Tag Archives: Queer Theatre

Art, Sexuality And Funding

As you may have noticed, lately more and more artists are relying on sources such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo to fund their work.

Relying n strangers for money has gone from a luxury to a brilliant way to make sure projects you love see the light of day.

As many other artists, Curtis te Brinke and Sadie Epstein-Fine have decided to produce Tire Swing, a new show that debuted at Kensington Hall in Toronto last October.

But what is Tire Swing?

Tire Swing is a small-town queer coming-of-age horror story centring on three kids involved in the disappearance of one of their friends, years earlier.

Think of it as a much-watch, scary, queer version of Stranger Things! Was the process of finding funding easy? Definitely not, as Epstein-Fine mentioned to Canadian website Dailyxtra,

There’s a lot of competition for everything, but as a creator/producer I feel a little better at night knowing I’m calling my own shots more than some people are. I have to keep reminding myself to be patient and keep working.”

Independently of funding source, the show is a beautiful coming-of-age piece, focusing not only on loss and pain but also on experimentation and sexual orientation, which should reach a large audience.

As te Brinke explains,

I’ve noticed older queer audience come out in droves for established acts, but have no idea who’s doing what in the under-30 group, (…) I’d like to challenge this older group to see some of the young queers moving and shaking right now.”

If you are interested in finding out more about the play, Canadian website mooneyontheatre.com has recently reviewed the show (you can check it here), with a mostly positive praise of the show, it’s characters, and the script.

Although the show finished on October 18, I am excited to see what te Brinke and Epstein-Fine’s next project will be and hopefully, with enough funding, it will be available in an online platform.