Aim

Help us take two original, exciting, queer musicals to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer!

GOYA is a young, queer theatre company creating new work about right now. This summer, we will be taking our two original musicals Sex with Friends (and other tiny catastrophes) and Don't Say Macbeth to the Edinburgh Fringe and we need your help to make it happen! 

Who is GOYA?

Hi! We are Sam (Artistic Director), Mrin (Co-Producer), Lowri (Co-Producer) and Tash (Marketing Manager). We met at university and bonded over trashy TV, Stephen Sondheim, nights out at Heaven, and our relentless consumption of media. Most of all, we've found a shared love of making theatre and telling stories.

We are also incredibly lucky to be working with Livi (Musical Director and Orchestrator - Sex with Friends) and Math (Musical Director and Co-Writer - Don’t Say Macbeth). 

We will be travelling to Edinburgh with a wonderful company of six actors who will perform in rep for both shows — casting will be announced soon!

We are all young, emerging theatre-makers who love working together, being together (although not in the sex with your friends way), and creating stuff together.  

What are the projects?

Go big or go home. We are taking TWO shows up this year with our (very exciting) venues to be announced shortly. 

“The perfect balance of humour and heartbreak […] the musical captures the intricacies of generation Z” - Oxford Mail, 5* Review

Sex with Friends began its life in 2021 as Smart Casual. After a sell-out run at the North Wall Arts Centre, The Cockpit and Above the Stag, we reworked it and reimagined it and are bringing it to new life. 

Told over 18 months, it tells the story of six inseparable friends as they fall in love, and fall apart. MEL has got to get a job, MARC doesn't believe in love, WILLOW is addicted to yoga, BEN would wear a hoodie to the opera, LILY has emotional problems and JORDAN might have herpes.

It is funny, queer, and equally heartbreaking as it is heartwarming. We are really, really proud of this quintessentially GOYA show. 

Don’t Say Macbeth is totally new and curated to be an incredible Fringe debut! It is a non-stop farce, our (affectionately named) musical catastrophe, and it features a brand new score which spoofs/celebrates the musical theatre canon. 

Come backstage and witness preparations for the world premiere of a feminist-communist-dermatologist retelling of Macbeth from the perspective of the three witches. That’s right. It’s the soon-to-be smash-hit Double Bubble: The Musical.

Unfortunately, things aren’t going to plan. The composers have stolen most of the songs from other musicals, the performers have forgotten all their lines and the technical team are technically incompetent.

We are so excited to be staging a show which is silly, Shakespeare-y and a little bit spooky, designed to give its audience a great time!

Why now and why the Fringe?

It has been a really tough couple of years for creating theatre, and especially hard navigating starting out in this industry along with graduating university. We have persevered and had an incredible time with our tour of Smart Casual last year.

We began in Oxford, we are now based in London, but we believe that the Fringe will allow us to reach a much wider audience, establish new connections and partnerships, and generate the exposure needed for a graduate company and a collective of emerging artists. 

Our work champions queer artists, young people, and new music theatre. We want our love of all three to be shared. 

Our ambition is that both shows will have a life after Edinburgh, and we will be working hard in August to ensure that is the case, but we need to be able to get there to do it! 

How will your donation help?

It is notoriously difficult to find funding for the Fringe and as a young company with limited funds, we can’t get there without your support. Any donation will be incredibly valuable to us. 

The funds from this Crowdfunder will go towards: 

• Ensuring that everyone involved has their accommodation and travel costs funded. 
• Production costs such as rehearsal space hires, set and props. 
• Marketing so that we can reach the audience we would love to find in Edinburgh!

In return, we have a range of rewards to ensure your support doesn’t go unnoticed. We would especially love to stay connected with you, even if you won’t be in Edinburgh, so we can share our journey with you and keep you up to date with our work in the future. Send us a message on any of our socials if you'd like to say hi, ask a question or sign up to the newsletter. 

Thank you so much for reading and donating! 

https://www.theatregoya.com

This project successfully funded on 20th June 2022