The Phase is an award-winning new contemporary pop-punk musical written by Meg McGrady & Zoe Morris about friendship, young love and singing loud when others want to silence you.

It’s 2014, Gay marriage has just been legalised in the UK, and Rowan and their LGBTQ+ bandmates want to sing it from the rooftops. But their all-girl Catholic school has other ideas. Disbanded and reprimanded, the group has a choice: do they bow down, retreat, and let the school rules divide them? Or, through all the angsty mess of adolescence, do they unite and fight back to make a change?

The show started in 2018 when writers Meg McGrady and Zoe Morris met at musical theatre writing course, Book, Music and Lyrics (BML). Since then, the show has won awards, been featured on musical theatre podcasts, performed at The Other Palace and gained over 45,000 TikTok followers. With two young people writing the show we’ve found many young people relate to the show and the topics it discusses like growing up and finding your identity. We also want this show to help parents, guardians, teachers and friends to understand the thoughts and experiences that young people go through during the turbulent times of adolescence.  

The Phase is a coming of age story that everyone can enjoy, filled with catchy pop songs that you won’t be able to get out of your head! A hugely exciting piece of new British musical theatre written by two upcoming, award-winning writers.

We are raising money to support the development of The Phase with a workshop taking place in October 2020.  After several read-throughs to help finesse the script and songs, this workshop is a wonderful opportunity to get the show on its feet and explore how the show will stylistically look on stage. It will also give us an opportunity to show what we have to a small, invited, socially distanced, audience including  industry professionals, prospective venues and investors.  

We need your help to put this workshop on so we can pay all respective performers, creatives, band members and to hire a rehearsal space. More details about the budget are shown further down. 

The show started as a passion project but has since become something much greater than that! Our 45,000 TikTok followers have proven how timely and important this show is and how so many young people crave to see this musical. 

With two young people writing the show we’ve found many young people relate to the show and the topics it discusses like growing up and finding your identity. We also want this show to help parents, guardians, teachers and friends to understand the thoughts and experiences that young people go through during the turbulent times of adolescence. 

By donating to The Phase you'll be helping make this show a reality. The workshop is our next stage in development before we prepare for the Edinburgh Fringe 2021.

We pride ourselves in that The Phase is written by a young writing team who have written a wonderfully genuine and authentic story, as it is partly based on their own experiences at school.

MEG MCGRADY (MUSIC/LYRICS)

Meg (they/them) is a twenty-one-year-old nonbinary composer and performer. Other writing credits include: an untitled Rosalind Franklin musical; Tom Brown‘s School Days (The Other Palace); and Camp-In-Between. Meg is also one of the founders of Sinqueerly Me, a cabaret night highlighting queer woman and nonbinary people in musical theatre. 

ZOE MORRIS (BOOK/LYRICS) 

Zoe (she/her) is a lyricst, book writer and occasional dramaturg and director. She has a Masters in Directing from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and has worked on multiple productions as a director, dramaturg, and science advisor. Credits include: Boujie (Drayton Arms); DIY: how to become visible (Tristan Bates); Made in Dagenham (Bernie Grant).

MARTHA GEELAN (DIRECTOR/DRAMATURG)

Martha (she/her) is a theatre director, dramaturg and educational workshop leader from London. As Associate Director to Trevor Nunn, productions include: Fiddler on the Roof, Love in Idleness (West End/Menier Chocolate Factory); The Bridges of Madison County (Menier Chocolate Factory); Agnes Callander (Theatre Royal Bath). Their current project together is new Stiles and Drewe musical Identical, based on the story of The Parent Trap. As Director: St. Anne Comes Home (St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden); Macbeth, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night (The Young Shakespeare Company, UK & International Tours); The Psychosocial Gathering, The Librarians (Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Wolf (The Bunker Theatre); Spring Awakening: The Musical, Love and Money (Studio Theatre, Norwich); Our New Girl (extract, Park Theatre London); Between the Sheets, Potato Salad, When I Wake (Waterloo East Theatre); As You Might Like It (Rosemary Branch Theatre).

KATIE WILMORE (PRODUCER)

Katie (she/her) is a Musical Theatre Producer originally from Yorkshire. She works as a Production Assistant for Kenny Wax Family Entertainment working on productions in the West End, regionally and internationally. She is also the Co-Founder and Producer of Shook Productions; an evening of new writing giving young creatives a platform to share their work with a live audience.

JAMES LEGGAT (PRODUCER)

James (he/him) is the Co-Founder and Lead Producer of Edinburgh Fringe Company, Room 29 Theatre. He was also previously a Senior Account Executive at West End Marketing Agency, AKA Promotions where he worked on productions including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, COMPANY and True West.

CONTRIBUTE if you have the means to do so. If you can support The Phase, please do donate and you’ll be rewarded with some special perks! We have perks available from £5 up to £250, but every penny counts.   

INVEST if you wish to truly be a part of the team developing The Phase. Please email us for more information on how to do this.   

SHARE the fundraiser with your friends and family. The further and wider this goes the more opportunities we have to get support.  Help us spread the good word!

FOLLOW us on social media. We’re on nearly all social media channels where you can find content and updates of our progress.

As mentioned previously this development money will go towards a workshop. This is an opportunity to test and trial new music and script changes. 

As well as supporting our workshop, the money raised through this campaign will allow us to provide cool rewards for our backers. 

It is very important to us that we remain transparent, so we have created this handy chart to highlight how the money will be distributed. 

As seen above we are committed to paying everyone involved in the workshop including the performers, band members and creatives. Particularly during these trying times for creatives we do not want to commit to putting anything on without paying everyone involved. 

We want to give you the coolest and most-high quality rewards, all of which are exclusive to this crowdfunding campaign, which means you won't be able to find this merch anywhere else!

We’re thrilled to offer the following exclusive rewards as a thank you for supporting The Phase!

(All products shown above are prototypes, but we expect them to look similar to the composites we’ve shared with you. Please also note that any rewards connected to the workshop may have to be adjusted based on government guidelines that might change during the workshop. If things do change and you are unable to attend in person we will provide you with a private digital version of the workshop)

If we are unable to hit our target the money provided will not go to waste. It will still go towards the workshop but we have elements we can scale back on including elements of tech and extras like photography. We have also included contingency within the budget above. 

If we do hit our target, we will update you with a new target. Any extra money raised will support the continued development of The Phase after the workshop. This will include script readings, further music workshops and the Edinburgh Fringe production.

With the theatre industry in such a place of uncertainty we are very aware of the risks of putting on any form of theatrical presentation. We are also very conscious of the safety concerns of rehearsing and workshopping a show. 

To address this our creative team are implementing safety measures to make sure the workshop will be as safe for the team and actors as possible. It will follow the strict government guidelines available including at least 1 metres distance between performers, no sharing of scripts or props, and masks must be worn to and from rehearsals. Our producers and director are already experienced in running socially distanced, safe rehearsals having recently put on a new musical in August at the Actors' Church, Courtyard. You can view the full guidelines here we will be following. 

We are also conscious that a public performance may not be achievable in person at the end of the workshop. We are looking at solutions to achieve a live stream for our audience and some of our higher level backers. 

We have a fantastic team of producers, directors and creatives ready for any hurdles provided.

First, please do check our FAQ section found on the link at the top. If we do not answer your question there we are readily available to help. Send us an email at phasemusical@gmail.com​