Project Budget

Grant Request

Title:

Artists:

Description:

Rogue Artists Ensemble

Los Angeles CA

Sean Cawelti

Kaidan ProjectKaidan Project, is a collaboration between Rogue Artists Ensemble and East West Players and will be animmersive, site specific piece inspired by Japanese ghost stories, taking place in Little Tokyo in Fall 2017 with ascript written by Naomi Iizuka and will be directed by Rogue Artistic Director Sean Cawelti. Kaidan Project willbe a multi-sensory experience (sight, sound, smell) and will involve the Hyakumonagatari Kaidankai (the tellingof 100 supernatural tales) a tradition dating back to 1660 and was also involved in Samurai Warrior endurancetraining. Combining Bunraku, mask work, Noh and Kabuki theater traditions, Kaidan Project will be anunforgettable experience.

$189,000

$7,000

Kaidan Project - reading puppet demo, Filmed - Sunday August 7th, 2016

Director - Sean Cawelti Playwright - Naomi Lizuka Costume Design - Lori Meeker Dramaturgy -Snehal Desai Puppet Design - Sean Cawelti, Leslie Gray, Jack Pullman, Miles Taber Musician - Shih-Wei Wu Puppeteers / Cast - (Roz) Rosalind Helfland, Jasmine Orpilla, Amir Levi, Junko Goda, ChasCroslin, Lisa Dring, Sarah Peters

The video shows an excerpt from a recent reading held for Kaidan Project, which included black lightpuppetry, large scale Oni (Demons) puppet mockups (made of cardboard and over 7' tall) to explorescale and how they interact with live actors.

213.596.9468 x13

2669 Waverly Dr90039

scawelti@rogueartists.orgrogueartists.org

VIDEO SAMPLE

CONTACT

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Rogue Artists Ensemble501 (c)(3):

2014 Workshop - Fantasmagorico!2011 Project - Pinocchio2009 Project - The Gogol Project

PAST GRANTS AWARDED

PRODUCTION

KaidanProject–RogueArtistsEnsemble

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Project Description: Kaidan Project is a collaboration between Rogue Artists Ensemble and East West Players, written by Naomi Iizuka. It will be a multi-sensory experience (sight, sound, smell) based on the Hyakumonagatari Kaidankai (the telling of 100 supernatural tales), a tradition dating back to 1660. The project will lead small groups of participants on a ‘ghost tour’ of Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo neighborhood, while the 100 tales unexpectedly unfold around them, revealing the stories and history of the community. The word Kaidan translates to ‘a strange, mysterious, rare or bewitching apparition’, a theme which runs deep within all of the stories. Kaidan Project will involve apparitions, demons, spirits, and frightening imagery created through puppetry, masks, multi-media and theatrical illusions. Los Angeles is home to many Halloween events, and immersive theater projects are a growing trend. Kaidan Project will build on this momentum, introducing a cultural specificity and history that has yet to be found in other offerings. The experience will begin on the steps of East West Players (formerly a historic church) in Little Tokyo, with a short introduction. Audience members will then be divided into groups and handed wireless headphones similar to those used in museum tours. At each stop, one of the Kaidan tales will be presented. Each tale will be given its own setting: some will be performed in Japanese, some in English, and some with no spoken words at all. Some will be rendered faithfully in the original period, while others are reinterpreted modernized, or with the traditional gender or race of some characters changed. This will allow us to examine the incredible endurance and universal nature of stories inspired by Buddhist tales, with themes of forgiveness, tolerance, and understanding. The headphones will integrate wireless audio and provide an ear to the other world, enabling audience members to hear “spirits” and creating immersive sound in public spaces synced to live actors on rooftops and other remote locations. At the end of the experience the different groups will reunite for a thrilling final tale inside the theater that will complete the 100 candle ritual. Each stop of the tour will be told using different puppet, mask or performance conventions including Bunraku, Noh, Kabuki, shadow puppetry, and black light puppetry, many of them culturally specific to Japanese art forms and traditions. Rogue has a fifteen-year history of combining large scale puppetry elements with actors, and Kaidan Project will take these efforts to a new level by creating incredible realistic ghosts and demons to populate this world and drawing on the expertise of the incredible puppetry community in Los Angeles. Playwright Naomi Iizuka has already begun work on the script, and we have held preliminary meetings with ensemble members from Rogue Artists Ensemble, artists from East West Players, and Little Tokyo community leaders to ensure the piece represents the stories and unique history of the community. Through the lens of a diverse, multicultural group of artists from several organizations, we will honor these traditional stories through new interpretations, bridging various communities and artists of multiple generations and ethnicities. Kaidan Project has received grant funding from the City of West Hollywood to support the commissioning of the script and first public reading which took place in August 2016. A first workshop is planned for December of 2016 in the Van Nuys Japanese gardens. With support from the Jim Henson Foundation, we will complete a 2nd public workshop in summer 2017 and premiere the completed production in Winter 2017, with additional community engagement events examining traditional ghost stories through a modern lens and featuring puppet, mask and folk art workshops. Jim Henson Foundation will support the costs of puppet and mask design including the puppet designer’s fees and puppeteer fees.

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Production Materials/ Rentals:

Set $25,000Props $6,000Masks $2,000Costumes $5,000Puppets $4,000Video and Audio rental (cable/ sampler/ mic rental) $5,000SM Supplies $500Lighting (including black light rental) $5,000Auditions $500Marketing (including publicist fees) $7,000Rehearsal Space $4,000Gala Food/ Drink $500Contingency (Production Manager discretion) $5,000Workshop Specific Materials $5,000

Sub-Total Production Costs $74,500

Production Artist Fees:Director $4,000Playwright $3,000Stage Manager $2,000Assistant Stage Manager X2 $2,000Scenic Designer $1,500Technical Director / Carpenter / ASD $4,000Scenic Painter $1,000Prop Designer $1,500Composer $1,500Sound Designer $1,500Lighting Designer $1,500Master Electrician $1,000Electrician $700Costume Designer $1,500Assistant Costume Designer $1,000Video Designer $1,500Choreographer $1,000Movement Coach $1,000Lead Puppet Designer $1,500 Supported by Jim Henson FoundationAssociate Puppet Designers $1,200 X 3 $3,600 Supported by Jim Henson FoundationMask Designer $1,500Dramaturge $1,000Actor Rehearsal stipends (25 actors @ $250) $6,250Rogue Artists Ensemble administration (marketing, MD, AD, other staff) $10,000

Sub-Total Artists Fees $55,050

Cast/ Run Costs Per Performance:

# of Perf

Cost Per Show

25 actors @ $50 = $1,250 per show 17 $1,250 $21,250 Supported by Jim Henson Foundation2 Audio Engineers @ $25 per show 17 $50 $8502 Lighting Technicians @ $25 per show 17 $50 $850

Sub-Total Ongoing Costs $22,950

Venue:Tech Week Venue Rental - $3,000 $3,000Venue Rental - $2,000 per show

17 Performances total 17 $2,000 $34,000Sub-Total Venue Rental Costs $37,000

Total Production Costs $189,500

Ticket Sale Estimates

Ticket Sales (100 audience average per show @ $40 average ticket price) $4,000 ticket per show GROSS GOAL PER SHOW 17 $4,000 $68,000

Grants/ Other Funding: LA Dept of Cultural Affairs $7,350Jim Henson Foundation Grant $7,000City Council project support $10,000East West Player Contribution $25,000NEA Grant $50,000Rogue Artists Ensemble contribution $18,000Japan Foundation Grant $5,000

Total Revenue $190,350Remaining After Production $850

Kaidan Project - Production BudgetExpenses:

Income:

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Artists Bios: Here is a sample of the over 30 artists working on this project. Naomi lizuka’s (Playwright) plays include 36 VIEWS, POLAROID STORIES, ANON(YMOUS), HAMLET: BLOOD IN THE BRAIN (a collaboration with CalShakes and Campo Santo + Intersection for the Arts), 3 TRUTHS (a collaboration with Cornerstone Theater Company), and WAR OF THE WORLDS (a collaboration with Anne Bogart and SITI Company.) Her plays have been produced at theatres nationwide including Berkeley Rep, the Goodman, the Guthrie, Children’s Theater Company, the Kennedy Center, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, the Public Theatre, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s, and Soho Rep. lizuka is an alumna of New Dramatists and the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Award, a Joyce Foundation Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Stavis Award from the National Theatre Conference, an NEA/TCG Artist-in-Residence grant, a McKnight Fellowship, Princeton University’s Hodder Fellowship, and a Jerome Fellowship. Iizuka heads the MFA Playwriting program at the University of California, San Diego. Sean Cawelti (Director/Puppet Designer) graduated from the University of California Irvine with honors in Directing and studied puppetry at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Sean has won awards for his work as a designer, director and playwright, honored with a UNIMA Citation of Excellence and the 2015 Sherwood Award by the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles. He was selected by the City of Los Angeles’ Cultural Affairs Department to travel to Brazil for two months to study woodcarving and Candomblé. Sean is the founding Artistic Director of Rogue Artists Ensemble, a multi-media, puppet and mask company in Los Angeles. His work has been seen at the Getty Villa, South Coast Repertory, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Cornerstone Theater Co., Chicago Opera Theater, LA Theatre Works, NYC Opera, The Geffen Playhouse, Long Beach Opera, Imago Theater in Portland, Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta and the recent Kanye West Yeezus world tour. Leslie K. Gray (Puppet Designer) Leslie serves as the Artistic Director of Triumvirate Pi a Southern California puppet theater dedicated to telling stories about the Japanese American community. A writer, director, and puppetry artist, Leslie has designed for theatres in Los Angeles like the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, MYE Theater Company, and Circle X. She is an LA Weekly Theatre Award winner for her puppet designs for Circle X's Grendel. Her performances have been presented in Minneapolis, MN; Montevideo, Uruguay; New Delhi, India; and across Los Angeles. Leslie has her Masters degree in Deaf Education and was an LA Cultural Affairs Grantee for a series of workshops that provided English literacy enhancement through theater for deaf children. François-Pierre Couture (Scenic Designer) Originally from Montreal, François-Pierre Couture has had the privilege of working across the United States for the last decade as a scenic, lighting and projection designer. Some of his designs include Wood Boy Dog Fish with the Rogue Artists Ensemble, Everything you Touch for Rattlestick productions at the Cherry Lane Theatre; Destiny of Desire at the Arena Stage Theatre; Pinocchio and The Light Princess at South Coast Repertory; The Year of Magical Thinking at the Laguna Playhouse; Death of a Salesgirl at the Bootleg Theatre; The Children at the Boston court Theatre; A Picasso Geffen Playhouse; Médée and Teseo for the Chicago Opera Theatre; Metamorphoses and Woyzeck at the Santa Barbara Ensemble Theatre. www.fpcouture.com

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Organization Description: Mission: Rogue Artists Ensemble is a collective of multi-disciplinary artists who create Hyper-theater: an innovative hybrid of theater traditions, puppetry, mask work, dance, music, and modern technology. Through a collaborative development process, with an emphasis on design and storytelling, the Rogues create original, thought-provoking performances. We cultivate unique audience experiences that appeal to multiple generations of theatergoers in order to expand the boundaries of contemporary American theater. For fifteen years, Los Angeles-based Rogue Artists Ensemble has been creating Hyper-theater: a mash-up of new and old traditions including puppetry, mask work, dance and music, combined with new technology-driven storytelling tools such as projected media. As one of the West Coast’s only theater companies which integrates puppetry, we are passionate about sharing this incredible art form with Los Angeles and the world through touring initiatives and educational programs. Rogue Artists Ensemble is unlike other theater companies in that we are primarily a collective of professional designers and crafts persons and not actors. The work of the company is supported by a Board and part time staff, with all major creative decisions requiring consensus by the ensemble. Rogue maintains an active education and outreach program providing thousands of community members the opportunity to learn more about puppetry and mask work. Since our inception in 2001 we have created over twenty original productions that have been seen by over 200,000 audience members in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Seattle, Atlanta, Portland and at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In 2015, 14,000 people attended Rogue productions, 8,000 of which were families and children introduced to us through our Education and Outreach programming. The Rogues' education program includes puppet and mask workshops for both children and adults, incorporating traditions from multiple cultures with both a crafting, performance and historical approach. Additionally, our all-ages shows frequently perform at schools and venues throughout Southern California with many performances being free to the public. Rogue Artists Ensemble has received accolades from critics in Los Angeles as well as a UNIMA Citation of Excellence for the Jim Henson Foundation-supported Gogol Project. We premiered our adaptation of Pinocchio, titled Wood Boy Dog Fish, to rave reviews and sold out houses last fall in Los Angeles, and are planning to remount that project in 2017 with the hope to tour nationally in the future. This is a vibrant time for Rogue, as we begin development on several new works. In addition to Kaidan Project, we are developing Cowboy Elektra, a mashup of the Elektra myth and California history with original music by the Dustbowl Revival. And thanks to support from the City of West Hollywood and the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time Festival we will celebrate the life of one of Los Angeles' most interesting residents in 2017 with Señor Plummer, a site-specific pastoral performance in Plummer Park with large scale puppets.

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Reading Cast with

Puppet mockups

Above: Demon Plate Puppets

Below: Oni Demon Disembodied head design

Puppet and mask

designs including 7’ Oni

puppet created for reading to

experiment with scale

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May18,2016Z.Briggs,FoundationManagerTheJimHensonFoundation37-18NorthernBlvd.,Suite400LongIslandCity,NY11101DearMs.Briggs:I’mwritingonbehalfofEastWestPlayers(EWP)toexpressoursupportandpartnershipwithRogueArtistsontheKAIDANPROJECT.EWPiscommittedtopresentingthisproject,tentativelyscheduledforSeptember/October2017.Establishedin1965,EWPisnation'slongest-runningtheatreofcolorandlargestproducerofAsianPacificAmerican(APA)creativework,EWPisdedicatedtousingtheuniqueplatformoflivetheatretotellmultifacetedstoriesoftheAPAexperience,seenthroughasocialjusticelens,recognizedforouraward-winningproductionsthatblendEasternandWesternmovement,costumes,language,andmusic.BasedinLA’shistoricLittleTokyoneighborhood,EWPiswellestablishedasagatheringplaceforthecommunity;itisaplacewherepeopleofallbackgroundscometoexperienceastorythathasuniversalthemes.Assuch,weseetheKAIDANPROJECTasfittingperfectlyintothismission,whileofferingtheopportunitytoengageevenmoredeeplywiththecommunitybytakingtheworkoutsidetheparametersofthetheatrebypresentinganimmersive,site-specificworkthatisuniquelyrelevanttoourLittleTokyoneighborhood.Throughthisproject,wehopetogiveanaudiencetonewvoicesandnewworksthatexploremulticulturalandinterculturalexperiences.Wearegratefulforyourconsiderationofthisproposal.BestRegards,

MonikaRamnathDevelopmentManager

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