New Streaming Game Show QUARAN-TEAMS Announced

Game show/artist showcase/charity fundraiser QUARAN-TEAMS 2.0 focuses on local artists and charities. The live stream episodes on Facebook and YouTube are Mondays, February 8th, 22nd, and March 8th at 7:00 p.m. MDT, with content available to view asychronously, and preview content already in place.

Presented by local theatre company The Bridge Initiative: Women+ in Theatre (TBI), the pilot effort that launched in August raised funds for the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. Conceived as an alternative to more traditional online offerings, the fundraising of QUARAN-TEAMS gives artists the opportunity to create but also a larger purpose. "At a time of tectonic shifts in our nation, it's easy to feel like lost in the enormity of the problems," says co-creator/TBI artistic director Brenda Foley. "So it's empowering to use our artistic skill to help the community." Response to the offering was enormously positive and the creative team (which also includes Aleks Hollis, Maren Mascarelli, and William Rogers) decided to further develop the concept, leading to 2.0.

QUARAN-TEAMS 2.0 features four teams of creatives who are given prompts from which to create short videos. These videos are then adjudicated by a panel of local judges (Micha Espinosa, Rachel Finley, and Marshall Shore) who award cash prizes on the live episodes, and the audience votes on a grand prize winner at the end of the season on March 8th. The winning team's charity receives the largest share of money raised throughout the competition. The teams' chosen charities are Helen's Hope Chest, Cancer Support Community of Arizona, The Pima Foundation, and Rising Youth Theatre. The teams are: Savannah & Nathan Alfred, Keeping Up With The Alfreds; Taylor & Tony Moschetti, The Original Broadway Cast of Rent; Chris Will with Camila Ledezma, Jackeline Mendoza and Veronica Conran, Pima's Raging Thespians; and Carolyn Marie Wright, Quincy & Milton: Dog Detectives.

QUARAN-TEAMS is offered to the audience free of charge. All artists are compensated through funding from TBI with grant support from Arizona Commission on the Arts. "Bridge is in a fortunate fiscal position to be able to give back and we are honored to do so at a time when so many live theatre producers are struggling," says Foley. For donation and viewing information, visit http://www.bridgeinit.org/quaran-teams/