Fringe at the Gryphon

By Jennifer O'Sullivan

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NZ $2,020 pledged


56 people pledged


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This campaign was successful and closed on 09/12/2012 at 4:57 PM.

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About

Fringe At The Gryphon

Project 2012-10-29 06:14:43 +1300

curated

Collab Project with Fringe

The Wellington Fringe Festival is an open-access festival held every summer involving a wide range of shows across all artforms in venues throughout the city.

Ten days. Six shows. One awesome venue.


UPDATE - New reward! All pledgers will go into the draw to win the spectacular art piece 'Adam and Eve and Steve' by Boris '87. Check out the video for more info.

During Fringe Festival 2013, the Gryphon will be home to six fantastic Fringe shows - five from around NZ, and one from across the ditch - improv, comedy, circus, and drama, all in one place! 

This means your pledge towards this project supports not one, not two, BUT SEVEN different practitioners/cooperatives: 

  • My Beautiful Disaster (Christchurch)
  • Secrets by Wellington Improv Troupe (Wellington)
  • Improsaurus (Dunedin) 
  • Spider Dance (Melbourne) 
  • Rageface by Making Friends Collective (Wellington)
  • A Cry Too Far From Heaven by Invers Theatre (Invercargill)
  • and Jennifer O’Sullivan in her first independent venue manager gig! 
To make this venue financially accessible to the various participants, we're running this as a shared-risk project between the venue manager and the shows. But to really make it go off, we need support staff and strong promotion! That’s why your pledge to this campaign will go towards: 

  • A technical manager for the full ten days, offering support and advice to all practitioners 
  • A box office manager to manage all ticket sales and audience 
  • A producer to organise it all 
  • Marketing costs promoting the venue and all the projects taking place.
Get yourself a guaranteed ticket to an opening night performance, your name on the WALL OF AWESOME, or a personal postcard - whatever you choose, your support will help make Fringe at the Gryphon a rollicking success! 

Head on over to Fringe at the Gryphon on Facebook for more info, and check out the updates tab for videos from the shows themselves!

Comments

Updates 7

A special message from Making Friends Collective

02/12/2012 at 11:08 PM

Best use of George Michael in a PledgeMe video?
Best use of topless sweeping?
Best special fx?
YOU DECIDE!

Introducing... A Cry Too Far From Heaven

29/11/2012 at 10:06 PM

And last, but by no means least, the sixth production hailing from Invercargill...


A CRY TOO FAR FROM HEAVEN


A provocative play about the death penalty featuring two of New Zealand's historical figures, Minnie Dean, the "Winton Baby Farmer" and Victor Spencer, World War 1 deserter. As they face their last night on earth, they examine what's brought them to this point.


Close to the action is the Executioner, the man who is to pull the trigger and trap door's lever.


"Invers shines a spotlight on these stories in a plain and balanced manner, and leaves you to ponder their significance. It's well written and confidently acted, and proves to be a thought-provoking 50 minutes." - Malcolm Jack, The Scotsman (Edinburgh Fringe)

"A miniature masterpiece… quite the most perfect piece of theatre." - Southland Times


This performance comes to us by way of Edinburgh, and I'm really excited to be bringing it to Wellington. It's based on both diary entries and original material, and brings a dark part of our national history onto the stage. Definitely not to be missed!


- Jen


***

A Cry Too Far From Heaven

20-23 February @ 9:30pm 

Presented by Invers Theatre


Introducing... Rageface

27/11/2012 at 2:11 AM

From the Making Friends Collective, featuring some of Wellington's hottest young actors and practitioners... 


RAGEFACE


Jason Stegemann is a man of two lives. Offline, he works a dead-end supermarket job to pay for the tiny apartment he shares with Andrew, a grumpy, alcoholic Law student. Online, he is Sherlock, an eloquent and respected poster on the internet forum Nothing is Original, a man whose opinions on anime and classic video games are treated as gospel.


But then he meets Brie, a checkout worker at his supermarket. She's funny, friendly, and hasn't explicitly said she's involved with anyone. Jason falls for her, hard, and turns to the one place he can trust for advice on wooing her - Nothing is Original. But with a mysterious troll plaguing his threads and the arrival of a new poster gaining popularity, Jason's position at the top of the forum food chain is under threat - and that may just have offline consequences.


Written and directed by Adam Goodall (Deadlines), Rageface is an acerbic, blackly comic tale that interrogates how we deal, or don't deal, with the trials and responsibilities of the real world - the fronts we construct, the excuses we make, and what happens when those fronts and excuses get exposed and torn down.


Fans of Young & Hungry will have caught 'Deadlines' at the 2012 festival, a 'complex story.. told at breakneck speed' that really spoke to the younger generation. You're definitely in for a dark treat, whatever your age :)


- Jen


***

Rageface

19-23 February @ 8pm 

Presented by Making Friends Collective

Spider Dance

22/11/2012 at 3:38 AM

Three amazing improvisors are bringing 'it' to the Wellington Fringe...


Direct from Melbourne, Australia...

SPIDER DANCE!


Sharing the stories your Mama was afraid to tell you, and your Auntie Em tried to forget, these funny ladies expertly merge the delightful with the grotesque to celebrate the cheeky side of girl power.


"Beautiful ladies doing ugly things." 


Featuring Australians Anna Renzenbrink, Amy Moule and Merrilee McCoy, plus special local guests.


These are some of my favourite improvisors - they're fun, they're clever, and they're damn good at their job. And they're saucy minxs to boot. What's not to love? 


- Jen


***

Spider Dance

19-23 February @ 6:30pm 

http://spiderdance.blogspot.com.au/


The Green Room

20/11/2012 at 10:10 PM

Here's a show from the impro company with the best reputation that I've never seen...

THE GREEN ROOM

Dunedin's favourite improvisation troupe, Improsaurus, are in Wellington for three nights only. Catch them in The Green Room, as they take a tounge-in-cheek look at theatresports in a long-form improvised comedy. This metatheatrical show is improv like you've never seen it before!

"Like a delicious layer cake" - Patrick Davies, Theatreview

Two teams go head to head in the final of the national theatresports championships. Only one team can win. You make all the calls. Witness the loves and losses of these impassioned improvisers, as the competition and fame go to their heads.

Improsaurus is one of NZ's newest improv companies, and everyone I've met who has seen them has told me that they're AMAZING. Which is why I jumped at the chance to support their first show outside of Dunedin! If you're a lover of improv and metatheatre, this is going to be a real treat. 

- Jen


***

The Green Room

15-17 February @ 9:30pm (book soon on Dash Tickets)

Presented by Improsaurus 

http://www.improsaurus.co.nz

Introducing... Secrets

10/11/2012 at 5:21 AM

Show number two! This time, it's improv, but not as you may know it... 

SECRETS 

Funny, touching and authentic scenes are magically woven together before your eyes, inspired by true secrets anonymously shared by the audience. 

Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT) brings you the New Zealand premiere of the Secrets format. This will be the first time this unique, "serio-comedy" format has been performed in the Southern Hemisphere. Led by world-leading American improviser Bobbi Block, WIT's highly experienced improvisers will create scenes based on anonymously shared secrets from the audience. Don't worry, your secret is safe with us! 

You will have never seen anything like it, and may never again! Each night is as unique as our own secrets. 

***
I was lucky enough to learn from Bobbi during her time visiting us last summer, while she was based at Otago University teaching their summer Improvisation paper. The work is wonderful - honest, vulnerable and sometimes hilarious. If you enjoyed The Long Weekend (The Polaroid Players) or The Wishing Tree (WIT), and prefer your improv with a touch of poignancy, then this is the show for you.

***
Secrets 
14-17 February @ 8pm (book soon on Dash Tickets) 
Presented by Wellington Improvisation Troupe 
Directed by Bobbi Block (Tongue and Groove Theatre, Philadelphia) 

http://www.wit.org.nz 
http://facebook.com/WITonline 
http://www.tongue-groove.com

Introducing... My Beautiful Disaster

05/11/2012 at 11:24 PM

Here's our first show profile for Fringe at the Gryphon - introducing the wonderful people in: 

MY BEAUTIFUL DISASTER

A china-smashing story of fear, tea, disasters and freedom, where theatre meets circus.

Lonely Fillyjonk lives in a big house by the sea. Surrounded by her lovely tea cups and other knick-knacks, she is deeply afraid of the unknown disaster that creeps closer with every tick of the clock... 

This experimental performance is inspired by Tove Jansson’s short story “The Fillyjonk who believed in disasters”. At times funny, at other times frightening, it combines comedy, drama, physical theatre and circus to tell the story of imaginary and real disasters, celebrating emotional liberation and re-birth. 

They've just had a fantastic season in Christchurch and I am so excited to be bringing them to Wellington. If you enjoyed Moving Stationery and Echolalia at Fringe 2012, then this is the show for you!

- Jen

***
My Beautiful Disaster
14-17 February @ 6:30pm (book soon on Dash Tickets)
Written and produced by Nataliya Oryshchuk (Christchurch)
Original music and soundscape by Charlotte Crone
Featuring Nataliya Oryshchuk, Steph Cusick and Cameron Mason

Based on the short story by Tove Jansson "The Fillyjonk Who Believed in Disasters"


    Pledgers 56

    Kate Wilson
    09/12/2012 at 4:57pm
    David Innes
    08/12/2012 at 9:11pm
    Jonathan Kingston-Smith
    08/12/2012 at 5:48pm
    Meredith Dooley
    08/12/2012 at 12:39pm
    Robbie Ellis
    07/12/2012 at 4:53pm
    Geoff Simmons
    07/12/2012 at 4:22pm
    Lyndon Hood
    07/12/2012 at 3:40pm
    Dale K Burrell
    07/12/2012 at 3:19pm
    Simon McArthur
    07/12/2012 at 2:21pm
    Penny Ashton
    07/12/2012 at 11:47am
    Kate Arrowsmith
    07/12/2012 at 11:29am
    Andrea Lee
    07/12/2012 at 10:59am
    Mary Little
    07/12/2012 at 10:34am
    sandra irvine
    06/12/2012 at 5:24pm
    Christopher Thomas
    05/12/2012 at 9:03pm
    Jak V
    05/12/2012 at 4:00pm
    Kendra Manning
    05/12/2012 at 1:47pm
    Anna Renzenbrink
    05/12/2012 at 12:50pm
    Emma Giesen
    05/12/2012 at 9:17am
    Jason Geary
    04/12/2012 at 1:27pm
    Karl
    04/12/2012 at 12:08pm
    Ben Moore
    03/12/2012 at 11:52pm
    Lee Dowsett
    03/12/2012 at 9:40pm
    Susannah Donovan
    03/12/2012 at 6:40pm
    Nataliya Oryshchuk
    03/12/2012 at 12:11pm
    Ruth Crawford
    30/11/2012 at 9:04am
    Jak V
    29/11/2012 at 3:45pm
    Bobbi Block
    29/11/2012 at 9:39am
    TJ McDonald
    28/11/2012 at 1:27pm
    Rebecca Lockhart
    27/11/2012 at 3:57pm

    Followers 1

    Followers of Fringe at the Gryphon

    Fringe At The Gryphon

    Project 2012-10-29 06:14:43 +1300

    curated

    Collab Project with Fringe

    The Wellington Fringe Festival is an open-access festival held every summer involving a wide range of shows across all artforms in venues throughout the city.

    Ten days. Six shows. One awesome venue.


    UPDATE - New reward! All pledgers will go into the draw to win the spectacular art piece 'Adam and Eve and Steve' by Boris '87. Check out the video for more info.

    During Fringe Festival 2013, the Gryphon will be home to six fantastic Fringe shows - five from around NZ, and one from across the ditch - improv, comedy, circus, and drama, all in one place! 

    This means your pledge towards this project supports not one, not two, BUT SEVEN different practitioners/cooperatives: 

    • My Beautiful Disaster (Christchurch)
    • Secrets by Wellington Improv Troupe (Wellington)
    • Improsaurus (Dunedin) 
    • Spider Dance (Melbourne) 
    • Rageface by Making Friends Collective (Wellington)
    • A Cry Too Far From Heaven by Invers Theatre (Invercargill)
    • and Jennifer O’Sullivan in her first independent venue manager gig! 
    To make this venue financially accessible to the various participants, we're running this as a shared-risk project between the venue manager and the shows. But to really make it go off, we need support staff and strong promotion! That’s why your pledge to this campaign will go towards: 

    • A technical manager for the full ten days, offering support and advice to all practitioners 
    • A box office manager to manage all ticket sales and audience 
    • A producer to organise it all 
    • Marketing costs promoting the venue and all the projects taking place.
    Get yourself a guaranteed ticket to an opening night performance, your name on the WALL OF AWESOME, or a personal postcard - whatever you choose, your support will help make Fringe at the Gryphon a rollicking success! 

    Head on over to Fringe at the Gryphon on Facebook for more info, and check out the updates tab for videos from the shows themselves!

    Comments

    A special message from Making Friends Collective

    02/12/2012 at 11:08 PM

    Best use of George Michael in a PledgeMe video?
    Best use of topless sweeping?
    Best special fx?
    YOU DECIDE!

    Introducing... A Cry Too Far From Heaven

    29/11/2012 at 10:06 PM

    And last, but by no means least, the sixth production hailing from Invercargill...


    A CRY TOO FAR FROM HEAVEN


    A provocative play about the death penalty featuring two of New Zealand's historical figures, Minnie Dean, the "Winton Baby Farmer" and Victor Spencer, World War 1 deserter. As they face their last night on earth, they examine what's brought them to this point.


    Close to the action is the Executioner, the man who is to pull the trigger and trap door's lever.


    "Invers shines a spotlight on these stories in a plain and balanced manner, and leaves you to ponder their significance. It's well written and confidently acted, and proves to be a thought-provoking 50 minutes." - Malcolm Jack, The Scotsman (Edinburgh Fringe)

    "A miniature masterpiece… quite the most perfect piece of theatre." - Southland Times


    This performance comes to us by way of Edinburgh, and I'm really excited to be bringing it to Wellington. It's based on both diary entries and original material, and brings a dark part of our national history onto the stage. Definitely not to be missed!


    - Jen


    ***

    A Cry Too Far From Heaven

    20-23 February @ 9:30pm 

    Presented by Invers Theatre


    Introducing... Rageface

    27/11/2012 at 2:11 AM

    From the Making Friends Collective, featuring some of Wellington's hottest young actors and practitioners... 


    RAGEFACE


    Jason Stegemann is a man of two lives. Offline, he works a dead-end supermarket job to pay for the tiny apartment he shares with Andrew, a grumpy, alcoholic Law student. Online, he is Sherlock, an eloquent and respected poster on the internet forum Nothing is Original, a man whose opinions on anime and classic video games are treated as gospel.


    But then he meets Brie, a checkout worker at his supermarket. She's funny, friendly, and hasn't explicitly said she's involved with anyone. Jason falls for her, hard, and turns to the one place he can trust for advice on wooing her - Nothing is Original. But with a mysterious troll plaguing his threads and the arrival of a new poster gaining popularity, Jason's position at the top of the forum food chain is under threat - and that may just have offline consequences.


    Written and directed by Adam Goodall (Deadlines), Rageface is an acerbic, blackly comic tale that interrogates how we deal, or don't deal, with the trials and responsibilities of the real world - the fronts we construct, the excuses we make, and what happens when those fronts and excuses get exposed and torn down.


    Fans of Young & Hungry will have caught 'Deadlines' at the 2012 festival, a 'complex story.. told at breakneck speed' that really spoke to the younger generation. You're definitely in for a dark treat, whatever your age :)


    - Jen


    ***

    Rageface

    19-23 February @ 8pm 

    Presented by Making Friends Collective

    Spider Dance

    22/11/2012 at 3:38 AM

    Three amazing improvisors are bringing 'it' to the Wellington Fringe...


    Direct from Melbourne, Australia...

    SPIDER DANCE!


    Sharing the stories your Mama was afraid to tell you, and your Auntie Em tried to forget, these funny ladies expertly merge the delightful with the grotesque to celebrate the cheeky side of girl power.


    "Beautiful ladies doing ugly things." 


    Featuring Australians Anna Renzenbrink, Amy Moule and Merrilee McCoy, plus special local guests.


    These are some of my favourite improvisors - they're fun, they're clever, and they're damn good at their job. And they're saucy minxs to boot. What's not to love? 


    - Jen


    ***

    Spider Dance

    19-23 February @ 6:30pm 

    http://spiderdance.blogspot.com.au/


    The Green Room

    20/11/2012 at 10:10 PM

    Here's a show from the impro company with the best reputation that I've never seen...

    THE GREEN ROOM

    Dunedin's favourite improvisation troupe, Improsaurus, are in Wellington for three nights only. Catch them in The Green Room, as they take a tounge-in-cheek look at theatresports in a long-form improvised comedy. This metatheatrical show is improv like you've never seen it before!

    "Like a delicious layer cake" - Patrick Davies, Theatreview

    Two teams go head to head in the final of the national theatresports championships. Only one team can win. You make all the calls. Witness the loves and losses of these impassioned improvisers, as the competition and fame go to their heads.

    Improsaurus is one of NZ's newest improv companies, and everyone I've met who has seen them has told me that they're AMAZING. Which is why I jumped at the chance to support their first show outside of Dunedin! If you're a lover of improv and metatheatre, this is going to be a real treat. 

    - Jen


    ***

    The Green Room

    15-17 February @ 9:30pm (book soon on Dash Tickets)

    Presented by Improsaurus 

    http://www.improsaurus.co.nz

    Introducing... Secrets

    10/11/2012 at 5:21 AM

    Show number two! This time, it's improv, but not as you may know it... 

    SECRETS 

    Funny, touching and authentic scenes are magically woven together before your eyes, inspired by true secrets anonymously shared by the audience. 

    Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT) brings you the New Zealand premiere of the Secrets format. This will be the first time this unique, "serio-comedy" format has been performed in the Southern Hemisphere. Led by world-leading American improviser Bobbi Block, WIT's highly experienced improvisers will create scenes based on anonymously shared secrets from the audience. Don't worry, your secret is safe with us! 

    You will have never seen anything like it, and may never again! Each night is as unique as our own secrets. 

    ***
    I was lucky enough to learn from Bobbi during her time visiting us last summer, while she was based at Otago University teaching their summer Improvisation paper. The work is wonderful - honest, vulnerable and sometimes hilarious. If you enjoyed The Long Weekend (The Polaroid Players) or The Wishing Tree (WIT), and prefer your improv with a touch of poignancy, then this is the show for you.

    ***
    Secrets 
    14-17 February @ 8pm (book soon on Dash Tickets) 
    Presented by Wellington Improvisation Troupe 
    Directed by Bobbi Block (Tongue and Groove Theatre, Philadelphia) 

    http://www.wit.org.nz 
    http://facebook.com/WITonline 
    http://www.tongue-groove.com

    Introducing... My Beautiful Disaster

    05/11/2012 at 11:24 PM

    Here's our first show profile for Fringe at the Gryphon - introducing the wonderful people in: 

    MY BEAUTIFUL DISASTER

    A china-smashing story of fear, tea, disasters and freedom, where theatre meets circus.

    Lonely Fillyjonk lives in a big house by the sea. Surrounded by her lovely tea cups and other knick-knacks, she is deeply afraid of the unknown disaster that creeps closer with every tick of the clock... 

    This experimental performance is inspired by Tove Jansson’s short story “The Fillyjonk who believed in disasters”. At times funny, at other times frightening, it combines comedy, drama, physical theatre and circus to tell the story of imaginary and real disasters, celebrating emotional liberation and re-birth. 

    They've just had a fantastic season in Christchurch and I am so excited to be bringing them to Wellington. If you enjoyed Moving Stationery and Echolalia at Fringe 2012, then this is the show for you!

    - Jen

    ***
    My Beautiful Disaster
    14-17 February @ 6:30pm (book soon on Dash Tickets)
    Written and produced by Nataliya Oryshchuk (Christchurch)
    Original music and soundscape by Charlotte Crone
    Featuring Nataliya Oryshchuk, Steph Cusick and Cameron Mason

    Based on the short story by Tove Jansson "The Fillyjonk Who Believed in Disasters"


      Kate Wilson
      09/12/2012 at 4:57pm
      David Innes
      08/12/2012 at 9:11pm
      Jonathan Kingston-Smith
      08/12/2012 at 5:48pm
      Meredith Dooley
      08/12/2012 at 12:39pm
      Robbie Ellis
      07/12/2012 at 4:53pm
      Geoff Simmons
      07/12/2012 at 4:22pm
      Lyndon Hood
      07/12/2012 at 3:40pm
      Dale K Burrell
      07/12/2012 at 3:19pm
      Simon McArthur
      07/12/2012 at 2:21pm
      Penny Ashton
      07/12/2012 at 11:47am
      Kate Arrowsmith
      07/12/2012 at 11:29am
      Andrea Lee
      07/12/2012 at 10:59am
      Mary Little
      07/12/2012 at 10:34am
      sandra irvine
      06/12/2012 at 5:24pm
      Christopher Thomas
      05/12/2012 at 9:03pm
      Jak V
      05/12/2012 at 4:00pm
      Kendra Manning
      05/12/2012 at 1:47pm
      Anna Renzenbrink
      05/12/2012 at 12:50pm
      Emma Giesen
      05/12/2012 at 9:17am
      Jason Geary
      04/12/2012 at 1:27pm
      Karl
      04/12/2012 at 12:08pm
      Ben Moore
      03/12/2012 at 11:52pm
      Lee Dowsett
      03/12/2012 at 9:40pm
      Susannah Donovan
      03/12/2012 at 6:40pm
      Nataliya Oryshchuk
      03/12/2012 at 12:11pm
      Ruth Crawford
      30/11/2012 at 9:04am
      Jak V
      29/11/2012 at 3:45pm
      Bobbi Block
      29/11/2012 at 9:39am
      TJ McDonald
      28/11/2012 at 1:27pm
      Rebecca Lockhart
      27/11/2012 at 3:57pm

      Followers of Fringe at the Gryphon

      This campaign was successful and got its funding on 09/12/2012 at 4:57 PM.