Even though I wasn't part of the fundraising team, I really enjoyed becoming a part of all of the ideas we decided on to raise money for the show. It was really important for us to raise as much money as possible so we could pay for the props and costume we weren't able to find whilst searching at Miskin and any travel costs or petrol money we would need, we were all desperate to make this show feel as immersive as possible for the children and it was equally as important for us to find a way to transport all of these things to each school. It wasn't until we started purchasing what we needed that I realised how expensive putting on a show as an independent theatre company is, and we're lucky whilst being part of the Miskin that we can go to the other companies and borrow what we need for the show, and if we have the chance to create a show like this in our future careers, we won't have that luxury.
We had many production meetings discussing what ways would help us raise the most money and we wanted to use an idea that was original and could be engaging to everyone in the college and would make them want to see more of our work. The first idea we were all settled on was a bake sale, and we could all buy or make a different item to sell and take it in turns at the stall so everyone got the same opportunity to be part of the fundraiser and eat lunch. I thought this would be a boring idea and bake sales are very common, there were already a couple of others going on in the college during the week, and I thought it wouldn't be very popular and I kept thinking that as we started selling on the day, but it eventually picked up and we didn't have many cakes left at the end of the day. Quite a few people didn't have cash that day so I believe we could've advertised sooner and better, there were a lot of Miskin actors contributing which was really lovely to see, but since we were doing it in the canteen we could've advertised around the college more so students from other subjects could also donate if they wanted to. Apart from this, I was really happy with how the bake sale went and we raised £104.07 in that hour alone which I was very impressed with, I thought this was the best possible start to our fundraising mission this term!
Our other idea was the most difficult one to come up with something great that would be practical and we could put together in a small time frame. We came up with many different choices, like a scavenger hunt around the Miskin or Santa's Grotto, and we decided that even though they could bring in plenty of donations, they would not be able to create in such a small period of time and with the resources with have, it would take a lot of effort, time and money to put together. We eventually decided on a director forfeit where we'd get as many directors as possible and whoever gets the most votes will get something like the classic 'pie in the face', we were all in agreement that this idea was original and would raise us lots of money as it's something all of the Miskin can get involved in. However, we had a few setbacks and some feedback telling us that if felt like the directors were fundraising for us, but we didn't want to give up on the idea latogether because we all really loved it, so we added some more elements and decided to create a funfair where the director forfeit became the main event but there were other things that we hosted around it. This was a really nerve-wracking idea for me because I wasn't sure how popular it would be and even though the prices were good for an event like this, I thought people wouldn't want to spend anymore money on us, but we ended up raising £118.90 which was impressive! I was manning the lucky dip as part of the funfair and everyone who won were very happy with their prizes and both us and the participants were really in the fun mood which I think the music and lighting really helped with that, and everyone got dancing throughout the fair which really lifted spirits. We had lots of votes and directors involved for the forfeit and everyone was very excited about it so we let that excitement build till the very end. The funfair was a great success and it was so easy to put together with the resources we had access to, I'm really glad everyone enjoyed themselves and with all the funds we raised from both this and the bake sale, we can pay for the things we need to create a wonderful performance for our schools tour!
Buying for the show
At this point, there weren't as many props and costume bits we needed to get as I thought there would be, the only main thing we needed to buy was a backdrop, and we ended up buying two, one of the enchanted forest and the other of the lair, so that we could have more room for music, props and quick changes backstage, and we could show a contrast between good and evil by having the villains come round from the lair side, and that way there's more of a journey and a separation of locations. I was trusted with buying some more fake flowers for the piece, as we had some dead and alive ones from technical theatre but we needed many more, so I purchased a variety from Amazon. I brought singular ones of many different types, such as sunflowers, pansies and roses as we mention them quite a bit in the piece and it would be nice for the children to have a visual representation of the flowers we talk about. I took half of these 80 flowers I purchased and painted them black and discoloured them so we could have more flowers to put on stage when the Evil Wizard sets out to ruin them. I enjoy painting so this was a lot of fun for me to do, and I really liked the flowers I brought as its the perfect opportunity to teach the children about what each flower is and what they are used for.
Some other things I had to purchase for the piece were some cakes and sweets for our fundraising events. For the bake sale, I brought some fairy cakes and some large muffins but the fairy cakes weren't as successful as I thought they would be, but I ended up purchasing the muffins for the fun fair bake sale as well. I also brought some lollipops as prizes for some of the games we decided to involve as a lead up to the forfeit, and I think these were a good choice for people who didn't earn the big prize but manged to get either a hoop on or a can knocked over, and all of the participants seemed to enjoy the choice of prizes for our games which made our fun fair even more successful. All of our budget went towards many important props and costume parts we needed and we even managed to get two brilliant backdrops out of it with poles we can use for self tape set ups in the near future, so there's an investment there as well. Overall, both of our fundraising events went extremely well and all of the money we raised was put to very good use, and there's even some left over if we want to put it towards the budget for our next process!
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