THERAPY: A Musical Comedy

Help us get our original musical to Auckland! It's a tough time to be an artist and we can't do this alone!

THERAPY: A Musical Comedy is a true story about overcoming the loss of a parent at a young age, navigating trauma and all of the weird (funny) things that come with being human. 

We are Good for Her Productions. A new theatre company created by Chelsea McRae, Cody McRae and Mario Sadra-de Jong. 

We wrote THERAPY in 2023 and performed it for the first time in 2024 at Dunedin Fringe. We've been so overwhelmed with the positive response we have had from our audiences and love sharing this with new people. 

The three of us met in 2014 while studying at NASDA in Christchurch and since have kept busy travelling, working (as starving artists and various other roles), completing further study and bonding over the weirdness of being human. We have more shows in the works too but for now, we want to get THERAPY to Auckland!

Funding is hard right now and while we have in the past received some, we have had to rely almost solely on ticket sales. The same is true for our Auckland shows. It's hard to predict audience numbers and keep tickets well priced to make our shows accessible. Your support will help us:

• Keep ticket prices accessible
• Travel to Auckland from our homes in Christchurch and Dunedin
• Print programmes for audiences (which include content warnings and support lines for anyone who may need them)
• Advertise our show with posters and social media
• Pay our director and wider team
• Cover our costs (theatre hire, set hire and tech needs)

We are so thrilled to have been offered a week season at a really awesome theatre in Auckland (yet to be announced). This comes off the back of a full on (and wonderful) season visiting BATS in Wellington, Aubyn Live in Hastings and The Globe in Palmerston North.

THERAPY: A Musical Comedy is a true story about Chelsea's journey working through the trauma of losing a parent at a young age and making sense of the weird parts of being human (even the realisation she joined a cult, the embarrassment of tripping over in front of children, and backtracking on blurting out intrusive thoughts). 

The music is all original and composed by Mario Sadra-de Jong. The tech was designed alongside the writing of the show and is run by Cody McRae. It's a chaotic three-human-band and each show keeps us insanely busy. But we love it!

The show won the NZ Fringe Touring Award at Dunedin Fringe in 2024, nominated for Best Comedy and Best in Fringe, and went on to have shows at Little Andromeda - Christchurch, BATS - Wellington, Palmerston North and Hastings. 

We have been overwhelmed by the impact our wee show has had already!

After each show, we see groups of people standing together and talking over the realness of being human, having mental health to look after and sharing their own stories. Having the impact of bringing others together is amazing. 

The show discusses the impact of suicide in a non-confrontational and earnest way. Some of our audiences have written to us after the show to tell us they’ve done a 180 on their views of therapy and started getting the support they need. Others have reached out to us to let us know the show compelled them to take on mental health first aid training, some have even shared that they felt held and honoured by the genuine approach to discussing mental illness.

The script for THERAPY was developed as part of Chelsea's postgraduate studies on how actors look after their minds while navigating trauma on stage. It was dramaturged by Amada Faye Martin, and directed by Dr Marea Colombo. The show has been carefully created to not traumatise or retraumatise anyone, but to celebrate being human and unite audiences through normalising discussions on mental health.

Long term, we would love to share this original, kiwi work with international audiences. First, we have our next step of visiting Auckland and taking up the amazing opportunity we have been offered there for a week-long season.