Night Of The Living Dead Is Launched
If you follow any of my Twitter accounts or keep track of what The Devious Theatre Company is up to then you would have learned last night that we’ve launched Night Of The Living Dead, our flagship production for 2012.
After many months of development, we’ve finally made public our plans for 2012 which includes, among other things, working with Fishamble on a new script for 2013 as well as our staging of Night Of The Living Dead at The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny, for one week only from July 24.
For my own sins I find myself back on stage in July as well as resuming my regular producer role for our shows; John Morton directs and we welcome David Thompson (far right above) to our side of the table for a change as AD on the production as Angela Barrett (far left above) departs on the good ship Disney (literally, she’s off on a boat) for the next couple of months.
The Actual Launch
As launches go, last night turned out to be a roaring success. It was 2009 when we last rallied friends and family to the Watergate to mark the announcement of three productions that year and our new Friends Of programme. Last night saw the announcement of two productions, the friends of programme, but more importantly, allowed us a few hours in a great space to meet and catch up with family and friends of the company. If you walked in after the speeches, you would have been forgiven for thinking you were at a cake sale, such was the sheer amount of baked goods that had been produced by the cast as nibbles for the night. If you were there, then my sincere thanks for coming out last night and if you weren’t, well, you missed one hell of a launch do.
Now The Work Begins
What happens next really determines how far the show can go this July. We’re continually exploring funding avenues and revenue streams pre-July and we’ll be announcing details of one or two funding drives very shortly. We’ve got an interesting web campaign mapped out for the next 23 weeks that features heavy on the social media and video side, de facto tools of our trade at this stage. We’ve got our cast in place, a script that’s going through it’s final chops and changes and now, finally, after talking about it behind closed doors since last June, we can finally start telling people.
Even at this stage, I’ve full confidence that the show will be nothing short of fantastic. It’s by far our biggest undertaking to-date on all levels – staffing-wise, finance-wise, promotion-wise and that’s only for starters. While the movie of the same name (thank you George Romero) has been around since the late 60s, and remakes of the movie aren’t unknown, this will be the first time a production of Night Of The Living Dead has been staged in Ireland and, from what we’re aware, only the second time in Europe a production of this scale will have been staged. While the German’s may have gotten there before us, versions of Night Of The Living Dead have been staged in the US before but when July comes, the setting will very much have been transported to Ireland.
A zombie culture full of zombie banks, families being torn apart, rampant emigration and uncertainty are all embers to the fire that’s going to blaze a trail through Kilkenny from July 24 to 28 this year.
Work Starts Tomorrow
As Monday beckons in about five minutes time, the press and promotional game kicks off. We launch the support site for the show, NightOfTheLivingDead.ie, tomorrow along with the first of several videos and more posters and promo images. To say I’m excited about the 23 weeks lying ahead would be an understatement but we take things one day at a time. It’s only by slowing everything down and pacing it all out that you can be sure that you’re delivering a top drawer production.
You can keep up with Devious Theatre on Twitter, Facebook or at DeviousTheatre.com.
Photo above is by Ross Costigan Photography, taken at the Upstairs Gallery, Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny on February 11th 2012. L-R: Angela Barrett, myself, John Morton, David Thompson.
