Olympus the Musical - A Race against Time - by Chris Chambers and Ian Rae

Who are we?

Good Company is a not-for-profit drama group set up in 2009, by Morven Rae and Keith Robertshaw, to produce small musicals in the Surrey area. Our co-producers for Olympus are Croydon Operatic and Dramatic Association and Croydon Stagers plus Nicky Chambers from Another Way Theatre.

What are we doing?

OLYMPUS  is very far from being a small musical this time; it has become a huge community project with a cast of over 60 drawing on talent from many local amateur societies, a number of professional actors and singers, plus local school children and students from Croydon College. We also have vast team of stage crew and helpers and we are putting on five performances in the Ashcroft Theatre Croydon and then touring the whole production to Cornwall! Please watch the video and read the description below of the story and how it was written.

Why is it exciting?

We are performing at the perfect venue for a story partially set in Ancient Greece - the magnificent Minack open-air  theatre near Land's End. The show coincides with the start of the Olympic Torch Relay and we will be involved in the celebrations around that. We are also part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Open Stages Project and are showcasing OLYMPUS to them at the Questors theatre in Ealing on Sun 22nd April, after which we may be invited to perform it in Stratford!  In Croydon not only will it be an event celebrating the Games but the World Premiere of this epic musical.  How exciting is all that?                      

Why do we need crowdfunding?

We applied to the Arts Council (a very long and laborious process) who told us we had an excellent application but they just didn't have any funds to allocate. Obviously a project of this scale is an extremely expensive business, despite the fact that most of the cast will be funding themselves to go to Cornwall, and this method of attracting support appeals as it means we can give something back to our sponsors. If you can't support the project with a bit of funding please come and see the show and Tweet or Facebook all your friends, or even just phone them up to tell them about it.

How are we doing? 

We have managed to secure sponsorship for the Performing Arts Students from Croydon College from the Penny Parks Charitable Trust thereby giving these youngsters the chance of a lifetime and a wonderful start for their professional aspirations. They would not have been able to travel to Cornwall without this. However there are still many many things that need to be funded  to make this exciting project the amazing event that it promises to be; we're creating our own sets and costumes, but we have to buy the raw materials to do so and we need to hire staging and some special Spartan helmets and breastplates; we need to hire transport to get everything down to Cornwall, and once there, the special effects - like Olympic Flames and Torches - need to be spectacular to set the scene. Hiring the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon is very costly but it's a great opportunity, especially for the children, to perform in a professional theatre. We don't expect to make a profit -  the show is unknown after all - but if we can secure sponsorship in this way we should break even and if we make a profit it will be ploughed back into supporting Amateur Theatre in Croydon.

Please support us if you possibly can. Thank you.

Gallery: 

Downloads: 

How the show came to be and what its about