The University of Nottingham's Improv Society long-form troupe have set their sights on Edinburgh! We've secured a conditional Cascade grant of £3,000 that will allow us to perform at the world's largest performing arts festival. We need your help to make this happen! To secure this grant and experience this wonderful opportunity we need to raise at least £500 through Jumpstart. We're looking to perform daily for two weeks and provide tonnes of laughs, tears, and gasps to our audiences and experience for ourselves the amazing opportunities that the fringe festival has to offer.

Who are We?

UoN Improv Society's long-form troupe are 8 talented improvisers representing a wide variety of courses, backgrounds, and ages from first years to PhD students and everything in between. Earlier this year we performed our show "And Another Thing!" for 5 nights at The Nottingham New Theatre, and now want to take that show                                                                    to the Fringe.

WHAT IS "IMPROV"?

Improv is basically theatre made up on the spot! From short games like hit TV show "Whose Line is it Anyway?", to the Olivier award winning improvised musical group "Showstopper!" it's an incredibly varied art-form. What we do is called Long-form , which basically means we make up a play with no script, no planning, and no idea what's going to happen next! It gives every show a huge opportunity to really grip an audience with charismatic characters, fantastic jokes, heartfelt relationships, and jaw-dropping drama, all created in the moment and never to be seen again.

OUR GOAL

We want to follow in the footsteps of previous Improv Soc troupes, and take our show "And Another Thing!" to the Edinburgh Fringe (the largest arts festival in the world). With almost half a million people attending the Fringe every year, we have a great opportunity to show a large and varied audience what all of our hard work has culminated in and make a good name for the society and the University in the process.

All year long, we've had multiple rehearsals each week, regular shows, and a dedicated pair of directors pushing us. Edinburgh has always been the goal. Not only do you get to experience a wide variety of different art, but you also get to perform on a global stage - how could we say no?! We've put so much effort into improving as performers and growing as a team and we want to take what we do best and share it with as many people as possible!

The Downside

Edinburgh Fringe is very expensive. Between rent, venue hire, and the printing costs of flyers and posters, Edinburgh can be simply unmanageable for lots of small arts groups, and that's why we need your help! The society is donating a portion of the funds required to send us to the Fringe, but this and money from performers pockets won't be enough. Jumpstart is the way you can support us to get there - any money donated will go straight towards a team who truly love Nottingham, the theatre and the improv scene within it. On top of this, if we manage to raise £500 we will secure a Cascade grant which will not only help us to get to Edinburgh this year, but will set the Society up so that future troupes will get this incredible opportunity!

By donating this one time, you'll be helping develop the society further for years to come, encouraging even more people to get involved with an incredibly enjoyable and empowering medium!

WHAT WILL your money do?

With £500 we will secure an additional Cascade grant to pay for our venue and accommodation. We're keeping sponsorship for the project open from now till the 4th of June to give us the best chance at raising this minimum amount.

The £500 raised at this point (and any sponsorship up to £3,500 from Jumpstart) will go towards accommodation, venue, and all the other costs which mount up. Any money that isn't used on venue costs or accommodation will go back to the society to help make Edinburgh Fringe financially viable for the long-form troupes that follow us!

Here's a breakdown of our costs:

£3,400 for rent

£2,040 for venue hire

~£80 per person travel

~£50 promotional materials (flyers/posters)

The Improv society have graciously paid towards our venue hire so any money you give will go directly towards the rest of these expenses and allow us to put on a really strong set of shows!

One of our major aims is that what we do now will allow the society to do this again and again in years to come!

Rewards

For £5 you get a thank you note from UoN Improv Soc's Facebook page.

For £15 you can have a personalised thank you message with a doodle from our resident artist Ellen (check her art out here: http://ositiart.tumblr.com/).

For £35 we're offering free entry to all UoN Improv society shows on campus for the 2018-2019 academic year (excluding the Nottingham New Theatre shows). Think of this as a season ticket!

For £75 we'll put on a 3 hour workshop for you and up to 14 others, hosted by the troupe and the fantastic Liam Webber, one of Nottingham's leading improvisers and teachers. There'll be laughs, silliness, and lots of learning in a fun, supportive environment!

For £120 you can get the same workshop but for a whole day! (up to 8 or 9 hours), again for 15 people in total! This way you can get an extra large dose of improv goodness!

For £100 the UoN Improv Society will come do a short show or jam at your party or public function (20-30 minutes in length!)

Find us @

If you're interested in keeping up to date on our journey to Edinburgh and our general improvising find us at:

https://www.facebook.com/UoNImprov/

https://twitter.com/UoNImprov

https://www.youtube.com/user/ImprovNottsUni

https://www.instagram.com/uonimprov/

Give us a helping hand!

If you can't donate then don't worry, but please do share this with anyone and everyone you know. We know how dedicated and lovely the Nottingham improv scene is and how lovely Nottingham Uni students and alumni are in general, and with your help we know we can hit our goal. Any social media shares, word of mouth recommendations or anything else to help spread our project around are immensely appreciated!

And we know we said that we don't mind if you can't donate but if you can then please do! We're incredibly excited for Edinburgh and with your help we know we can go and put on some brilliant performances! Please sponsor us to help make this happen!

Thank you!!X o X o X