LOST IN PLACE

Featuring a site-specific adventure with fantastical interaction between an earth-curious spaceman, a beached whale, and an audience, LOST IN PLACE will make its premiere at the 2011 Vancouver International Fringe Festival. Written by Seth Soulstein, co-author of last year's award-winning Wicked Shorts, comes a story about love, loss, and the struggle between running away versus confronting life's challenges.

The Company

Quickly becoming a veteran of site-specific or site-inspired theatre, Alley Theatre has produced Confessions at Granville Islands Agro Caf, The Jessie Nominated TAPE at the Waldorf Hotel, and last year produced Wicked Shorts at the Wicked Caf, which won the Joanna Maratta Award and the Cultchivating the Fringe Award, and will be remounted at The Cultch this September as part of their 2011/2012 season.

The Artists

Seth Soulstein - Playwright and Performer

Actor, activist, and playwright, Seth moved to Vancouver from the US in July 2009, to work towards an M.A. in Theatre Studies at UBC (with a focus on theatre for social change).  From 2002-2009 Seth Toured the US, writing and performing in close to a thousand shows with his sketch comedy group called The Late Night Players, and with them, he created YouTube videos that have garnered over 10 million views.  His short play Monsters in the Closet was part of Alley Theatre's award-winning Wicked Shorts in last year's Fringe Festival, which will be remounted at The Cultch this September.  Beep...Doot, a short play he co-wrote with former troupe-mate Aaron Kagan, was produced in Boston this past May by Bad Habit Productions.  Recently, Seth has been seen on stage in Love/Stories (or: But You Will Get Used To It) at the Little Mountain Gallery and Romeo & Juliet at UBC.   Last spring, he served as Assistant Director on You Are Not Dead: A Guide to Modern Living, which he has gone on to provide writing/dramaturgical assistance on for its upcoming remount at this years Fringe.  Seth is also the co-founder and member of the board of directors of the Harry Potter Alliance, a non-profit aimed at getting youth around the world involved in social justice issues by drawing inspiration from the Harry Potter novels.

This will be Marisas fourth consecutive BYOV at the Vancouver Fringe.  Last year she received the Joanna Muratta Award for exemplifying the original founding spirit of the fringe and showing the most potential to contribute to the theatre community in the future. From this award she has been mentoring with the Vancouver Fringes Executive Director, David Jordan and Award-Winning Freelance Director Ron Jenkins. Wicked Shorts, a site-specific series of short plays that Marisa directed at last years Fringe won The Cultchivating the Fringe Award, meaning it will be remounted in this September at the Cultch as part of their 11/12 Season.  Also an actor, Marisa recently performed in the Jessie nominated Tape (Alley Theatre) and Burning In (Gateway Theatre).  Other acting credits include: Confessions (Alley Theatre), Carnage (Pi Theatre), The Shoes (Belfry Incubator Project), The Power of Yes (UP), As You Like It (VSS), The Crackwalker (Vancouver Fringe), And This is This One (Walking Fish Festival) and Woyzeck Songspiel (Ecco Homo). Marisa holds a BFA in Theatre from UVIC.

Claire Hesselgrave - Performer

Originally from Vashon Island, Washington, Claire has been living in Vancouver for the last four years. She is a recent graduate of the BFA Acting program at UBC.  Also a dancer, Claire trained in ballet and modern dance for fifteen years at the Vashon Dance Academy in her home town. Previous credits include: Marge Murray in The Laramie Project, Lady Montague in Romeo and Juliet, Titus in Titus Andronicus, Mary Louise in The Madonna Painter, Mrs. Gottlieb in Dead Mans Cell Phone, Anna Petrovna in Wild Honey, and Irene in Pains of Youth.

The Budget

For this original work, we are operating on a minimal budget. At this point, the artists involved have volunteered their services to make this show happen. If we can raise the funds necessary to cover our production costs, the proceeds raised from the Fringe ticket sales will be able to go towards paying the artists. This said, our first priority is covering our production costs. The funds raised through Indiegogo will cover the following:

Fringe Festival Fee: $500

Costumes: $250

Props: $100

Set Materials (lights, batteries, special effect rigging, paint, etc): $200

Publicity (posters, handbills, flyers, video trailer, etc): $200

TOTAL: $1,250

The Perks

• Your name in the program
• Signed LOST IN PLACE poster
• A Spaceman Shrinky Dink
• Two tickets to the show
• A signed sketch of the whale costume
  
• Miniature spacepod replica
  

Other Ways You Can Help

• Pass this along via email or facebook to anyone else you think could help
  
• Come SEE the show! We will be performing September 8th-17th under the BIG, yellow crane located near Performance Works on Granville Island in Vancouver. Check out more info HERE. And buy your tickets HERE!