Above & Beyond at the Toronto Fringe Festival

Go Fund Me: Team Fundraiser

Hi! We are the creative team behind the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival production ABOVE & BEYOND, and we would like to invite YOU to be a part of our show! 

About The Show

ABOVE & BEYOND is a millennial office comedy about that job you love to hate. A relatable and humorous look on office politics, this sketch comedy-esque show follows BFF co-workers Jaime and Nicole as they try to survive their dead-end sales job selling educational “travel experiences” to unimpressed teachers across the city. Will they persevere against every millennial’s worst nightmare or drown under a pile of unread emails?

Playwright Jaclyn Toledano began writing this show as a way to cope and heal while battling Lyme Disease.  The show is inspired by Jaclyn’s 8 years of experience working in the educational travel industry. In addition to being a much-needed creative outlet during a difficult time, writing the show also gave her the opportunity to examine and explore what it means to be a young woman in today's workplace and the economic reality facing today's young workers.

ABOVE & BEYOND will be playing at the Robert Gill Theatre (214 College St.) from Thursday, July 4th to Saturday July 13th, 2019. Specific show dates, times and tickets can be found here: https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/above-beyond .

Our Team

We are so excited to announce that our show will be created by some of the most emerging and established artists in the city, including: Director Rebecca Ballarin; Stage Manager Gloria Mok; Producer Angela Sun; Performers Tatyana Mitchell, Natasha Ramondino, Rabiya Mansoor, Andrea Irwin, Felix Beauchamp, and Francis Masaba; Set and Costume Designer Jules Mendoza; Lighting Designer Sharmylae Taffe-Fletcher; Sound Designer Frank Incer; and Intimacy Choreographer Leslie McBay.  

Our cast and crew has also been involved with a number of hit festival shows including: SILK BATH (Toronto Fringe Festival, Next Stage Theatre Festival), A BEAR AWAKE IN WINTER (NSTF), GA TING (NSTF), and PEARLE HARBOUR’S CHAUTAUQUA (SummerWorks Performance Festival). We can’t wait for you to see their work in this production!

Where Your Donations Will Go

Making art is VERY expensive and we need your help. So far our playwright has been single-handedly funding this production alongside her exorbitant medical fees and, as such, donations are sorely needed. This is where your money will be going:

Paying our artists.
Making art takes A LOT of time and effort and we believe that our artists deserve to be properly compensated for the work they have put into this production. Throughout this process, our cast and crew are required to attend months of rehearsals, meetings, fittings, photoshoots, two weeks’ of shows, and that’s not even counting their preparation time outside of scheduled hours. We are a small, independent production and while we are able to provide a small honorarium with our current budget, we would like to give back more to our artists.

Hiring accessibility interpreters.
This is a show led by people with invisible disabilities and we want to do our utmost to make our show as accessible as possible to a wider number of patrons. We are currently in the process of creating a relaxed performance and want to be able to hire both an ASL and a Deaf interpreter for our ASL interpreted show.  

Production costs large and small.
We are not joking when we say that creating art is expensive. Here are just a few of the costs we have to budget for, in addition to the ones we already mentioned above: audition space rental fees, rehearsal space rental fees, the purchase of costumes, props, set pieces, posters, flyers, programs, photography...and tons of unexpected expenditures and emergencies that come up every week. Truly any amount you can give us will be SO SO SO appreciated!

Thanks for reading that long spiel and we really hope that you will consider chipping in. ANYTHING that you can contribute will really help us out.

To encourage you to go ‘Above and Beyond’ (ok, our producers are still working on their puns), here are some tokens of appreciation we are offering:

The Toronto Day Trip: If you are able to donate $10, you will receive a personalized thank you card from our production team.

The Ottawa Excursion: If you are able to donate $25, you will receive a picture of our playwright’s adorable cat Tina as well as a thank you card.

The Canadian Rockies Adventure: If you are able to donate $40, our production team will buy you a drink near our Fringe venue. You will also get a thank you card. 

NYC Here We Go: If you are able to donate $60, Jaclyn will design an itinerary for your next trip abroad. With 8 years of experience in the travel industry, she has some idea of how to do this. You will also get a thank you card.

Costa Rican Star Searcher: If you are able to donate $80, a member of our team will take you on a date to a local theatre show. You will also get a thank you card.

The Euro Trip: If you are able to donate $100, you will receive $20 off at Scarpino Shoes (Jaclyn’s family shoe store on Queen St.) You will also get a thank you card.

Above & Beyond: If you are able to donate $250 or more, a member of our team will cook or buy you a delicious dinner. They may even attempt to serve it to you. You will also get a thank you card.

Much thanks as always,

The Above & Beyond Team