Help fund Rona's "Salaam Medina" Demo Recording

Hi, I'm composer/lyricist Rona Siddiqui and I need your help funding the recording of demos for my show Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan! It's time to get people excited about the work, and show potential producers and investors that this is a show worth seeing in the theater!

What is Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan, you may ask? It is a zany fantasia of bi-ethnic identity exploration. Triggered by an interview question pressing her to talk about her "otherness," half-Afghan, half-Italian writer Medina Eskandani is whisked down a rabbit hole of memories dealing with body hair, racist cousins, airport security, and pesky head scarves as she questions what it means to identify as a person of color. Through confronting the complexities of gender roles, cultural expectations, and racialization, Medina finds power through understanding the fluidity of her identity.

Presented in a fast-paced sketch style a la The Muppet Show, scenes range from vaudeville, to family sit-com, to game show, and beyond. Musical styles explore vaudeville, folk, rap, pop, country, and middle eastern groove.

Recording these demos with my incredible cast and band will show the work in its best light. There is no better tool for promoting new musical theatre than to have vivid high-quality recordings that peak imagination and invite you into a new world. With my producer, Grammy-nominee Michael Croiter, and sound engineer Ian Kagey, we plan to record 6-7 songs from the show at the legendary Power Station in NYC.

The cost of the studio and staff itself is generously covered by a facilities grant I received from BerkleeNYC where I am on faculty. The expenses I need to cover are to pay the cast, band, and producer.

Here is the breakdown:

Actors - $2700

Band - $3000

Producer - $1200

Incidentals (i.e. transport, copies, fees, etc) - $500

I thank you so much for considering donating to this campaign. It would mean the world to me to get this little Halfghan story...my little Halfghan story out into the world. ❤️