Playwright Hero Turns to New Crowdfunding Platform Patreon to Support New Works

Say hello to today's future generation of theatre professionals. Playwright Hero is a young, ambitious theatre company looking to Shakespeare things up this fall. Their new show, No One Like Hugh, runs Nov. 26-30 at MainLine Theatre thanks to a brand new funding model by the name of Patreon. Patreon is currently used mostly for digital media, but it's a format which has worked for live performance in the past and the founders of Playwright Hero believe it can work in the future.

This is Playwright Hero's fourth season, and what a year it's been! Johnny Legdick, their rock opera collaboration with musical group The Jem, was doubly honoured at this summer's Montreal Fringe Festival by being invited to remount at the Wildside Festival at Centaur Theatre, as well as earning Playwright Hero the Segal Centre's award for Most Promising English Company. No One Like Hugh is an homage to and parody of Shakespeare's mistaken-identity comedies. It tells the story of an English court riddled with intrigue. Here, Princess Lavender becomes enamoured with the noble Hugh, but his evil 'identical' twin, also named Hugh, plots to steal his place and take the throne for himself.

Playwright Hero began with a simple idea: to write and stage funny, intelligent plays. They have since found their voice, with each play growing not only in hilarity but in sophistication of form and substance. Theirs is the voice of this generation of theatrically-inclined gamers. The three founders and playwrights: Jimmy Karamanis, director, who has worked closely under Centaur Theatre's Roy Surette and with MainLine Theatre; Alexander Smith, a prolific technician and lighting designer; and Travis Martin, actor and game designer; are bringing their passions together to put the 'fun' back in 'crowdfunding'.

About Patreon - Playwright Hero is raising money using Patreon, a crowdfunding platform for artists. Like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, Patreon fundraises for projects. The key difference is that Patreon only allows creators to receive the funds for each project once they're completed; giving companies the means to continue creating. For example, what Playwright Hero receives when their upcoming show opens (No One Like Hugh) will go into the Johnny Legdick: a Rock Opera remount, and so on. Backers become Patrons and get the pride of seeing a company grow to greatness with their help. As long as one remains a patron, a donation is deducted for each creation. Patrons receive ongoing information about the company they support and hopefully become avid audience members. Playwright Hero is offering exclusive perks to its patrons including t-shirts, ad space in programs, and invitations to exclusive staged readings of new plays, with new perks to come.

The sharp minds behind Playwright Hero hope audiences of all kinds, including seasoned theatre goers, gamers and digital natives, will support their newest efforts and become Patreon Heroes.

Links:

*NEW* Patreon campaign: www.patreon.com/playwrighthero

Playwright Hero's past work:

www.facebook.com/PlaywrightHero/info?ref=page_internal

Trailer for Insanely Sinister Society; The Insanely Sinister Society- review, Bloody Underrated: bloodyunderrated.net/2013/07/12/the-insanely-sinister-society-mainline-theatre/

Heinously Horrendous Heiress- review, Bloody Underrated: bloodyunderrated.net/2012/09/26/the-heinously-horrendous-heiress-mainline-theatre/

Travis Martin has been acting for over a decade and gaming for even longer. He graduated from Dawson College's Professional Theatre Program in 2009 and from Campus ADN in Video Game Level Design in 2012. He's made himself at home in the independent theatre and independent video games scenes, producing small games, as well as theatre productions with Playwright Hero. He has also appeared in plays such as Persephone Production's Henry V as Westmoreland, and Griffintown Theatre's Our Country's Good. He is thrilled to be using his experience in both his fields to the benefit of his theatre company and fans.

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