It's Alive!

Help us bring It’s Alive! to life!

Created and directed by Francesca Browne, It’s Alive! is a fully improvised children’s show with live science experiments and puppetry. We have been invited to perform at The Pumphouse from September 23-27 during the September school holidays. Our aim is for our shows to be accessible to everyone, and we are raising funds to go towards our accessibility initiatives, part of our rehearsal costs, and the consumables needed to conduct our experiments.

It’s Alive! is being produced by Improverished, a Tāmaki-based theatre company that creates joyful improvised shows for the whole whānau. Founded in 2015, Improverished is best known for Choose Your Own Adventure, Random Fairytale Generator, and Can I Get an Underground Location and a Mythical Creature. 

Director: Francesca Browne

Cast:

Dylan Underwood

Rebecca Mary Gwendolen

Rachel Brebner

Stage Manager: Sofia Miernik

Lighting & Sound: Zara Ridley

Graphic Designer: Gareth Blackler

Producer: Matilda Chua

We have been very fortunate to have received some funding from Foundation North and the Becroft Foundation, which will allow us to pay for our performance venue, the cast and crew during our show season, marketing, and some production costs. However, we are hoping to raise the final bit of funding we need, which will cover:

• Accessibility initiatives: We aim to have a sensory relaxed performance, touch tour, audio description, and a NZSL interpreted show. Audio description will cost $500-$600/show. Hiring an NZSL interpreter will start at a minimum of $100/hr.
• Rehearsal costs: The rehearsal venue costs $50/day and the actors will be paid at a rate of $30/hr.
• Consumables for experiments: In order to conduct the experiments in the show, we need safety equipment and to specially source chemicals. We need $450 to cover the cost of this. 

Our goal of $4,444 includes the 10% cut that will go towards Boosted.

Any New Zealand donation over $5 will be eligible for a 33% tax credit.

Follow two young aspiring scientists as they sneak into their mum's secret lab to conduct their Best Experiment Ever -- only for things to go horribly wrong, leading to the accidental creation of a puppet! Will the puppet be a friend? Or will they cause chaos that the kids will need to clean up before mum gets home?

Our season will run from September 23-27 at The Pumphouse Theatre in Takapuna. We are aiming for September 27 to be an accessible show. In addition to being a sensory relaxed performance, we are also hoping to be able to provide NZSL interpretation, audio description, and a touch tour.

With the recent closure of numerous children’s theatre companies, there is currently a lack of professional quality theatre for young audiences in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s Alive! hopes to bridge some of that gap with an interactive show that will not only allow children to engage more with the arts, but will hopefully encourage an interest in STEAM subjects as well.

Following the success of our initial season at The Factory Theatre in 2022, we were offered the September holiday show slot at The Pumphouse Theatre. This first season was considered one of the most well received productions that The Factory has hosted, speaking to the need for high-calibre, educational shows for young audiences. 

Improverished has always been committed to creating family friendly shows that are accessible to all. We developed new ways to make accessibility a part of improvised performances for our sold out season at Basement Theatre last year. This work for our show Can I Get an Underground Location and a Mythical Creature? was celebrated by Arts Access Aotearoa in this article if you'd like to read more about our journey: https://tinyurl.com/Arts-Access-Aotearoa. We hope to be able to bring the same innovation and commitment to accessibility to the upcoming season of It's Alive!