'Cosmic Trigger' staging advances

Daisy Campbell and some of the actors from the October London Fortean Society event.

Daisy Eris Campbell has announced that she has obtained an option from the Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea estates to bring RAW's Cosmic Trigger to the British stage. (The planned show also will feature scenes from Illuminatus!, which I assume is why she had to obtain permission from the Shea side.)

That's just one of the pieces of news from a meaty email announcement that Ms. Campbell has sent out to folks on her Cosmic Trigger email list. Here are some of the other news flashes:

• A production company has been created.

• An official website will launch soon.

• There will be an event in Liverpool next month, apparently similar to the London Fortean Society event held a couple of months ago.

• The official crowd-funding campaign currently is scheduled to launch in April, but you can send in donations of 23 pounds (or $23) if you want to help now.

If you came in late, Daisy Eris Campbell is the daughter of two prominent figures in the world of English theater, the late Ken Campbell, who staged a long stage production of Illuminatus!, and Prunella Gee, a British actress. Daisy has said she was conceived backstage during the Illuminatus! production. For more on Daisy, click the tag at the end of this blog post.

Here is the text of Daisy's official communique. She said I could quote from it, so I'm sharing all of it:

Ho Ho Hail Eris! 

An update for the Cosmically Enthused

Hail n that you marvellous cosmic types,

Firstly a quick update for the as-yet uninitiated:

Plan is to stage an adaptation of Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson, with scenes from Illuminatus! woven through, as well as a dramatised peek backstage at the original Liverpool production (directed by my dad, Ken Campbell). To be funded by crowd, staged by enthusiasts and encircled within a festival of Higher Intelligence. We've had a successful read-through of the first draft, done a talk with some scenes WATCH HERE and folk have started sending in money, despite not yet launching an official crowd-funding campaign...

Right, consider yourself initiated. And when you send in your £23 or $23 you will also become a Discordian Pope. And if you're already a Discordian Pope, then I'm excommunicating you until you cough up.

And for those of you who are Popes, here's what's happening:

All I can say is this show seems to want to happen, and bad. I'm surfing wave after wave of good will around this project, and please, keep the support coming....

So, the big news is we have the option on the rights from the Wilson and Shea estates! - Heartfelt thanks to Christina Wilson and Mike Shea for their permission to proceed with this adventure.

And we are days away from a production website. Thanks go to Dom, Gary and Bobby for this.

We have a production company: "This Book Changed my Life Productions", for projects in the genre of impossible to adapt, non-fiction life-changers. Thanks, Greg.

And we have more offers of help than you can shake a stick at. Thanks to Michelle for collating all these offers. We will be gathering one and all when the time is ripe for Britain's Got Cosmic Talent - an open-door audition event for artists, musicians, actors, mystics and ontological guerrillas who feel they simply must be involved. We agree! This event will be repeated when we get ourselves Stateside...

I've been on a crowd-funding masterclass, gleaned many good tips and have a filmmaker on board to make the campaign video. Thank you, Nic.

Thanks too to Nick and Tom for their help with spreading the word.

We have a date and venue for our next jamboree: Liverpool AirSpace 22-23rd February (follow link for some readings from Illuminatus from Liverpool actors). More talks, more scenes, more John Higgs, and songs for a Cosmic musical number or two - thanks to Richard who is on a roll. This will go up on YouTube for those who can't be there live.

And I am working on some really special rewards for the crowd-funding push (which we hope to launch in April):

an exclusive, never-before-heard interview with Shea and Wilson backstage at the NT
Ken Campbell box-set of recordings of his one-man-shows - not previously available!
The audio recording of the original Illuminatus! production
All beautifully presented in collectors' editions - oh yeah baby. Thanks to Nadia and Scott for help with this. This is subject to being able to clear all the relevant rights. Ah, bureaucracy...

And all this is thanks to the donations you have made so far - extra special thanks to Nina and Monk!

YOU ARE STILL WELCOME TO DONATE, OR YOU CAN WAIT UNTIL THE OFFICIAL CROWD-FUNDING LAUNCH - OR BOTH!

Donating before we launch the crowd-funding campaign will get you on the guest list to an exclusive after-show party - only available to the Inner Circle of early supporters.

DONATE HERE email address: cosmictriggerplay@gmail.com

I'm going to ground for January, to get this darn second draft written, so please forgive me if I'm even slower than usual in replying to your emails. And if you see me on Twitter, boot me off.

I'll send a quick note when the website is up and running, and there will be contact details on there for other members of the team to contact if you want to get involved.

One other way you might wish to help is to put together a bit of research for me while I'm writing the second draft. I'll give you a subject and you condense what you discover into an easy-digest page or two. If that appeals, then email with the subject RESEARCH HELP.

See you on the other side.

May you achieve Pure Slack this Christmas.

xx xxx Daisy