what we're doing

We are raising £1000 towards the costs of our theatre company's debut play, Mouldy Grapes (showing at the White Bear in Kennington from the 19th-30th of September), to ensure all of our cast and creatives are paid properly for their time and brilliance.

Mouldy Grapes is a wild and filthy farce for the Tinder generation set in a slice of the LGBTQ experience. It explores modern sexual politics through flawed, human & often inebriated eyes:

Roo’s agoraphobia and his fear of trousers keep him inside, where he’s at the mercy of his unstable and invasive landlord. Roo’s boyfriend copes with having a housebound lover by bringing back a spare one with him every time he spends a night on the town. But he didn’t know what he was in for when he brought home Jess, a foul mouthed, free-wheeling avalanche who’s going to change all of their lives forever.

Who we are

We are Break The 'Verse, a new writing company formed in 2017 by East 15 Acting School alumni Ellie Sparrow and Monty Jones.

what we're trying to achieve

We're trying to be the change we want to see in theatre world, we want to tell stories that don't get told with characters that don't often make it onto the stage. With Mouldy Gapes, we're trying to use our wild and anarchic voice to challenge traditional and tired stereotypes of LGBTQ people and those living with mental illness. We also want to start as we mean to go on by paying our cast and creatives a proper wage for their time, waging war against those who expect people to work for 'the exposure' while pocketing profits. We also want to encourage a young, queer audience to come to the theatre and will be holding a free workshop for writers from this demographic to hone their craft.

where the money is going to go

If you donate to our project, you'll be helping us to pay our cast and creatives fairly. Some of the costs you'd be contributing to include, all at national minimum wage:

Director Fee: £900

Designer Fee: £325

Actor Wages x 4: £3,723

Stage Manager Wages: £649

Producer Fee: £600

Lighting Designer Fee: £177

Sound Designer Fee: £177

Fight Director Fee: £135

If we reach our minimum of £500 we will just about be able to pay everyone fairly, but it would mean cutting the time we'd be able to pay them for. This would mean having some of our team (e.g. fight director, designer) for the absolute minimum number of hours possible, and stretching a technician thinly by amalgamating lighting and sound responsibilities into one role. In order to have everyone for all the time we really need, we need to raise £1000.

Rewards

• Donate £5 and you'll get a thank you on all of our social media channels.
• Donate £10 and you'll get a caricature drawn of you that will go on our set for the performances.
• Donate £20 and you'll get a hand crocheted pussy hat.
• Donate £50 and you'll get all of the above as well as a bottle of bubbly to enjoy the show with.
• Donate £100 and you'll get all of the above and also pick a song of your choice to be played at some point during the show.
• Donate £500 and we'll perform the play in your living room.

Find us here

If you're interested in what we're up to and you want to keep up to date please look us up below! Also, if you're excited by what we're doing but you haven't got any money to spare please share our campaign and give us a follow or a like!

https://www.facebook.com/breaktheverse/

https://twitter.com/BreakTheVerse

https://breaktheverse.wixsite.com/break-the-verse

https://www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk/mouldy-grapes