Tit for Tat's Three Cities news update: August 2012
The time is nigh! The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has started and it is nearly time for Tit for Tat Theatre to head over! Boy is it exciting! Read on for more updates!
Rehoisal!
The cast are now in full-time rehearsal and working hard to bring you a great performance! We would like to thank UCD Dramsoc for the use of rehearsal space, as well as the lovely Brendan Kilty for his generous offering of the James Joyce House over the bank holiday weekend while UCD is closed.
It is certainly amazing to be rehearsing in the very house that James Joyce set his work, The Dead and where he himself spent a lot of time as a youngster staying with his aunts. The house is steeped in history which you can feel as soon as you walk through the door. It is an honour to now become a part of this legacy and make friends with resident ghost, Mr Smith.
The first phase of our Edinburgh journey will really kick into gear when we do our previews at The Exchange this week. There will be four previews:
Thursday August 9th: 2pm matinee, 8pm evening show. [Please bear in mind this time has changed - it was previously 7pm - so make a note in your diaries!]
Friday August 10th: 2pm matinee, 9.30pm late night show.
The
show will last approximately an hour. Please turn up in advance of the
starting time to guarantee a ticket and a good seat! Tickets will be priced at 10 euros, with 8
euro concessions for students.
The performances will be held at the Exchange, Upper Exchange
Street, Temple Bar. (We will just flag now that the Exchange is not a
purpose-built theatre, and as such the set and lighting is very basic
for these previews, as the set for our Edinburgh run is already on its
way to Scotland, so please bear with us!!!)
We look forward to welcoming you to the show and we hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoy performing it!
Daddy Carroll has been well on the case back over in Surrey building the set for the Edinburgh stint of Three Cities. The set has been built to completely disassmble in a matter of minutes ready for the team's very quick get ins and outs at the Fringe.
Check it out!
Tim with Elaine's Cafe Exterior!
Tim with Ashlee's bar/smoking area
Flyers and Posters
Flyers and posters have now gone to print, and we would like to thank Ste Murray for the stunning final designs!
And that's all the news for now folks! We look forward to seeing you at the show and keep checking in for our progress at the Fringe!
And remember, life is gonna be a lot easier if you Stop Doing Stupid Sh*t!
We would like to extend our thanks to everybody who helped us to reach our target with the Fundit campaign.
We are delighted to not only have reached our target but superceeded it because of those generous few who gave simply because they knew how much this meant to us, even when the target had been met.
Everybody who spread the word, showed their support and pledged has made a huge huge difference, and has been fundamental in getting this show to the Edinburgh Fringe, where it deserves to be seen.
We will be in touch soon about posters and incentives for those who pledged but until then please again accept our warmest thanks.
Our Generous Funders:
Gordon Delap
Sean Egan
At Large Theatre Company
Eoin Browne
Matthew Carroll
Barry Browne
Perdita Stott
Stephen Murray
Siobhan Deacy
Vicki Ng
Vincent Carroll
Silvia Napoleoni
Lizzie Conroy
Nuala Murphy
Sarah Finlay
Helen Browne
Gainne Boyle
Audrey Murphy
Amanda Coakley
Conn Redmond
Naomi Lee
Matthew Deery
Caitriona Daly
Aisling Ormonde
Katie Ann McDonough
Jackie Murphy
Mark O'Brien
Elaine Clarke
Gordon Rose
Cathal Moroney
Naomi O'Connell
Pagan McGrath
Mark McLoughlin
Mary and Mick Mongey
Mary Reynolds
Emma Brown
Paddy Carroll
Counter Productions
Justine Redmond
Peter Carney
Martin Poile
Denis Kilty
Grace O'Reilly
Eoin Kilkenny
THANKS AGAIN! YOU HAVE BROUGHT SMILES TO OUR FACES!
Ste Murray has been working with Tit for Tat Theatre over the past months in order to create an image for the show which captures its essence as well as the eye. Tit for Tat Theatre would like to extend its gratitude to Stephen for all his help. The strong, attractive and imaginative images that Stephen has come up with for Three Cities will certainly be fundamental in the show's publicity campaign and success. Stephen is a delight to work with and always goes above and beyond the call of duty to provide photographs and designs which stand out from the crowd.
About Ste Murray
Ste Murray is a Photographer and
Graphic Designer with a Degree in Architecture from UCD. He began as Visual Designer for
UCD Drama Society in 2007 to promote their two weekly shows and events during
the year. He works with theatre companies to give their shows a
strong visual identity that goes hand in hand with the overall vision of the
production.
Ste has been fundamental in the design and marketing of the show, producing sleek and professional images, as you can see above with our poster design.
Headshots by Ste Murray
Ste was kind enough to take headshots of the company to use online and in Edinburgh for promotion and to increase the show's profile.
Elise Bennan
Zoe Reynolds
Lisa Carroll
Tit for Tat Theatre - the cast of Three Cities
Three Cities
Ste also brought a twist to our recent photoshoot, experimenting with projections and the slow shutter on his camera to produce images which bring the show's poster to life.
Ste projected each character's city scape onto a white wall and took a series of photos to give the effect of movement - creating a sense of the life of the three cities which the play is based around. Left, is character, Ashlee in New York - you can just see the Statue of Libery projected over her. Centre, is Trina, a Dublin native, and right, is Elaine, from London, standing amid the London Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral and Big Ben.
Dancer, Ashlee, in NYC
Disenchanted mother and blogger, Trina in Dublin
Eternally frustrated mother-to-be, Elaine, in London
We love these images and hope you like them too! We'd also like to thank Ste again for all he has done!
We only have a week left on our Fundit campaign so it's all very exciting! For those of you still thinking of pledging, please do what you can to help us reach that mark! The way Fundit works is that if you don't meet your target amount then you lose all the pledges up until that number - even if you're only a Euro short of the mark! So please help if you have a moment!
We would also like to extend our gratitude to the following people who have made pledges so far. . .
(in no particular order)
Peter Carney
Mary Reynolds
Denis Kilty
AtLargeTheatreCompany
Emma Brown
Grace O'Reilly
Amanda Coakley
Eoin Kilkenny
Counter Productions
Naomi O'Connell
Sarah Finlay
Siobhan Deacy
Mark McLoughlin
Justine Redmond
Perdita Stott
Naomi Lee
Aisling Ormonde
Paddy Carroll
Mary and Mick Mongey
Lizzie Conroy
Pagan McGrath
Mark O'Brien
Katie Ann McDonough
Caitriona Daly
Helen Browne
Matthew Deery
Silvia Napoleoni
Cathal Moroney
Grainne Boyle
Conn Redmond
Nuala Murphy
Vincent Carroll
Thank you all so much for your support, you have made a huge difference in our journey to the Fringe and we will also be thanking you in our printed programmes at our venue in Edinburgh, Sweet Venues, as well as the previews in Dublin in August.
Please if you still want to pledge follow the link below:
Things are certainly full steam ahead here, with plenty to organise before we even think about heading to Edinburgh! Between fundraising, press, the script and various other exciting opportunities, there isn't a quiet moment.
Official Edinburgh Fringe Festival Programme Launch
May 31st saw the launch of the Fringe programme and it we unbelievably exciting finally seeing our listing in print! The image really stands out from the others thanks to Ste's design.
The show's 40 word blurb reads:
“Stop doing stupid sh*t!” A potential Nobel peace prize winning formula
for solving every problem imaginable. Three women. Three
Cities. Three stories. Dare to laugh at this touching, outrageous and topical
new production.
UCD Dramsoc's official support of Three Cities
If it weren’t for Dramsoc giving emerging playwrights
opportunities to test their work out on stage, Three Cities would not have been set on the road to Edinburgh as it
is today. When I (Lisa) started writing Three
Cities, I was always doing it with Dramsoc’s lovely little black box in
mind. I visualised what it would look like in the space, tailored it to LG1’s
dimensions and atmosphere. Later drafts of Three
Cities were done to the deadlines of slot applications and rehearsal
periods, which is to say that without having somewhere like Dramsoc to try out
the work on its feet the play may never have been developed to the stage it is at
now.
Moreover, it is thanks to the 5 day stint in Dramsoc – what I
think of as a ‘workshop run’ of the play - that Three Cities is embarked on the road to Edinburgh. The run
reassured me that what was originally just an idea in my head or a laugh in rehearsals was actually
something which audiences can follow, relate to and receive with laughter and praise.
Thanks to this testing period the play has now been further developed and
polished based on the audience’s reception and discussion with
various professors about how to make it as good as it possibly can be.
It was following this airing of the show and the
encouragement of professors at UCD that we decided to take the play up a level
by taking it to a more public forum. The Edinburgh
Fringe festival is the perfect place for this. I have not only gone every year
for the last four as a punter, but upon leaving school at 18 I was a part of a
group which took a devised play up. That is to say that I have been an audience
member and a performer at the Fringe – I know what people want to see but I
know how it all works at the same time.
More recently the committee of the 86th session have
shown a tremendous amount of support for the show. The committee has very kindly offered some financial
support for the show. Such an act of generosity goes to remind us again of the great and varied work
that the society does to support and push its members, from nurturing them
during their student days to creating a positive foundation for their careers as
they develop and grow after graduation.
All this goes to say that we would like to show our
gratitude to the society for its integral role in the success of Three Cities. We look back on happy
beginnings and may long the fantastic relationship we have with the society last.
Frank McGuinness' thoughts on Three Cities
At University College Dublin we are very lucky to have renowned Irish playwright, Frank McGuiness on the faculty in the department of English, Drama and Film as the head of creative writing. In late May, Lisa gave him the script of Three Cities to see what he thought in order to make it as strong as possible in lieu of the run at Edinburgh.
Mr. McGuinness very kindly read the script and invited Lisa to meet with him about it. His comments included that the script is 'accomplished' as well as 'articulate' and 'ambitious'. Such comments put us in good stead for Edinburgh where bad reviews come in as frequent as showers of rain in Dublin. Mr. McGuinness went on to suggest a number of plays to read, avenues to pursue as well as offering some very helpful advice for the Edinburgh run of the show regarding sales and press.
Tit for Tat would like to extend thanks to Mr. McGuinness his time and incredibly helpful advice.
Elise Brennan performs as part of the Abbey's Advanced Actor Training programme
Since January Elise has been training with the Abbey and now you can hear about it and check out her final performances later this month:
'My experience at the Abbey School of Acting since January 2012 has kept me
going every Tuesday night through doing my finals in UCD. I have been a part of
the 6- Month Advanced Actor Training Programme and have had the privilege of
being directed by the renowned Kathleen Warner Yeates and Stephanie Courtney.
We have covered many acting techniques for theatre and we presented, as a
group, our devised piece in the Pearse Centre in Dublin in Mid-March.
We are now gearing up towards our end of year presentation and I am getting
quite nervous about it now! We will be presenting Shakespeare's Midsummer's
Night Dream and a contemporary scene piece. For my contemporary piece I will be
playing Agnes in Agnes of God which
contrasts hugely to my Fairy character in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream as I need to be able to deliver an intense moment
being a nun. I have to smile, cry, laugh and sing ALL at the same time,
something that I have found quite a challenge but at the same time so
empowering as I feel I am becoming a better actor.
The course is just amazing, I recommend it to anyone out there considering
to pursue their acting career. Amazing instructors and a great group. Something
that has opened up many doors for my future. '
Tickets are now on sale June 25-27th in the New Theatre, Temple Bar, Dublin!’
Dublin Theatre Festival's Play On Initiative
Three Cities playwright, Lisa Carroll, was recently accepted onto the Dublin Theatre Festival's initiative for emerging playwrights, Play On. Lisa used the script for Three Cities as her submission which made it through against 123 other scripts sent in.
Play On sees new writers develop a new play under the mentorship of Graham Whybrow, former literary manager of the Royal Court. After a summer of workshops and developmental meetings, a selection of these plays will recieve readings and performances of excerpts at the Dublin Theatre Festival in October.
The initiative so far has been amazing. Graham is incredibly knowledgable as well as helpful in his coaching and assistance in crafting new work.
In late May we had a photoshoot with Ste Murray who did some fantastic company shots for us to use as well as throwing in a couple of creative ideas of his own! More to come in that with his very own dedicated blog post but for now check this out!
Fundraiser Gig
The 14th May saw the Three Cities FUN-draiser gig at The Workman's Club, Dublin. The line up was fantastic, featuring Clare Hyland, Taylor's Lane, Mongoose and Kalaedofolk.
A huge thanks goes to Jack Somers for helping to co ordinate the event, as well as The Workman's Club for hosting.
Of course, we must also extend a huge thanks to those who came to the event, we had a huge amount of people and the money raised will make a huge difference in making our way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2012.
Like Mah Page
In late May the three of us from the Three Cities cast got together to film some material to supplement the show throughout the summer. Some of that footage has gone towards our Fundit campaign video, but there are many more surprises in store!
The latest release we have for you is a spoof of the popular video, Like Mah Status, with our very own Like Mah Page video. So be sure to watch and 'like' our Facebook page as soon as you've stopped laughing!
Wewould like at this point to also invite you to the
previews of Three Cities which we are
holding in Dublin, prior to taking the show over for its run in Edinburgh.
Previews will be held at The Exchange, 2 Upper Exchange Street, Jamestown,
Dublin 8, Ireland. The venue is easy to find at the edge of Temple Bar. The
previews will be on Thursday August 9th at 2pm and 7pm, and on Friday
August 10th at 2pm and a late night showing at 9.30pm.
The show
itself runs at an hour and the tickets will be available on the door. We hope to
see you at the previews so you can have a look at this exciting new play and
see what we will have spent all summer rehearsing and working towards!
So . . . that's it for this month! Over and out for now!
Thank you all for
your support and I look forward to seeing you at the show!
