Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1426475
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 NOVEMBER 2021 7 THEATRE Unifaun Theatre returns with its first publication The cutting-edge theatre company has launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance its first publication: a bilingual book about its history and modern theatre. UNIFAUN Theatre Produc- tions, a Maltese avant-garde theatre company that defied all taboos during its 19 years of op- eration, is raising funds through crowdfunding platform Zaar to publish a 600-page book. Unifaun - Teatru Mod Ie- hor (A Different Kind of The- atre) will be written in both Maltese and English and will carry stunning photography of the company's many theat- rical productions. The book, edited by Trevor Zahra, will cover Unifaun's history, and contain several essays on thea- tre in Malta as well as critical reviews of each of the compa- ny's productions. It will also feature the theatre company's 2009 legal battle against both the State and the church af- ter the (now defunct) Censor- ship Board banned the play STITCHING from being per- formed. That particular case effectively sounded the death knell for theatrical and artistic censorship in Malta. Publishing a book of this standard is costly, and Unifaun have turned to the Zaar crowd- funding platform to raise the capital needed. "Zaar is the only reward-based crowdfunding platform in Mal- ta, and it has helped many projects come to fruition over the past six years," says Mat- thew Caruana, Zaar manager. "Traditionally, projects which required an initial investment turned to banks for financing, but crowdfunding platforms like Zaar now provide an easy alternative. By collecting small amounts of money from a large number of backers, individuals or startups can not only raise the funds needed for their pro- ject to take off, but they also gain supporters and, possibly, early customers for their prod- uct." Backers of this particular pro- ject can donate any amount be- tween €5 and €3,500 that will entitle them to rewards, rang- ing from a discounted copy of the book to four free copies, an invitation to the book launch where they will receive VIP treatment, and the possibility of displaying their company's logo on the book and at the launch, should this apply. Zaar subdivides the projects using its services into four categories: Business, Culture, Community, and Research. Te- atru Mod Iehor falls in the Cul- ture category, not only because of its subject matter, but also because it is meant as a text- book for Theatre Studies stu- dents. "It goes beyond the sto- ry of the theatre company and provides a wealth of informa- tion about modern theatre and the industry as a whole," says Adrian Buckle, artistic director at Unifaun Theatre. "Universi- ty students reading for a degree in Theatre studies will, in fact, be invited to the book launch which will be held at Spazju Kreattiv, as will theatre practi- tioners." For more information and to donate to Unifaun's campaign, visit https://zaar.com.mt/pro- jects/unifaun-teatru-mod-ie- hor-a-different-kind-of-thea- tre/