The Most Naked

About the Stretch Goal

This Stretch Goal will help us get closer to covering our production costs for our Auckland seasons EASILY, as opposed to having to scrimp, save and ask for discounts left, right and center. Additional production costs that this Stretch Goal will help us fully cover include:

- The hire, transportation, insurance and tuning costs of the beautiful baby grand piano (a vital element in the show) being kindly hired to us by Auckland Live at a discounted price (if you know pianos, you know that even with a discount, the cost is still high!)
- Being able to cover more of the venue and equipment hire costs and staff costs (ushers, venue technicians) at Q Theatre during our season
- Being able to run a three-week promotional poster campaign, as opposed to a two-week campaign, in the lead up to the season to drum up as much visibility, engagement and ticket sales to ensure our season is a sell-out success after all the hard work that's gone into it!

Most excitingly, any amount over and above our production costs means extra dollars that can go into bumping up the pay of our spectacular team of creatives involved in this 2023 tour season.

These beautiful humans include:
Lucien Johnson - Composer, Live Musician = Saxophone Wizard
Lucy Lynch - Performer = Hair -Choreography Diva
Holly Finch - Performer = Glamour Banshee
Brynne Tasker-Poland - Lighting Designer/Operator = Tour sister #1
Sam Tippet - Stage Manager = All round good b*tch
Emmanuel Reynaud - Set Designer/Construction = Resident Frenchie

And just as a sneaky extra, any amount over and above our production costs, and bumping up our collaborators pay, means that maybe ... just MAYBE ... Producer, Choreographer/Director, Performer and all round Most Naked benevolent dictator Hannah Tasker-Poland might be able to pay herself a full producers fee for the genuinely countless hours of work that has been poured into keeping these The Most Naked seasons churning out. The dream.
Thank you in advance for all your continued support. It means more than you know. HTP x

“The Most Naked is much much more than a show - it will toy with your senses, twist your mind and send you deep into your own behavior, values and experiences”.

Fearlessly sinking its teeth into cultural mores around nudity, strip tease & the flashing of skin, The Most Naked is an original, full-length live experience that strips nakedness to the bone. Compelling, wild and unsettlingly sexy, this multidisciplinary work-come-cabaret invigorates and interrogates as audiences take an explorative journey to the relationship with nudity. 

Inspired by cabaret and burlesque art-forms, it’s teeth are forcefully sunk into mesmerising dance artistry, subversive theatre, spectacular live music and political eroticism.

Created & performed by chameleonic force-of-nature artist and “most naked” performer Hannah Tasker-Poland with the live musical wizardry of internationally renowned composer, musician and Arts Foundation award-winner Lucien Johnson. An exceptional team of creatives helped bring this work to life, including esteemed costume designer Elizabeth Whiting and world champion special-effects artists BodyFX.

Commissioned by Auckland Live, The Most Naked premiered at The Auckland Cabaret Season in June 2021 at the luscious Civic Theatre Wintergarden for a sold-out three night season to the point of standing-room-only and waiting lists. Hot Damn. The work has since toured three additional seasons - BATS Theatre Wellington in July 2021 (sold-out) and the Dunedin and Hawke’s Bay Arts Festivals in October 2022 (sold-out). 

Reviews describe the show as a “tour-de-force”, “totally arresting” & “a brilliant piece of dramatic & personal theatre”. Most poignant has been the deeply moving audience feedback we have received over the past two years, and continue to receive: “One of the best pieces of theatre I’ve seen in years. Original. Powerful. Stunning. I laughed at the beginning and was in tears by the end”.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

The Most Naked has been invited to present two 2023 seasons; A return Auckland season at the spectacular Q Theatre from 13th - 17th June, and a one-night-only season at the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust (TAFT) Right Royal Cabaret Festival on 24 June at the fabulous Theatre Royal, New Plymouth.

These are fantastic opportunities for us to share the show we’re so proud of with brand new audiences and to reconnect with existing ones. We are thrilled to have been included in New Plymouth's Right Royal Cabaret Festival and can’t wait to create relationships with the theatre-going public in the Taranaki region. And as for Auckland - almost two years on from The Most Naked debut in 2021 and we are still receiving messages and feedback from people who missed out the first time around and are hanging out to see it, or who saw the show and loved it so much they want to come again and bring their friends and whānau. The folks at Q Theatre had been receiving similar feedback and so here we are! We’re very grateful to Q Theatre for making space for us to bring the glamour and fury back home.

GETTING BOOSTED!

We are fortunate that the TAFT Cabaret Festival presentation fee covers all costs associated with our New Plymouth season - sorted. However as our Q Theatre Auckland season is not part of a festival there are many costs that fall to us. Q Theatre have heavily subsidised as many costs as they can - legends! - but there is still a substantial amount to source. Some of our costs will be recouped through box office. The rest we are seeking from two sources - Creative New Zealand and Boosted.

We have applied to Creative New Zealand for all our artist-related costs - artists fees, per diems, travel and accommodation for our touring team of six.

Through Boosted we are seeking the balance of our production costs: venue hire, technical costs, equipment hire and a grunty marketing and publicity campaign to ensure our season is as successful as it can be.

As many of you may know, the arts funding climate has been particularly fraught recently. Demand for funding is high, CNZs resources are stretched and accessibility for funding seems to be dwindling. We feel strongly that we need to do everything we can to make our CNZ application as easy to fund as possible by alleviating the amount we are requesting from them. Without this funding our seasons cannot go ahead. This is where Boosted comes in.

SHOW US YOUR TIPS

We would like to invite you to be The Most Generous and donate to The Most Naked. Help us share and bare all for new audiences. It’ll be The Most Fabulous way to support our incredible artists.

Thank you so much in advance for supporting the presentation of high-quality Aotearoa art.

Ngā mihi mahana,

Hannah Tasker-Poland
Director | projectMUSE

THE MOST NAKED TEAM:

Hannah Tasker-Poland - Creator, Choreographer, Director,  Performer
Lucien Johnson - Composer, Musician
Lucy Lynch - Performer
Holly Finch - Performer
Brynne Tasker-Poland - Lighting Designer + Operator
Sam Tippet - Stage Manager + Sound Operator 
Emmanuel Reynaud - Set Designer + Construction
Elizabeth Whiting - Costumer Designer + Construction
BodyFX - SPFX Prosthetics Artists

Commissioned by Auckland Live.

projectMUSE wishes to thank the following people for their contibution to and support of The Most Naked development periods and show seasons: Tessa Redman + Kia Jewel (Wellington 2021 season performers), Stef Fink, Janelle Bish and the Auckland Live team, The Civic Theatre Auckland, BATS Theatre Wellington, Pitsch Leister at Hawke's Bay Arts Festival, Charlie Unwin at Dunedin Arts Festival, Megan Brown at Taranaki Arts Festival, Kate Ward-Smythe at Q Theatre, PANNZ, Wellesley Studios Auckland, Auckland Theatre Company, Tarrant Dance Studios Wellington, Footnote NZ Dance, The Dance Studio Auckland, Manu Reynaud, Lucy Marinkovich, Jess Holly-Bates, Lara Liew, Katie Rudd, Rebekkah Schoonbeek- Berridge, Michael Hurst, Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Amanda Billing, Norrie Montgomery, Ivan Muller, Caio Silva, Robin Kerr, Yuki Wada, Jean Sergent, Brydie Colqhoon, Matthew Kleinhans, Rachel Rouge at The Menagerie, Luke Hanna, Geoff Williams and Meg Hope,