UPDATE
We’re absolutely thrilled with the response we’ve had and a huge thank you to everyone. You’ve made this production possible.
YOU CAN FOLLOW OUR PROGRESS HERE
We've now reached our first target but PLEASE DON’T THINK OUR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN IS OVER.
We now have the minimum needed to make the production happen, any extra money you give will go towards paying our actors the London living wage.
We need to raise a further £1000 (ie a new target of £3,500) to make that possible.
WHAT ARE WE DOING
"Game of Life" is a new play inspired by the scientific phenomenon of emergence. It is being developed by writer Rose Lewenstein and theatre director Russell Bender.
It will be on at The Yard theatre from 5th-22nd September.
You can book tickets here
Game of Life will bring to life a scientific theory: the phenomenon of ‘emergence’, and Conway’s “game of life” - an elegant mathematical model simulating birth, death and survival.
Game of Life tells the human stories of five people and their search for faith in each other and in the world around them. We will explore the contrast between the individual and the population and show the ripple effects we have on people around us and the patterns in our lives that you can only see by zooming out and looking at the bigger picture.
Game of Life was selected from over 300 applications to have a three week run at ‘The Yard’ – a lively new venue in Hackney Wick, recently set up to support theatre makers create work that takes artistic risks.
ABOUT EMERGENCE
Emergence is a type of collective intelligence where a swarm shows more intelligence than the individuals that make it up. It explains how the individual neurons in our brain combine to form thoughts and memories, or how a single ant can be stupid while an ant colony is one of the most sophisticated, adaptive things on the earth. It can happen when individuals without a leader look at what their neighbours are doing and follow very simple rules to decide on what they want to do next. With thousands of individuals interacting amazing complex patterns can form and "spontaneous order" can emerge.
Emergence crops up throughout our human world – in understanding how cities form and evolve over centuries, how traffic behaves and how we search on google or communicate on twitter. Understanding emergence has led to urban planners being able to explain why people form into segregated groups in cities and how and when riots and uprisings can occur. It is at the heart of most of the technology that helps us find information, lets us communicate online or tries to recommend music we might like.
But Game of Life won’t be a science lecture. We want to show rather than tell the science. In the same way that emergence happens because of the interconnecting rules between individuals, Game of Life will take the audience on a journey to seeing a surreal world made up of interacting rules and patterns: Rules that underpin the images the audience sees, the characters’ actions and even the structure of the piece.
WHO IS DOING IT
Game of Life is being developed by writer Rose Lewenstein and theatre director Russell Bender
Rose’s last play “Ain’t no law against fish and chips” had a reading as part of the Royal Court Young Writers’ Festival and she is currently a member of their prestigious “super group”.
Russell was a runner up of the JMK award for young directors and worked as staff director at the National Theatre. He has assisted directors including Tom Morris and Simon McBurney. He also has a background in physics and software design.
We’ve been developing Game of Life since last December. It is the most ambitious project either of us have worked on and this chance to stage it represents a hugely important step in our development.
We have been very lucky to get support from The Yard, East 15 Acting School and the National Theatre Studio to help us make the piece. We now have a script, dozens of striking visual images and reams of interlinking rules that bind the scenes together. It’s time to turn all of these ingredients into a production:
PLEASE SUPPORT US
Making a play is expensive and we are making an ambitious project at an early stage in our careers.
On top of our box office income and the large amount of in kind support we’ve received, we now need to raise £2,500 to make it happen. This money will cover the physical costs of the production - the set, costumes and props; and the marketing of the show. We're incredibly grateful for any support you can give us.
Thankyou very much for your support
Russell and Rose
The owner of this project has not made any updates yet.
