Alex and Evie and the Forever Falling Rain

Our show begins with the bubbly Alex running through the audience, making friends as he goes. He’s lost his ball. And he’s got to go find it. We follow him into a world where we meet Evie, a headstrong young girl, whose only friend is her sassy talking cat, Amadazeus. Together they share a passion for their dislike of the rain. But then Alex crashes into them, with his love of the rain and adventure and friendship, and a solution for Evie’s plan to stop the rain.

The two new friends Alex and Evie, accompanied reluctantly by Amadazeus, set off on an epic journey up to the very top of the highest hill, where legend tells of two friends, now lost to time, who used to control the weather. On their journey they encounter pelicans with bills that need paying, shadow creatures afraid of the dark, and the mysterious Storm Tamer. Ultimately, they discover how the most powerful friendships can weather any storm.

Alex and Evie is a story for now. Children, parents and adults who fit somewhere in between will engage with the rich tapestry of the story’s whimsical world, where the threat of a birthday ruined by an ever-present rain propels our protagonists on a fantastical adventure exploring the importance of friendship, finding joy in new places, and the wisdom of innocence.

Interested to program this show?

We are taking interest for this show which will tour in 2023. Just provide your email address, and we will get in touch with you.

Form and Style

The show is a magical mix of puppetry (shadow puppets, puppets on strings, pelican puppets!), rich sound design (including an all-consuming soundscape incorporating rain, caves and storms), an original score (punctuating the emotional and epic moments of the play), playful costume design (think rain armour, cats with blue fur, a magical being as old as the rain itself), and a dynamic set (which transforms from Evie’s bedroom to the magnificent mountains beyond). All of this supported by the show’s gorgeous script, which combines humour and heart to explore ideas of loneliness, courage and growth in an ever-changing world.

Community Engagement

This is a perfect show for community engagement and our talented team is keen to work with each presenter to tailor the opportunities to their community. Here are some examples:

• Acting workshops for primary school-aged children (5-12). Our talented cast includes WAAPA graduates, industry professionals and children’s entertainers. Our team has worked with children in theatre programs, hospitals, swimming pools and at Scitech. We would be very excited to facilitate engaging drama workshops with (or without) thematic links to our show, at local schools or community centres.
• Shadow puppetry workshop. Our show incorporates a shadow puppetry sequence. We would happily run a workshop for primary school aged children/families to learn the simple art of shadow puppetry creation.

VENUE ACTIVATIONS

At our State Theatre performance for FRINGE, we ran three activations in the venue for the duration of the performance. We could easily put together the same or similar activations for your venue.

• Paper boat building. The final image of our show is our characters racing paper boats they made together (a symbol of their friendship) down a giant hill. In collaboration with the State Theatre, we created a paper boat-building station. The boats were floated in the theatre’s water feature. We also designed a paper mache island to place within the feature. Pictures are available on our Instagram (January 24, 2022).
• Colouring-in station. We set up a colouring-in station with line pictures of our posters and concept art. We are developing this show into a colouring book, so could incorporate one of the panels from that in this activation.
• Foyer display. We created a foyer box display, with extracts from the script, interviews with the team and exclusive photoshoots, for guests to learn more about the creation of the show.

We would also happily run a Q&A after the show, and/or have our actors interact with audience members in the foyer after the show.

Reviews

★★★★★ – Laura Money, Fourth Wall Media

★★★★1/2 “An adorable, superbly crafted children’s show with subtle messages and depth that the whole family will enjoy” – Lorna Mackie, Fringefeed

8.5 out of 10 – Rosalind Appleby and Hannah Peterson, SeeSaw

★★★★ “It speaks of sunshine after rain. As a parent, it’s a positive message that complements my own philosophy for raising resilient children” Eleanor Mulder, Perth Happenings

AUDIENCE TESTIMONIALS

We received 24 audience reacts on the FRINGE WORLD app – 8 “greatest of all time”, 14 “recycle that, would see again”, and 2 “emotional rollercoaster”.

“Brilliant! Story was engaging and great interactions/participation with the audience.” Owen K

“A heartwarming, adventurous and saccharine show for the child at heart!” Niamh W

“Adorable, feel good show. Great use of music and lighting and strong performance throughout. Kids and adults will love what Alex and Evie has to offer.” Madeleine S

INDUSTRY TESTIMONIALS

Jenny Simpson, CEO/Artistic Director of AWESOME Festival, saw our show at FRINGE and recommended that we pitch for WA Showcase. Jenny said she would be happy to be a referee.

We can ask Kaitlin Tinker, the Programming Coordinator for the State Theatre’s State of Play program, for a testimonial regarding the quality of our team. In a post-show debrief, Kaitlin said we were one of the best teams the venue worked with over the FRINGE season.

Available Marketing Collaterals

The following collateral is available:

• Professional poster
• Professional studio images of Alex and Evie (able to be edited with customised text for social media posts)
• Professional photographs from the original performance at the State Theatre
• Media release, including interviews with writer and directors
• Short animated video using professional studio shots (see Instagram post, @every_other_ on 9 January 2022)
• Video footage from the original performance at the State Theatre (able to be edited into short video clips for social media)
• Concept art by our graphic designer, which inspired the writer and set design

Samples of all this collateral can be found in the link provided in the first support material document attached to this application.

Credits

Although every other theatre company is relatively new, our creative team has worked collaboratively on over 15 original productions since 2016. We met at the University Dramatic Society at UWA, of which four of us are honoured life members.

Our co-director, lighting and set designer Anaïs Popoff-Asotoff is a sought after theatre creative who has worked with the Last Great Hunt (“Whistleblower”), Black Swan Theatre Company (“The Cherry Orchard”), and the National Theatre (“Barbershop Chronicles”).

Our cast includes well-known and well-respected Perth actors Courtney Henri (WAAPA, “Playthings” for Black Swan Theatre Company, “Telephone” for The Last Great Hunt) and Gemma Sharpe (“Kiss: A New Musical” for Western Sky Productions, feature films including “A Few Less Men” and “1%”).

Our writer and photographer Sophie Minissale is head editor of Pulch Magazine, host of “All Things Queer” at RTRFM, and is currently working with dramaturg Xavier Hazard and our in-house graphic designer Darren Neumann on developing this show into a children’s book.

Our sound design and score was created by music producer and WAAPA graduate Patrick Middleton, who recently relocated to Sydney to pursue his music career.

Our costumes were designed by WAAPA grad Jamie Fodor.

Our producer and dramaturg, Xavier Hazard, is an admitted lawyer and a Masters of Theatre (Writing) student at the Victorian College of the Arts.