Charity Monologue-athon pitting performers against the clock!

The Monologue-athon: The ULTIMATE Actor Challenge, in association with Mashed Theatre Inc. (MTi) is a 24-hour, livestreamed, interactive event being held on the 30 May 2020.

They’re engaging a multitude of actors across the globe to prepare, process, and perform a Shakespearean monologue against the clock, giving the viewers a unique insight into their process, and with some even benefiting from some high profile actors and directors in Australia and the UK including Costa Georgiadas (Gold Logie For Best Presenter 2019, Gardening Australia), Elaine Crombie (Nowhere Boys, Top End Wedding), Gerry Connolly (actor/comedian), Helen Dallimore (Here come the Habibs/Glinda – Wicked, West End), Tina Bursill (Doctor Doctor), Wesley Enoch (Artistic Director, Sydney Festival), and two Brisbane favourites Amy Ingram and Christen O’Leary (Queensland Theatre) and many more.

What’s more, the audience will also be able to tune in and directly vote on which monologue the actor performs, as well as comment on their performances and, finally, donate to the event’s charity partners the Actors’ & Entertainers’ Benevolent Fund Queensland (ABF QLD).

The President of ABF QLD, Paul Dellit OAM called the Monologue-athon “a novel concept” with which to generate the donations they require to support actors who have fallen on financial hardship, saying:

“We’ve rarely seen such a reliance on Benevolent Fund support, and the Monologue-athon is an engaging way for people to get behind the creative community.”

MTi Founder and creator of Monologue-athon, Matthew Caffoe, said the aim of the Monologue- athon was “to raise both money and the spirits of actors and audiences in isolation around the world” and “the bringing together of emerging and established actors in combination with the star power signing up is something rare and exciting to see”.

Matthew is the founder and Artistic Director of Mashed Theatre Inc. and a self-professed literary nerd. His career started at a young age fighting off Orcs and Trolls in his backyard while wielding a make-shift bamboo bow with arrows fashioned from not-quite-straight sticks he found. He graduated from University of Southern Queensland but got his break in the acting industry when he secured a voice over role on DisneyKids playing a money-gobbling monster called “The Gobbler”. He has worked internationally in Theatre and film and this is his first attempt at a live-stream event so he requested you “go easy.”

Producer Ben Warren is an actor with ten years experience working in Brisbane, Melbourne and London. From shoebox bedroom livestreams, to mainstage theatre and feature film, Ben has truly never enjoyed a logical career progression. The Monologue-athon is his first foray into producing, but probably not his first foray into staying awake for 24 hours. Ben is a graduate of Queensland University of Technology, but his real training was shooting an Izuzu commercial where he played the World’s Worst Apprentice.

Matthew and Ben will be hosting the Monologue-athon, and it will be streaming live on Facebook and Twitch.tv starting at 8:00 am 30 May 2020 (AEST) through to 8:00 am 31 May 2020 (AEST).

Facebook Stream: facebook.com/mashedtheatre
Twitch Stream: twitch.tv/monologueathon