MUSICAL PLAYS.
In writing a musical, the first question is always "Why is this play a musical?" The answer is: because the characters' emotional journey demands expression through song. Music is powerful. It brings us to depths and to heights. It allows a story to pull out all the stops and ironically, it lets characters confront their obstacles and achieve or fail at their desires honestly and without pretense.
SENECA FALLS
Characters: 5m, 8f
Time: 2:20
THE ONCE THAT NEVER WAS
Characters: 42 (22 with doubling)
Time: 2 hours
SEVEN DEAD WOMEN
Characters:
Time: 2:10
SENECA FALLS was initially commissioned by The Open Eye Theater as a full length musical akin to its male 1776 counterpart. The play is about the dynamic women and men who brought to life the first wave of the women's rights movement in 1848. Spanning 80 years, Seneca Falls has strong melodies and includes prominent male and female roles in a mostly ensemble cast that highlights Elizabeth Cady Stanton who is at the center of the era's conflicts. The play is framed through the perspective of Major Martin Delaney who was the country's first African American military officer and a reporter for Frederick Douglass' North Star publication. The play gives voice to those seldom heard. It's witty, timely, and powerful.
Commissioned and workshopped by OpenEye
Finalist for Women in Media Arts Collaboration Award
Dramatist Guild Grant
additional community sponsors
​
THE ONCE THAT NEVER WAS is a full length musical great for schools, musical theater camps, and community theaters. The play has a flexible cast size from 22 to 100. It's about an outcast school girl at an English boarding school empowered to rebel against the forces of fate in order to survive. The play brings to the stage Shakespeare's Titania, Oberon, Peaceblossom and Puck in a story that begins where Midsummer leaves off. It's an engaging, scary and fun tale about a spell-bound locket, forbidden love, and the power of the imagination.
Initial development/prodcution grant from Fulton County Arts
Produced
​
SEVEN DEAD WOMEN is a full length play originally developed for the Actors Ensemble and is currently in rewrites (and seeking a composer). The play is a dark romantic story in the genre of Phantom of the Opera and Wuthering Heights. Its initial development support came from Pharsalia Philanthropic. In its first iteration, the play was performed by student actors at Stage Door Players and Pierian Springs.
in development
development sponsored by Pharsalia Philanthropic
produced at Stage Door, Pierian Springs and Actors Ensemble.
Abridged version toured in schools
** note -- some of the YOUTH PLAYS are also musicals.