Meduza is a piece of performed visual art, developed by the unique approach of its choreographer Marie Gourdain, whose background is in the visual arts. The visual aspects and the scenography of the piece are not there just to accompany what is happening on stage: on the contrary they belong to the core of the piece, they are part of the inspiration and shape its atmosphere. This piece was developed during more than ten weeks of rehearsals spread across a year, and gathered a team of thirteen people.

Financially Meduza has been supported by the District of Prague 7, Nadace Život umělce, the Czech Ministry of Culture, the City of Prague, the City of Brno, the foundation Nadace Život Umělce, and, as co-producers, Studio ALTA and DW7.

We are indeed very grateful for this support, however, sadly it is hardly enough to cover the bare minimum of the production. So what are we going to do after the premiere?

We need to:

What do we absolutely need to rebuild?
In the show, apart from our five performers, there are four geometrical boards on stage that have a very important and fundamental role to play, like all the visual or scenographic elements in Marie Gourdain’s works. They need to be more than just aesthetic: they have to be functional and intelligently constructed. They are complex objects, meticulously designed in collaboration with the skilled carpenter Zbynek. Just to produce the prototypes, he worked for two long weeks and used more than 64 kg of material and at least 83 different tools. The minimum cost to make one board is CZK 12,500 (500€). During our year of rehearsal, our prototypes were used a lot and did a good job, but we need new boards. On top of that, we want to improve them, find more resistant material and technical answers to our questions, which will inevitably bring new expenses.

Why do we want to invest in lighting equipment?
Light design is extremely important to us! For a piece like Meduza, precise and sensitive lighting is essential for us to achieve our visual goals.

It’s imperative to take time to refine the concept and have the most suitable technical equipment to create it. Zuzana Režná, our light designer, is working with a large range of equipment, however, she needs at least 15 floodlights to create the atmosphere she wants but for now we don’t have even one of our own. It’s not necessary or even possible for us to buy all of them but, when you go on tour, it’s important to have at least some as it’s rare to find a venue that has the number we need. This is why we really want to buy at least 5. One costs CZK 5000 (200€).

Why is it important to us to pay our team fairly?

It’s part of our philosophy. We want to pay a decent wage to the highly skilled people we have the chance to work with and who make it possible for us to create a project that we (tYhle) would not be able to do alone.

That means we need a budget of at least CZK 75,000 (3000€).

Join us on the creative path we believe in! Support us and help us to be able to purchase what we need to take Meduza forward!

This way, Meduza will also be yours a little bit!

And we shall be so very thankful and won’t forget your gesture.

If you want to have more information about Meduza, see our website:  tYhle.cz/en/meduza/