Help fund "Milk Milk Lemonade" @ Toronto Fringe 2025

“MILK MILK LEMONADE” COMES TO THE FRINGE!

Hello! We are the (class) clowns of Mallowmarsh Productions, and we’re raising funds for our inaugural production, “Milk Milk Lemonade”, premiering this July at the Toronto Fringe Festival!

“Milk Milk Lemonade” is a whirlwind clownish comedy, exploring the highs, lows, and absurdities of elementary school. Two actors play nine kids, five teachers, and a plethora of parents in this fast-paced buffet of clownery.

THE TEAM

Mallowmarsh Productions is an ad-hoc collective of experienced Toronto theatre artists and Fringe veterans. Team members include co-creators and performers Emma Nelles and Jonas Trottier, director Jack Davidson, stage manager Sarah Brawn, and producer Georgia Findlay.

With a collective experience of 17 Fringe shows across 7 Fringes, our team have starred in and worked on Fringe hits like “Stiff and Sons” (2024), “Fatal Charade” (2023), “Joan & Olivia: A Hollywood Ghost Story” (Edmonton Fringe 2024; 2022), “The December Man” (2019), and “Cyrano” (2019).

We’re thrilled to bring together this seasoned and dynamic group of artists to bring “Milk Milk Lemonade” to the stage!

THE SHOW

80% clown show, 40% sketch comedy, 10% macaroni art, and 22% we haven’t learned to do percentages yet, this whirlwind comedy follows (class) clowns Sally, Danny, Devin, Toby, Ginny, Jimmy, Hesther, and Jacques as they navigate the horrors of health class, the rough and tumble world of indoor recess, the dizzying heights of the snack-time stock exchange, and the very real dangers of recorder-playing to answer the age old question: I know you are but what am I?

A fast-paced fifty-minute marathon, “Milk Milk Lemonade” is packed with laughs, silliness, and surprises (and just possibly some Dunkaroos).

WHEN AND WHERE

“Milk Milk Lemonade” will be on at the Toronto Fringe Festival from July 3rd to 12th at Soulpepper’s RBC Finance Studio in the Young Centre for the Performing Arts (located in Toronto’s historic Distillery District- this year’s Fringe hub!)

Fun fact: Team members Emma Nelles, Jonas Trottier, Jack Davidson, and Georgia Findlay all graduated from George Brown Theatre School, meaning they trained in the very studio where “Milk Milk Lemonade” will be performed!

CROWDFUNDING PURPOSE

After seven years of crossing their fingers and hoping for the Fringe lotto to go their way, Mallowmarsh is finally coming to The Toronto Fringe Festival!

Realizing a dream that was born in their second year of theatre school, creators Jonas Trottier and Emma Nelles are going back to where it all began to share their weird and wacky brand of clowning with the world. And while hopes and dreams come free of charge, many other things do not!

This fundraiser is to help cover the many costs borne directly by the artists in producing this show. Chief among these costs are the Fringe participation fee ($760) which covers the expense of the performance venue and technician, and the cost of renting rehearsal space ($995) to build our show. Also included are the costs of insurance, set pieces, transporting those set pieces, props, costumes, printing... and all this money is spent before anyone involved in the production has been paid a dime for the cumulative hundreds of hours which have already gone into making this silly little show!

This show is all about school so let's get nerdy:

The way Fringe works is that in return for artists financing their own productions, the Fringe guarantees that 100% of ticket sales will go back to the artists. Our venue is the RBC Studio in the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, which has a capacity of 50 seats, and we have 8 performance slots over the course of the Fringe. That means that in an absolute dreamland scenario where we sell every single one of those 50 seats at all of our 8 performances for the maximum amount of $15, we stand to get back $6000. Buuuut we do need to subtract all of those expenses we already talked about from that total, and again, let us stress that this is in the (actually impossible) event that we don’t spend another cent on props, production and/or marketing costs and sell 100% of our tickets at the maximum cost. If you start to do the math on more realistic revenue scenarios... well it starts to look bleak.

But we’re not here for pity! We’re here for money! Our main goal is to raise enough money to open our show having completely offset our production costs, thereby guaranteeing that the artists involved in the production all get to walk away with a little something in their pockets.

Every little bit adds up, and the big bits add up fast.

Thank you so much for your interest and support. Every donation of any amount is hugely appreciated, and will help us reach our goal. If you’re comfortable doing so, please share this campaign with your friends, family, co-workers, financial and legal advisors... we’ll be doing the same.

Thank you, and see you at Fringe!

Mallowmarsh Productions Team

DATES AND TIMES

RBC Studio - Young Centre for the Performing Arts (50 Tank House Lane, Distillery District)

Thursday July 3rd at 3:15pm

Saturday July 5th at 6:30pm

Sunday July 6th at 1:00pm

Monday July 7th at 8:00pm (Mask Mandatory Performance)

Tuesday July 8th at 10:00pm

Wednesday July 9th at 8:00pm

Friday July 11th at 1:00pm (Relaxed Performance)

Saturday July 12th at 6:30pm

CAST

Emma Nelles

Jonas Trottier

Jack Davidson (voice over)

CREATIVE

Sarah Brawn - Stage Manager

Jack Davidson - Director, Dramaturg, Choreographer

Georgia Findlay - Producer

Emma Nelles - Co-creator/Writer, Producer

Jonas Trottier - Co-creator/Writer, Producer

instagram: @mallowmarshproductions