A team of former George Brown Theatre School students “with a passion for creating high-energy, unpretentious and above-all fun theatre” managed to raise $6,000 for their show called ‘Callaghan! And the Wings of the Butterfly’ through the online funding platform Indiegogo.

This March marked five years since they started their company Sex T-Rex which evolved from an improv to a theatre performing team.

Founding member Colin Munch said, “Sex T-Rex is a shortened version of our original name Sexual Tyrannosaurus, which is a reference to the movie in Predator. In it, Jesse Ventura says that chewing tobacco will ‘make you a god damned sexual tyrannosaurus’, just like me.”

Deriving inspiration for the shows from popular films and video games, the team says they write original material where the movie genre threads through the body of each play. Firefly, Blade Runner, Star Wars and Star Trek have sparked the idea of a sci-fi comedy Leviathan, which is currently in production.

The Callaghan show which was premiered in Montreal Fringe Festival in 2012 after successful Indiegogo campaign was inspired by Indiana Jones and the video game Uncharted.

“We usually do a blank stage, very minimal props, lots of special effects and big blockbustery stuff. We do a Matrix fight scene, and we don’t have any strings and computer graphics to make us float like that. It’s just Conor picking us up” team member, Kaitlin Morrow laughingly said, pointing to Conor Bradbury, who is obviously the biggest guy in Sex T-Rex.

Performing theatre at its finest, and setting it up as a new reality, the troop creates an unusual artistic synergy of theatre, movies and improvisation. After initially writing a script they are, “basically throwing it out of the window,” said Morrow, keeping the show slightly different every time they play it.

“When we are improvising we get laughs of recognition from the audience. They can tell where the story is going,” Munch said. “What’s great about pulling this off is the audience knows that you are making it up. So they assume that you are making up other stuff that you meticulously rehearsed.”

Intensively playing characters and special effects made from colourful puppets of blood, smoke and stars, the Sex T-Rex team is trying to recreate a specific movie genre on stage. This cinematic effect combined with pure improvisation keeps the audience’s jaws dropping throughout the show and makes it just fun.

Bradbury recalled a situation made them improvise right on the spot which got applause and loud laugh from the audience.

“This was a moment where I was supposed to step over Kaitlin, she is playing a goon,” said Bradbury. “I break her neck, she falls down, I step over her and Callaghan suddenly kicks her in the head and I remember myself saying, ‘You kind of kicked that guy in the head’ and he turned saying ‘I know that guy is dead but I hope he is ok.’”

All the funds raised in Indiegogo by Nov. 30, 2012 went to the company’s 10-months operational expenses which allowed them to play Callaghan twice in Montreal and make a bit of revenue to present it in Toronto. “We had two really, really generous donators – our parents, especially my mom’s company,” Colin commented. “Don’t laugh, this is a big part of fundraising at a young age, about a quarter comes from your friends and family. So my mom’s company gave us a $1,000 and Kaitlin’s mom gave us $200.”

Working part-time in a coffee shop, Morrow thinks that their “biggest donations probably came from who is a regular to the coffee shop. It’s just really about having no shame and just getting out there and telling everybody that you have no one to count on.”

Not counting on a classical theatre education either, three of the five members of the company dropped out George Brown Theatre School. Morrow said that GBC’s museum-based theatre didn’t really fit their performing style.

“You know this is a therapy session, right? We were not the shining examples what they wanted as actors. We are too wired,” said Morrow.

“Basically they create actors to go to Stratford and the Shaw Festival,” echoed Munch. “We were always interested in making in own work and they don’t really teach how to do that.”

When asked about future plans, they looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Admitting that it’s a tough transition to make a living in theatre, they also have part-time jobs, mostly out of the artistic sector.

“These gigs feed you; literally put food in your belly. They give you bread and butter,” Morrow said. “A part-time job just makes it work but ultimately I would like to do my own thing.”

“You do as much as you can because it’s your passion. But if paid work comes along you have to take it. That’s been an issue a few times in the company,” Munch reflected. “My problem is I’m a jerk and I like doing my own stuff and I’m very stubborn. You have to be a jerk to say like ‘I’m going to make my own play. I will make it from scratch.’ You have to be a little bit of a psychopath to want to do it at all.”