Retreat! An audio comedy series
Donation protected
We are two women writers, Aoibheann McCann and Andi Ipaktchi . We met at an artist's residency in Ireland in 2019. Since January 2020, we have been as busy as two moths in a mitten, writing a six-part audio comedy series called RETREAT!
Retreat! is set in Knocknahay, a small village on a stoat-infested lake somewhere in Ireland, home to the Kathleen O'Mara Residential Centre for the Arts.
Here, Brigit, an unsuccessful writer and Celtic ‘Healer’ and Shannon, her Goop-inspired wannabe artist American distant cousin meet-up for an artistic collaboration. In the residency they meet the artists, Mary (an Irish poet), Agnes(a French artist), Gunter (a German soundscape artist), Damien (an Irish radio celebrity turned writer) and the staff, Barney (the bumbling English director) Nora (the chef), Teresa (the kitchen maid) and the new kitchen temp. But where is the elusive, famous, dissident artist who is booked in for stay?
As the artist-residents and staff prepare for a group exhibition to inaugurate the new onsite Megacorp Exhibition Hall, an heiress, the groundskeeper, a celebrity dissident artist, and an army of stoats have other plans.
Actors Helen Gregg , Fred McClosky , and Gavin Morgan have successfully auditioned to play the parts of the twelve characters (they all voice several characters each). So now we would like to raise the funds in the next month so we can record the series.
If you like thinking about family, Irish history, the creeping commercialisation of the arts, politics, turnips, globalisation, stoats, sex, the 1%, Greta Thunberg and homeopathic underarm deodorant — you might like our audio comedy series.
Paying industry rates is very important to us, as actors and related professionals have been hit particularly hard by theatre closures. So far, apart from the spending all of our spare time in 2020 writing the six episodes, we have put almost €1000 into it ourselves for software (Zencastr, Adobe Suite and Writer Duet), microphones, rehearsal costs, sound production and website costs. Most of the money raised here is to pay the actors and the sound producer proper industry rates for recording and producing the series. Also there's the mounting cost of snacks for the writers (Viscount and Oreos are our favourites if you must know).
Making the series is possible even if there is another Covid lockdown, using Zencastr - a virtual recording studio (do check out the trailer- it was recorded and produced remotely). When it is recorded we will make it available free to listen via podcast platforms such as Spotify, Apple and Acast.
We have also been lucky to get funding from Galway County Council for a live table reading on Culture Night 18th September in Athenry to promote the show. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Find out more about us and our characters on:
Facebook Twitter Instagram KoFi Our website
Retreat! is set in Knocknahay, a small village on a stoat-infested lake somewhere in Ireland, home to the Kathleen O'Mara Residential Centre for the Arts.
Here, Brigit, an unsuccessful writer and Celtic ‘Healer’ and Shannon, her Goop-inspired wannabe artist American distant cousin meet-up for an artistic collaboration. In the residency they meet the artists, Mary (an Irish poet), Agnes(a French artist), Gunter (a German soundscape artist), Damien (an Irish radio celebrity turned writer) and the staff, Barney (the bumbling English director) Nora (the chef), Teresa (the kitchen maid) and the new kitchen temp. But where is the elusive, famous, dissident artist who is booked in for stay?
As the artist-residents and staff prepare for a group exhibition to inaugurate the new onsite Megacorp Exhibition Hall, an heiress, the groundskeeper, a celebrity dissident artist, and an army of stoats have other plans.
Actors Helen Gregg , Fred McClosky , and Gavin Morgan have successfully auditioned to play the parts of the twelve characters (they all voice several characters each). So now we would like to raise the funds in the next month so we can record the series.
If you like thinking about family, Irish history, the creeping commercialisation of the arts, politics, turnips, globalisation, stoats, sex, the 1%, Greta Thunberg and homeopathic underarm deodorant — you might like our audio comedy series.
Paying industry rates is very important to us, as actors and related professionals have been hit particularly hard by theatre closures. So far, apart from the spending all of our spare time in 2020 writing the six episodes, we have put almost €1000 into it ourselves for software (Zencastr, Adobe Suite and Writer Duet), microphones, rehearsal costs, sound production and website costs. Most of the money raised here is to pay the actors and the sound producer proper industry rates for recording and producing the series. Also there's the mounting cost of snacks for the writers (Viscount and Oreos are our favourites if you must know).
Making the series is possible even if there is another Covid lockdown, using Zencastr - a virtual recording studio (do check out the trailer- it was recorded and produced remotely). When it is recorded we will make it available free to listen via podcast platforms such as Spotify, Apple and Acast.
We have also been lucky to get funding from Galway County Council for a live table reading on Culture Night 18th September in Athenry to promote the show. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Find out more about us and our characters on:
Facebook Twitter Instagram KoFi Our website
Fundraising team: Andi Ipaktchi (2)
Aoibheann McCann
Organizer
Andrea Renner Ipaktchi
Team member
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