Blood and Gore for Alistair McDowall's X

A nonprofit fundraiser supporting

Flat Earth Theatre Inc

Help us make our sci-fi horror play as bloody as possible!

$695

raised by 15 people

$400 goal

Story

Updates (3)

Meet the Pluto Team

Update posted 4 years ago

Our brave cast and crew dare to venture to the far-reaches of our solar system and to the outer limits of the human psyche. Here's our intrepid team of astronauts working to create this blood-spattered spectacle:

Cassandra Meyer as Gilda

A familiar face on the Flat Earth stage, Cassandra Meyer played Annie Jump Cannon in our Norton Award–winning production of Silent Sky, and has been seen in Not Medea and Enigma Variations. Now she steps into the space shoes of Gilda, the mission's science officer and second in command who must face an impossible situation and keep her crew and her sanity intact while marooned on the edge of the solar system.

David Anderson as Ray

We are thrilled to welcome Boston theatre veteran David Anderson to the cast in the role of Ray, the troubled captain of the mission who struggles to keep himself together under the pressures of a world — no, a universe gone wrong. David just closed the inaugural production of Acropolis Stage Company's Cherry Docs, and he's got an IRNE for Best Actor from Love! Valour! Compassion! with Zeitgeist Stage Company, to boot.

Nick Perron as Clark

A newcomer to the Flat Earth Stage, Nick Perron joins the cast of X as Clark, a mathematician and computer scientist whose immaturity around the other members of the team may mask his own inner fragility. Around town, Nick just wrapped The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time with Apollinaire Theatre Company, and was recently in Nomad Americana with Fresh Ink Theatre Company.

Slava Tchoul as Cole

Slava Tchoul is also making his Flat Earth debut in X. He recently appeared in The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart with Apollinaire Theatre Company and Henry IV with Praxis Stage. In the X cast, Slava takes on the role of the genuinely brilliant though socially awkward scientist Cole, the team's meteorologist who starts to notice something has gone horribly, horribly wrong with the mission.

Abigail Erdelatz as Mattie

Flat Earth is excited to welcome back Abigail Erdelatz, whom you may remember as the sassy little sister Sarah in June's fantastical production of King of Shadows! In X, she takes on the role of Mattie, the youngest member of the crew. Forming a special bond with Gilda, she attempts to maintain a sense of normalcy, but as time ticks on, even she can't help but acknowledge their situation is anything but routine.

Can You Solve for X?

Flat Earth Theatre is blasting off to Pluto for the New England debut of Alistair McDowall's sci-fi horror masterpiece, X, running November 1st–16th, 2019 at the Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA.

As one would expect from a play that channels standout horror classics such as Alien, Event Horizon, and Sunshine, the challenge of this show is to design, construct, and deploy the special effects to simulate all the blood we will need for three weeks of performances — and make it look as horrific as this show deserves!

In X, we follow the story of a team of astronauts who find themselves marooned on the dark, frigid wasteland of Pluto, suddenly out of contact with Earth. With nothing to do but wait, the crew struggles to maintain their sanity as the very fabric of reality begins to unravel around them. The show gets darker and more twisted the longer the astronauts are left to their own devices. Things take a bloody turn, and that's where this campaign comes in...

Boost our Blood Supplies!

As a fringe theatre company, Flat Earth runs on very lean production budget. Most shows don't have such a hefty need for buckets and buckets for blood (shocking, right?), so it's not a line item normally accounted for when divvying up the show budget. X is wildly different though.

According to our Special Effects Designer, Lynn Wilcott: "I find that the difficulty in special effects in live theatre is to strike the right balance between shock and realism, so that the audience feels a visceral reaction, while still keeping them in the world of the play. When you see blood, you want to make sure that it's justified. I get to collaborate with just about every part of the show – I have the unique opportunity to work with scenic, props, lighting, costumes, actors, stage management, and house staff to make sure that a) everyone is safe, but also b) everyone has a great reaction when they see that shock of red."

Our gore experts require an additional $400 to make this show ooze, gush, spurt, and squish the amount of blood that will do justice to the vision of the show. Obviously, even more will make it even grosser, which is exactly what we're going for. Your donations will go directly to the special effects budget to:

buy ingredients for our fake blood recipes
test techniques to get the blood to flow realistically and gruesomely
build rigging into costumes and anywhere else the blood needs to pour from

And it's not just blood! There's also makeup, vomit, and other gore to account for, but that's well into spoiler territory and you're just going to have to come to the show to see that in action!

Other Ways to Support our Mission to Pluto

Other than helping us supplement our blood budget, the best way to help our mission to the edge of the solar system is to come see the show, especially if you bring your friends!

X runs November 1st–16th, 2019 at the Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA.

Tickets are on sale here, and we'd love to have you watch your contribution to the show getting mopped up from the space station floor every night!

You can also earn a special place in our hearts by spreading the word about this campaign and the show! Local theatre gets the most promotion via word of mouth, and we are ever appreciative of every time someone tells a friend about our work.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and join our mailing list to keep up to date on how thick our blood supplies are running, what's in the future for Flat Earth, and other ways you can get involved!

Learn more about X at: https://www.flatearththeatre.com/shows/season-14/x/