Dear friends,

Thank you so, so much from the bottom of my heart. You helped us to further than I ever thought possible. We raised a staggering £7,595 to give this project what it needed and deserved.

We have now had 2 wonderful performances of "A Shoe Full of Stars" (a private one in school, and a public one at the Lawrence Batley Theatre) which have gone swimmingly. Thanks to your support the show we have made looks stunning enough to take to the West End stage at any moment, and perhaps that's where we will go.

We have received national news coverage, being on ITV News last week and, if all goes well, an appearance on Channel 4 News this Saturday evening. Keep your eyes peeled.

Some of you will still be waiting for rewards - they will be winging their way to you after the weekend. If you are in York, or know anyone there, please recommend the last show (Sunday 4pm at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall), which truly is unmissable.

All that remains for me to say is that I would very much like to keep you informed about the development of this project. More pictures will be put up on www.operaschmopera.co.uk/identity-crisis. If you would like to keep updated about the project, please send an email to operaschmopera@gmail.com .

The feedback we have received after the performance on Wednesday, which included a panel discussion on the themes of the piece with the young people from North Huddersfield Trust School, Hanif Qadir from ACF and West Yorkshire Police Community Support Officers, included words like "mind-blowing", "essential", "heart-breaking" and "like rocket fuel". I am determined that this project be seen across the country, and maybe even across Europe.

Thank you so, so much for helping this project be such an incredible success. I can't wait to tell you more when it happens. Omar

I am so delighted by the progress we are making, with a few days left to achieve our ideal crowdfunding goal. We're doing SO well, can you help us make that last little push?

A nice little treat for you is news about our professional singers who are going to absolutely wow the crowds.

Lizzie Holmes is our soprano, playing some of the adult roles in the opera. Trained at the Royal College of Music, Lizzie has performed for some of the UK's leading mid-scale companies such as Grange Park Opera, Devon Opera, the Rydale Festival and new companies such as Opera in the City, and Into Opera. Lizzie is a Concordia Artist and supported by The Carne Trust.

Half-Indian, half-Scottish bass-baritone Neil

Balfour graduated from the Royal Northern

College of Music and has performed with

Opera Holland Park, Heritage Opera and several

operatics premieres, including the title role of King Lear by Louie Utterson. Other projects include voice-over work for Youtube Channels with views on his videos reaching well over 100 million.

Dear friends,

It's a long update today, because we really need your help.This IDENTITY CRISIS project is important, and we all know it. The content is more than relevant, it is essential. There are other operas about terrorism. But this is the ONLY opera made WITH young people, ABOUT young people, FOR young people, representing them on this issue. We could have made an opera about suicide bombers, murderers, division or despair, but because of the underlying motivation to say something that is valuable to EVERYBODY in this country (if not the world) we have succeeded in creating a truly unique and significant work that will continue to develop and speak to everyone. Of this crowdfund, over 60 people have expressed their belief in this project and donated £5,000. Rightly so. There are 60 more people out there who want to give us £5,000 more pounds to help us reach or exceed our target.If the trend says anything, the majority of donors will be professionals around the ages of 50-70. We need to let THEM know we are here. We have a week to tell them.Every day at 9am, Opera Schmopera will post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and send an email to supporters with an image, just like this one. Please share it: PLEASE SHARE: 7 days left to raise money for essential resources for this opera engaging young people with the issues of dialogue and counter-extremism. https://yustart.hubbub.net/p/identity-crisis/ Finally, please join (and get your friends to join) the THUNDERCLAP: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/68695-the-identity-crisis-project It's where 100 volunteers who sign up will release the same message at the same time (Monday 9am): "GET YOUR TICKET NOW for an extraordinary opera about young people facing Terror: shows Huddersfield & York 21-25 Mar: http://operaschmopera.co.uk/whats-on "So far we have 49 people (many local) signed up, with a social media reach of 47,000 people. We need minimum 100 volunteers, otherwise the thunderclap will not happen. Even if it doesn't happen, at least our spreading the word about it will succeed in... spreading the word!Thank you so much, everyone, for everything you give to this project. It has already been so special. This is our final push to the finish line of victory.

Dear all, thanks to your generosity and support, we are tantalisingly close to reaching our minimum goal of £4,330 and still on target to reach our maximum (there is usually a big spurt towards the end).

Your support has been invaluable, frequently leading to new opportunities. 215 people have followed a link sent by Sara Maiko, though I must admit, I have surpassed myself: 1099 people have followed the link that I put on interest-related Facebook Groups. If you know of people interested in opera, the arts, politics, youth, social justice, or community building, please email or share the link to them: https://spsr.me/MyR8

In the meantime, here's a delightful treat just for you! An exclusive interview with Ed Harris , our librettist, who talks a little about himself, his route to writing and what he's learnt in making of A Shoe Full of Stars .

We’re beyond thrilled to see that we have nearly reached a third of our projected funds! Thank you so much to all 45 supporters, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Now, with less than 20 days on the countdown, we need your help to continue this amazing project! Please keep sharing and spreading the word. Have a great weekend!

Happy Tuesday (soon to be Wednesday), everyone! We are on the 19th day of our campaign and it is incredible to see we have raised 22% of our total aim thanks to 38 generous sponsors. Thanks to all your support we are eligible to receive £500 match funding from YuFund, and we are that bit closer to executing a very worthwhile project.

A further thanks to our Supporters who are generating clicks: Sara Krongelb - wow! - you've generated 209 clicks! Can anyone beat that?! You can become a helper too by following Omar’s instructions in previous updates (or click here ).

Meanwhile, have you heard some of the music that we made for a little trailer on Youtube ? The kids are a talented bunch, but this is just a taste! You'll see more soon.

Hello friends!

In our first week we have had 24 sponsors who have helped us raise almost a fifth of our crowdfund goal. This target is the last £10,715 we need to complete our full project budget, which we are delighted to say has also been supported by several key funders*.

Could you spare 4 more clicks, and be in with a chance to win some prizes?

On the right hand side of my crowdfund page, there's a button, "Become a helper", which I've circled in this pic:

By signing up and sharing the link that you will be given, I can track which Helpers are the most successful at getting clicks and donations.

By the end of the campaign, the person with the most clicks will win a delicious thank you gift hamper; but the champion who accumulates the most donations will win a 3-hour song-writing workshop with me! Good luck everyone!

* Project funders:

What a week! We are so happy with our beginning result for our crowdfunding campaign!

We would like to thank all of those who donated and to those who have helped generate clicks on our page! We need all the help we can get for this terrific cause and every single pound helps so THANK YOU! Is there someone you know who would love to support this project? Send the our way!

A particular thanks to Lydia Wilson who has help generate 142 clicks within the last 5 days and to John and Ena Keir who have donated ever so generously!

This is our week of auditions so we’ll soon have news about our cast! Plus, the kids have almost finished composing all of their musical contributions (some amazing talent there). You might just hear a sneak peak of it in a week or two. Stay tuned!