About Wolves Theatre Company are fundraising to take their debut production ‘Someone Found’ to the Pleasance Theatre, Islington in November.
About the Company
About Wolves Theatre Company was founded by Ami Sayers, Alex Reynolds and Sadie Clark based on a desire to tell the stories of women throughout history and the present who achieved or experienced amazing, fascinating things and deserve to have their tales told.
We trained together with Fourth Monkey Theatre Company where we developed a language for devising work collaboratively. We loved working together and all have similar ideas about the kind of theatre we want to create so in April this year formed About Wolves.
Between us we have experience in writing, directing, performing and producing. You can read more about us and our experience here or at the bottom of this page.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
About the Play
“It was painfully apparent from the earliest days that the real tragedy in her life was not her first captivity but her second.” – Empire of the Summer Moon, S. C. Gwynne
Cynthia Ann Parker and her daughter, Topʉsana (Prairie Flower), in 1861
‘Someone Found’ will be our debut production as a company. It dramatises the true story of Cynthia Ann Parker, an American of European descent who was kidnapped by a Comanche War band in 1836. She lived with the Comanches for 25 years, refusing all attempts to ransom her back, before being forcibly recaptured and returned to the developing ‘civilisation’ that was Texas.
Our play focuses on the time following her recapture, or her ‘second captivity’. Cynthia Ann had seen her husband killed by the men who ‘rescued’ her and, believing her two sons to be dead also, was forced back into a way of life that had become alien to her, exposed as if a kind of freak show and treated as though she could not possibly know what she wanted all while in profound mourning. As well as being a deeply moving and important human story, what happened to Cynthia made us think about the question of where our cultural identity comes from, why so often we fear what is ‘other’ and what freedom really means. We all felt it was crucial that Cynthia’s story be told.
Through telling her story we also hope to encourage people to take an interest in a past and history they might otherwise know very little about.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Where and When
We have been programmed to preview this work for three nights in November at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington and will use this as an opportunity to invite industry and creatives who can provide feedback on the work, with a view to securing a full length run of the show in 2017. Several theatres have already expressed an interest in us as a company so this preview will be an important chance for them to see our work.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why we need your help
As an emerging company we are limited in our ability to source funding from trusts and foundations, so the money we raise here will be vital to providing us with a realistic budget for this work, which would otherwise not be within our financial capacity.
Funding will help us create the best work possible by giving us a budget for set, props and historically accurate costumes. It will also allow us to secure a supportive creative team – good sound and lighting design will be so key to creating the atmosphere of the Texan frontier, an accent coach will be integral to the authenticity of our performance and artistic mentorship will help to ensure the longevity of the show and aid our development as a Company for the future. We do not wish to perpetuate the culture of not paying creatives for their work so a significant portion of the funds will go towards paying our creative team.
We also want to employ a strong marketing strategy for this preview. Getting our work seen and reviewed will enhance our credibility as a company, as well as help us to expand our audience base. We want to share this important story with as many people as possible, by ensuring we are successful in these preview dates we can secure a full length run to bring Cynthia’s story to an even wider audience. Money raised will be used to pay for crucial things such as the poster and flyer design and printing costs, filming a trailer, a photographer to document our work and paying marketing fees.
.
In short, we strongly believe this story deserves to be told and we need your help to tell it!
.
If you want to help us financially we have some exclusive rewards available and every donation you make will help us to cover the costs of making this show happen, launching About Wolves Theatre Company.
Donations are hugely appreciated but there are other ways you can help: spread the word to friends and family, tweet the link to this campaign with the hashtag #SomeoneFound or get in touch at aboutwolvestheatre@gmail.com if you have any helpful suggestions.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Our Budget:
The bare minimum we need to make this show happen to a high creative standard, ensuring its future for 2017, is £2,950. We expect to raise a modest income of £600 from our preview ticket sales (based on 60% turnout and the short performance run) and are therefore fundraising to cover the remaining £2,350.
We are happy to share just some of the costs involved to put on a Fringe show:
We think it is important to say that none of the funds raised here will go towards paying ourselves for this project. It is a story we feel passionate about telling and all money raised through this crowdfunder will go towards the costs of making that happen. If you are exceptionally keen to invest in our production please get in touch with us ataboutwolvestheatre@gmail.com and we can talk you through our project and budget in more detail.
We have of course discussed what to prioritise if we are under budget and are lucky enough to have professionals in the industry mentoring us on this production, ensuring the project is professionally executed to a high artistic standard.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Company Biogs
AMI SAYERS
Ami is an actress, writer and director. She trained at Drama Studio London and with Fourth Monkey Theatre Company. She is now a creative associate for Fourth Monkey and is currently writing and directing Sodom for their forthcoming Edinburgh Fringe season. Other writing and directing credits include Love and Be Silent (rehearsed reading at the Etcetera Theatre London) andLittle Red Cap (writer and assistant director, Edinburgh Fringe 2015). Her professional acting credits include Elephant Man (national tour), Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (Jermyn Street Theatre), Miranda inThe Tempest and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Middle Temple Hall) and Jon Fosse’sVisits (Theatre Delicatessen). She has worked with director Simon Usher in rehearsed readings at both the Royal Court Theatre and the Norwegian Embassy.
ALEX REYNOLDS
Alex’s recent theatre work includes appearances as Faustus in Doctor Faustus ( The Marlowe Theatre), Helen in Grit (Royal Court), Zenocrate in Tamberlaine (Tristan Bates) Nina in Special Occasions (Women Redressed, Arcola Theatre), Blue in the OffWest End Nominated In /Out A Feeling (The Hope) and Cookie in Necessity (Broken Silence Theatre). Her short play ‘Half Baked’, performed at the Theatre 503 in June, marked her writing debut.
SADIE CLARK
After completing a degree in Natural Science at the University of East Anglia Sadie decided a career in acting would be far more stable and went on to train in rep with Fourth Monkey Theatre Company. Her professional acting credits include Olivia in The Last Crusade (Tristan Bates Theatre), Cara in The Appointment (Women Redressed, Above the Arts Theatre), Dorsia inThe Ice Man(Jacksons Lane Theatre) and The Queen of Hearts in the sell out run of Alice(Edinburgh Fringe 2014). Sadie also has experience producing (Plunge Theatre’s London run ofPrivate View), and spent ten weeks last summer as a resident artist at Theatre Delicatessen learning the practicalities of setting up and running a theatre company.