Faustine: A Dissertation. A Confession. A Mental Breakdown. Off a series of sold-out runs in New York City, Faustine is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe! Faustine tells the story of a burnt-out but brilliant PhD student who sells her soul to the devil in exchange for a PhD dissertation. This fast-paced, hilarious downward spiral explores what lengths we go to for what we think we deserve and delves into themes of ambition, greed, guilt, and class. Refreshingly self-aware in its camp, Faustine deftly juxtaposes the pedestrian with the academic and finds humor and self-deprecation in both. With music that’s a mix of "Fiona Apple and Richard Wagner”, audiences have described the show as “a vicious little comedy that will give you whiplash and clap its hands gleefully as it does so.”

Production History A 30-minute workshop production of Faustine, directed by Nate Rtischev, was presented in August 2023 at The Tank. A full-length 60-minute production, directed by Michael Ortiz, premiered in January 2024 with The Spade Collective. In June 2025, this production will be presented in Cincinnati at SWELL, hosted by Wave Pool Gallery. Sarah and Lydia are also currently writing more material for a 90-minute version of Faustine. For more information, visit faustinemusiccal.com

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the largest theatrical festival in the world, selling over 2 million tickets to the various new works featured at its more than 200 venues. Edinburgh attracts accredited producers, programmers, bookers, talent agencies, festivals, and other industry professionals from 49 countries around the world. Attending the festival is a critical opportunity to further the growth and development of this new work. The primary goal at the EdFringe is to present the work to interested industry parties in order to increase support for future productions of Faustine worldwide. Your contribution to this process is invaluable. By supporting our work, you sponsor the time and talent of young, independent artists and enable us to develop new material related to Faustine. 

Funds received through this campaign will go directly towards the costs of the production, including:

Lydia Brinkmann and Sarah Norcross have been an unstoppable duo since they first met at the Moscow Art Theater School in 2019. Both separately and together, they have written, produced, and designed for over fifty shows in cities across the U.S., including Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, D.C., and Los Angeles.

Sarah’s work as a composer has been acclaimed by The Polyphone Festival for New Musicals, The Center at West Park, The NY Theatre Festival, The Broad Street Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and independent online publications. Lydia is a resident lighting designer for Frigid NYC, Shades Dance Theater, Random Access Theater, and Arthouse2B, and she has co-founded multiple independent theatrical producing companies, including The Urban Bastard Collective (OK) and The Spade Collective (NY). Both Lydia and Sarah have a tantalizing mix of professional theater experience as well as a scrappy, down-to-earth attitude that makes theater come to life in the most unexpected and unique spaces. They co-head their company, Theater Anywhere, which provides high-quality theater design tech (sound and lighting) in unconventional spaces for independent artists.

Lydia and Sarah are passionate about writing visceral, experimental works that isolate and portray complex, hard-to-label emotions with plots that morally challenge their audiences. In particular, they care about telling these stories with female protagonists who have historically been simplified into archetypal roles of [maiden, mother, hero, villain, Madonna, and whore]. They want their audiences to leave feeling empowered by and reflecting on what they related to in a show. And that’s all very nice, but they also want people to have a good time. Sarah, in particular, is a horror aficionado and cares about thrilling audiences with all the delights of the horror genre, from genuine scares to big belly laughs. Lydia enjoys breaking down the barrier between performer and spectator, inviting her audiences to join in on the game, to take ownership, to reach out and touch. They hope you catch the references, go home humming a tune, and sit in the splash zone.

Sarah believes in the “muse,” and that the muse is Lydia. Lydia believes in the “muse,” and that the muse is Sarah.