props & Costume 2%, Accomodation & Travel 24%, Publicity 6%, Insurance 2%, Venue 8%)
The in kind support from Stopgap Dance Company, The Point, Integrated Fringe, and our association with Goldsmiths University of London has been invaluable to us as an emerging company and we could not have started this journey without it. Alongside this, we have been given opportunities to increase our income by working with theatre companies such at Mind the Gap, facilitating workshops and performing in showcases of the production. Finally, being awarded the iF bursary has made a real difference in what we have been able to achieve, but any support you can offer would go a long way towards us reaching our goal.
We would be grateful for any support that you can offer or if you could share this with anyone that you think may be interested supporting Silent Faces. Please contactsilentfacestheatre@gmail.com for any further information. We’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our project.