A World Premiere Workshop/Development Season

Facing East is a new musical based on the stirring play by Carol Lynn Pearson that tells the story of an upstanding Mormon couple coming to terms with the suicide of their gay son. When they unexpectedly meet their son's lover, they must face a reality that until then has been ignored, and reconcile their feelings and beliefs.

Facing East: The Musical features a score by David Rigano (The Rigano Songbook), with book and lyrics by Mark Eugene Garcia (The Holy Cows Of Credence, South Dakota) and direction by Andrew Hobgood (Artistic Director of The New Colony in Chicago).

Facing East will receive a World Premiere Workshop/Development season in Chicago, IL, USA during August, 2011

The Impact

Facing East: The Musical brings to light themes of tolerance, acceptance, equality and understanding whilst dealing with the very serious issue of LGBT suicides, which has become somewhat of an epidemic over the last few years. Recently a string of suicides in young adults in the US due to bullying was brought to the attention of the public through the media, which has in turn seen a great outpouring of public support.

In response to this, and the subject matter of the show, all productions of Facing East: The Musical; including this workshop, intend to support The Trevor Project by sharing a portion of our profits with the organisation. The Trevor Project is the USA's leading national organisation providing crisis and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. To find out more about The Trevor Project please visit their website.

What We Need & What You Get

Through this campaign we're raising additional funds to help cover transport and housing costs in Chicago over Summer for some of the artists during the workshop season of Facing East as well as venue rental for the season. Funds raised will also go towards the show's marketing budget, to expand our reach to potential audience members whose feedback and support are crucial to this stage of the show's development.

Ideally we need to raise $10,000USD to assist in covering these costs and really get this workshop/development season up and running, however if we don't reach this target, any amount of money that is raised will be added to our existing production budget and attributed to various production costs. The more money we raise up front to cover costs on the productions, means there will be more profits available at the end of the season to share with The Trevor Project.

We've set up a great perks system that offers some fantastic rewards for helping us get this World Premiere Workshop/Development season off the ground so be sure to have a look at them before making your donation to see what rewards you'll qualify for.

Other Ways You Can Help

Who wants a FREE TRIP TO CHICAGO?

Share our indiegogo campaign for FACING EAST with friends, family, or even the crazy cat lady next door!

If you can raise $1200.00 for FACING EAST: The Musical by getting people you know to donate, well get you a flight into Chicago and one night stay in a hotel to attend the workshop! And well even credit you as an associate producer! A perk normally reserved for $1,000 donators. You dont even have to donate yourself, if you can raise that money, youre coming to CHICAGO to be a part of FACING EAST taking its first big step forward!

So how does this work?

First share this campaign with people you know using the share tools, or however you like to share information. Make sure that when your friends/family/cat ladies donate that they put your name in the comments section so we can trace it back to you. (eg: John Smith said I should donate to Facing East!) Your friends donations are also still eligible for any of the equivalent perks theyre donation fulfils- so everyones a winner! At the end of the campaign, well tally up all the donations and if youve managed to raise a total of $1200+ youve earned yourself a free flight and accom!

Get connected by becoming a fan of Facing East on Facebook and following us on Twitter to find out all the latest news about the show. We also have a website and a blog, so be sure to check those out as well.

Don't forget to watch the video of Kevin Duda (from the Xanadu National Tour) singing "Still Standing" from Facing East: The Musical on our gallery page, and feel free to share this video with your friends as well.

And if you happen to be in Chicago come and see the show, because we'll be looking for a fantastic supportive audience come August!

Also please visit and support www.thetrevorproject.org