A performance work that creates a poetic dreamscape of aerial rigging, puppets, dance, and more by veteran NYC interdisciplinary artists Benjamin E. Oyzon and Nicki Miller.
New York, US
$4,089
raised of
$5,000 goal
42 donations
-1887038minutes left
Fiscally Sponsored by Fractured Atlas
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Tickets are LIVE & check out our TRAILER!
First of all- WOW!! A huge and heart-full THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed to this campaign so far, AND to everyone who has engaged and shared on social media and email!
This support is so meaningful to us, and these funds are so helpful in enabling us to finally bring this work to the stage for the first time!! Wanna come see it on August 8 or 9? THE TICKET LINK IS LIVE!!
Enjoy this trailer with original music by Benny's brother John Oyzon (they're a talented family), footage by Paul Hawxhurst, and editing by Nicki.
How can you continue to support us once you've donated? Please keep spreading the word! Share the fundraiser and ticket link on social media, tell your friends about it, bring a date to the show, heck it's 2022- bring a couple of dates to the show!
We're halfway to our first stretch goal, and if we break $5K we can start investing in the next steps of our project after this August showing-can you help us keep this momentum going?
Much love and gratitude! - The Sticks & Stone team
Help us bridge the conceptual to the tangible, the metaphysical to the earthly, and trace a map from head to heart!
The old proverb of sticks and stones connects the human body to the human spirit.
But what do we do when our bodies become strangers to our souls?
photo by Paul Hawxhurst
ABOUT THE PROJECT:
“Sticks & Stone,” a performance project that actualizes many years worth of dreaming from the imaginations of veteran interdisciplinary artists Benjamin E. Oyzon and Nicki Miller, combines elements of aerial rigging, puppetry, dance, martial arts, and more as we ask: how do we connect our souls with our bodies when social constructs disconnect us from our elemental nature?
A 7 minute duet we created in 2019 has grown into an evening length work!
We are thrilled to finally share a workshop showing of our evening length show “Sticks & Stone” in NYC on August 8th and 9th, 2022!
We hope that this showing will lead to future performance and development opportunities for this project.
photo by Paul HawxhurstWHAT WE NEED:
We are asking our community of colleagues, audiences, friends, and family to support us in covering the costs associated with finally staging our production.
We have been so grateful to receive a rehearsal residency at 5th Wall Studio to develop this creation, but we still need $3500 to cover some of the material costs necessary to present this work in August.
This breaks down as:
$1700 rental fees
$600 insurance
$500 media and documentation (partial budget)
$500 materials (partial budget)
$200 transportation
With these costs covered, we can finally share our first evening length collaboration, “Sticks & Stone.”
STRETCH GOALS
If we raise a total of $5,000, this will allow us to also cover our full materials budget, document more of our process, and cover administrative fees (dues, subscriptions, and labor).
If we raise $5,000-10,000, we will be able to pay ourselves for our artistic labor, as well as invest in the beginning infrastructure for our collaboration’s next steps.
WHERE YOU FIT IN:
No donation is too small! For reference here is a sliding scale that might be helpful in determining where you fit in:
Fellow artists & freelancers: $10-50 (our often materials price out in this range. $10 covers some quick links for our puppet rigging, $30 covers a reasonably priced lyft ride, $50 covers an hour of overtime at our venue)
People with stable income: $50-300 (our performance insurance costs just over $300 for each of us, donations in this range quickly add up to cover these expenses)
People with financial abundance: $300-$5000 (these larger donations add up to help us cover our venue rental fees, as well as labor costs for documentation, administration, and creative work. After these costs are met, these funds will be allocated towards various dues, subscriptions, services, and investments that will help us grow this project in the future!)
and last but not least!
FOLLOW, SHARE, LIKE, AND ENGAGE WITH THIS PROJECT AND CAMPAIGN ON INSTAGRAM:
TICKET LINK IS COMING SOON! We hope to see you in August!
photo by Alison Stock ARTIST BIOS
NICKI MILLER (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist known for her work integrating aerial arts as a narrative theatrical language in theatre, dance, and circus. She is co-founding artistic director of Only Child Aerial Theatre (2012-2021). Her work as aerial designer and choreographer has most notably been in Ripe Time’s “The World is Round” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and recently with New Camerata Opera at Dixon Place. As a performer, Nicki has been on stage with Eric Schmalenberger’s Blunderland, ABCirque, LoftOpera, Groupmuse, No Holds Barred, Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, hypha, and Ars Nova’s Showgasm, among others. Residencies include Cirkus Cirkör (Sweden), the 2016/17 New Victory LabWorks Program, the Santa Barbara Floor to Air Festival, Circus Sessions at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre, the Contemporary Circus Arts Festival of Toronto, Circus Warehouse, The Muse Brooklyn, Anver Entertainment, and 5th Wall Studio. Nicki holds an undergraduate degree in Theatre from Syracuse University and is currently an MFA candidate for Theatre at Sarah Lawrence College. Learn more: www.nickimiller.com
BENJAMIN E. OYZON (he/him) is a Civil Engineer with over 20 years experience as an Aerial Rigger, Aerial Acrobat, Dancer, Fire Performer, and Pilates Instructor. Oyzon additionally holds a science degree in Theatre and has been performing both on the ground and in the air in NYC and internationally. Oyzon’s performance and rigging work has been in collaboration with numerous projects, theaters & companies of note including Only Child Aerial Theater, Company XIV, New Camerata Opera, hypha, 5th Wall Studio, The Kinesis Project, Anver Entertainment, AIRealistic, Grounded Aerial, 2nd Species, The Metropolitan Opera, ABCirque, The Kimmel Center, JEM Entertainment, EMPIRE Circus, and Gabrielle Roth's 5 Rhythms Dance Theater. He is continually creating different ways to find the beauty in nature and the magic in physics.
Rewards
Featured
Personalized Thank You Note, plus a gratitude listing in our program!
Donate $50.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
After the performance is over and we can breathe again, we'll hand write you a personalized thank you note on a card decorated with a print of one of Nicki's collages! Just be sure to give us your mailing address! We'll also give you a public shout out in our program!
Gratitude Listing in Our Program!
Donate $15.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
Receive a public thank you in community with fellow donors in our program! We can't make this happen alone, and we want to shout from the roof tops how much we appreciate your support by naming you directly in our program.
Gratitude Listing in Our Program and on Social Media!
Donate $25.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
In addition to a gratitude listing in our program, we'll make sure to publicly thank you on our Instagram page where our online community gathers to learn the latest about the project! We can't make this happen alone, and we want to shout from the roof tops how much we appreciate your support by naming you both in our program AND publicly on social media!
Set of 4 NVM Collage greeting cards, plus a gratitude listing in our program!
Donate $100.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
In addition to a gratitude listing in our program, we'll send you 4 blank greeting cards with different collage prints on them from Nicki's collage series "Just Remember to Notice." All cards are printed in 100% recycled paper and non-toxic, eco-friendly ink.Set of 4 unique NVM collage greeting cards
4 framed, one-of-a-kind drawings from our storyboard, a personalized thank you note, a set of NVM collage greeting cards, and a gratitude listing in our program!
Donate $500.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
These one of a kind 4 x 2.75" drawings by Nicki Miller were part of our creative process in putting together our video work! Each one is hand drawn and unique. We will frame it and mail it to you (in the US) by the end of August, a personalized thank you note on a card decorated with a print of one of Nicki's collages, and a shout out in our program!
Here are some examples: Storyboard drawings by Nicki Miller
In addition to everything above, we'll also send you 4 blank greeting cards with different collage prints on them from Nicki's collage series "Just Remember to Notice." All cards are printed in 100% recycled paper and non-toxic, eco-friendly ink. Set of 4 unique NVM collage greeting cards
