Peppers Ghost Productions presents…

When You Close Your Eyes

A brand new horror musical written by Jessa Richer.

Hello to our friends, family, our ever growing and ever joyous Toronto theatre community, and for those yet to hear about us.

Peppers Ghost Productions was founded in 2025 by Jessa Richer, Sarah Schmidt-McQuillan, and John Hayes with the intent of blending theatre and film, of what is real and what is not, in order to highlight what is strange, unexpected, and unique.

We are a production company that wants to connect, support, and challenge our communities and through our first season we are doing just that.

By programming Jessa’s original musical we support new voices by providing herself and a crew of emerging talent with a platform to share their skills and uniqueness. As a fundraising effort for this production we connect our community through our successful Drunk Reading series, a monthly event where we bring together both our growing theatre community and non theatre going folk, for a fun night of incredible entertainment and audience interaction like you have never seen before! When You Close Your Eyes is a story that allows us to challenge theatre goers expectations. What is the power of a musical, of voices singing together, what is the power of sharing space, what is the power of what you see When You Close Your Eyes? We dare to find out.

This is our company's inaugural production. We are so very excited and need your help to bring it to life.

THE SHOW

What if Ari Aster wrote a musical? If Bad Hats did horror? If 80s rock and renaissance music lived in Musical Theatre?

We give you When You Close Your Eyes

Set in a small, bleak, Ontario town, the show follows a group of young women in their 20s who have never moved out of their childhood homes. When mysterious newcomer, Vera, suddenly appears speaking of Sisterhood and The Mother Moon, the girls find themselves thrust into a new reality that gives them everything they've ever wanted ... almost.

When You Close Your Eyes first premiered in Toronto in the summer of 2024. What was originally intended to be a workshop production ended up going viral on TikTok and completely sold out its week and a half long run. Since then, the show has been rewritten and workshopped, all to prepare for its first full production this November.

THE PRODUCTION

On November 6th, 2026 at Video Cabaret we will launch our two week run of When You Close Your Eyes. Led by Jacqui Sirois, our director, this production features a cast and crew of over 20 emerging artists, some of which are returning from the original workshop production. Pre - production is already underway and we will be starting rehearsals in September.

We are prioritizing proper compensation for our artists. In order to highlight each artist’s unique contribution we also want to provide a platform for all of our creatives to execute their full creative visions. Our goal with this campaign is to secure the cost of production so that the profit we receive from ticket sales can go into the pockets of our deserving artists rather than paying off production debt.

We have been hard at work securing these funds through our Drunk Readings, through which we plan to cover 30% of our costs. The rest falls to potential grants, private donors, and generous patrons, such as yourselves, who care about the exciting future of indie work.

And so, we ask you to please take the time to consider donating. Any amount plays a vital role in allowing this project to live its fullest life!

If you aren't able to donate today please help us in spreading the word and sharing our campaign around in your communities. And, perhaps when the time comes we will see you at the show! We can’t wait to share what we have been working on.

To keep tabs on what we’re working on make sure to follow us @peppersghostproductions

Thank you for supporting indie theatre.

Sincerely,

Sarah, Jessa, and the entire cast and crew of When You Close Your Eyes.

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BUDGET BREAKDOWN

$9900 - Base honorariums for creative team and crew.

In addition to honorariums our artists will also receive profit share from a pool of surplus funds. (Help us pay our artists more!)

$10,714 - Two week rental at VideoCabaret.

(Including wages of Front of House and technical staff)

$3700 - Covering 185 hours of rehearsal

$3500 - Set, Props, Costumes, Hair, Makeup

$2100 - Sound and Lighting Rentals

$4336 - Printing, Advertising, Marketing, Insurance, Transportation

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No raffles, sweepstakes, giveaways, or returns on investment are offered in exchange for any donations made to this GoFundMe.