Midsummer Night’s Dream Fundraiser with Compass Collective

On June 21st, we will attempt to help Compass Collective set a new WORLD RECORD for the most simultaneous table reads and performances of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to help raise money for Refugee Week. They have set out to bring together 200 people in at least 30 different mini-productions, raising funds to support young refugees and asylum seekers across the UK. We are facilitating one of those performances, and we are asking you to help us raise money for an amazing cause.

About Compass Collective:

Compass Collective helps young refugees and asylum seekers build resilience and integrate into the UK. They provide vital support, creative opportunities, and a sense of community to prevent isolation for those arriving to the UK unaccompanied. Each year, they support around 350 young people aged 18-26 from 28+ locations.

Thanks to your generosity, they can continue to provide vital programmes that help young people develop communication skills, build confidence, and access opportunities in education, training, and employment.

Why we're participating:

Last summer, we were among more than one hundred people who took part in Compass Collective’s crazily brilliant 24-hour Shakespeare Marathon for Refugee Week - and we loved it!

So this year, when the call came out for people to create performances or hold readings of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on 21st June for Refugee Week, we knew that we had to be involved. We’re both actors, we’re passionate about Shakespeare, and we’re also committed to supporting the brilliant work of Compass Collective.

When we thought about how to approach this new challenge we decided that we would like to experiment with an all-female (including trans and non-binary) production, partly because the theme for Refugee Week this year is “Community as a Superpower”. So much comfort can be drawn from community, and we want to draw inspiration from the community we know best. We have had the opportunity to work with many fantastic female artists and know the power and influence women can hold. In addition to poverty and other issues that all refugees may face, female refugees face an added layer of oppression from gender discrimination. And yet, despite everything that makes being a woman, or underrepresented gender, difficult, there is something beautifully unique and magical about “girlhood” - even when this is something that is discovered as an adult.

We want to capture that magic in a production and place that joy on stage.

We’re incredibly excited that we will be performing on the 21st June at the amazing Bush Theatre. Any profits from the Box Office will go to Compass Collective, but we want to do more than that! This GoFundMe page is essential as we hope to raise £1000 for Compass Collective through regular fundraising, so that we can really make a difference.

For more information about the amazing work Compass Collective do you can check out their website HERE

Our production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is supported by The Bush Theatre and Fourth Monkey, and is by Robyn Faye, Charly Faye and Emma Brunet-Campain, with additional musical direction by Lizzy Lister.

Full cast list coming soon!