Holding On

Project 2012-06-15 19:38:54 +1200

Collab Project with Bats

Inspired people, new ideas, innovation and exciting performance are the lifeblood of theatre practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. BATS Theatre’s Purpose/Kaupapa is to provide a supportive, professional and accessible theatre venue that fosters the development of practitioners, audiences and New Zealand performance work.

Holding On is a new prize winning play written by Gavin McGibbon (Hamlet Dies at the End) and directed by Lori Leigh (Dog Sees God) It"s about this feeling of holding on to something important. It"s also about love, loss, death and phone sex...

Some people just shouldn"t meet. They shouldn’t encounter each other in any shape or form. And they especially shouldn"t meet in a therapy group. Why does Trademe keep Johnny up at night? What did Eddie discover on his smoko break?  What"s the worst encounter you could ever have with a pizza driver? The answers will stun you. Follow this group of people as they all struggle to come to terms with a death. As they navigate their way through their grief they get more and more entangled with each other"s lives. Pitch black insights, laughs and surprising twists await you.

Starring Alex Greig, Megan Evans, Kate Fitzroy, John Landreth, Simon Haren, Emma Draper and Chris Buckham

We need your help!

Playwright Gavin McGibbon deals with the issues of grief and personal relationships in an entirely fresh and exciting way. This is an important work that needs to be seen. Too often these topics are skirted around or ignored. It has a professional and incredibly talented cast and crew behind it but we need your help too.

There is no secured funding for this project as it is on during a time of the year when no arts grants are available. This means that even $10 actually does make a huge difference to our project as we have no other current funds. We are asking our PledgeMe friends to help us raise $2,000.00 so that we can get this project up off the ground and cover some marketing and design costs.

Who you are funding:

Gavin McGibbon (Playwright) 

Gavin McGibbon is a graduate of Waikato University, The New Zealand Film School and Victoria University where he gained an Masters in Scriptwriting. Gavin is currently doing a PhD in Scriptwriting at Victoria where he is studying the process of Adaptation. Gavin has had five plays produced to date, his scripts Under The Hood and Holding On were selected for Wellington"s Write Out Loud contest in 2008 and 2009 respectively.Gavin is the mentor for Eat"s Scriptwriting group, has been commissioned by Radio New Zealand numerous times, has worked as a supervisor for the MA Scriptwriting programme run by the International Institute of Modern Letters and has tutored at the New Zealand Film School. 

Lori Leigh (Director) 

Lori Leigh has a MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College in New York and PhD in Theatre from Victoria University of Wellington. Originally from the United States, Lori has worked on productions and readings of plays both Off-Broadway and regionally, collaborating as a director, dramaturg, performer, and writer. In 2009, Lori worked on the world premiere of The History of Cardenio –the “lost” play of Shakespeare. In 2010-11, she directed Dog Sees God for BATS Theatre and Wellington Summer Shakespeare’s production of The Winter’s Tale. Lori has also served as a dramaturg for Auckland Theatre Company, script advisor for Playmarket, a theatre tutor and director for Victoria University of Wellington, a mentor for Young and Hungry Festival of New Plays and a guest director for Shakespeare’s Globe Centre New Zealand.

Hannah Banks (Producer) 

Hannah graduated in 2011 with a BA Hons (1st Class) in Theatre and English from Victoria University. She was a part of Young and Hungry in 2007 and again in 2011. In 2010 she produced MINGE at BATS and last year produced the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award winning The Engine Room. In 2009 she was a creator/performer in the STAB show Death and the Dreamlife of Elephants and appeared in its return season at Downstage in 2011. In 2009 she also co-founded a theatre company, my accomplice. Since then the company have made four shows, which she has acted in and produced, Sometimes I Don’t Like Yellow, DOORS. WALLS. AND ALSO SILENCE., think of all the fun you’ll find in the rubber room and A Play About Love, all premiering at BATS Theatre. Last year she also directed Everything Is Surrounded By Water for Six Little Plays for Christchurch.

Stage Managed by Nicole Harvey

Publicity by Fiona McNamara

Lighting by Uther Dean

Set by Penny Lawrence and Tania Ngata

Costume by Jody Burrell

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