Our New World

     This show was created out of two primary factors: my team's desire for there to be a musical opportunity available to the class of 2024, and my personal never-ending desire to take things out of context and rebuild them in new ways. To that end, this show sought to be equal parts community-building activity, virtual theatre experiment, deconstruction, and reimagining.

     As we dove into selecting songs for this crazy experiment, we did not do so in a vacuum. We were careful to ask interested actors what songs on the theme of a "new world" spoke to them, and many of the songs included in this performance came about from those recommendations and personal desires. A lot of the process of this show was rooted in getting to know each other, which is not an easy feat among a cast like ours, many of whom have still never met in real life. Through this process of conversation and exploration, a number of themes began to emerge, none of which should be a surprise, given the current state of human existence: connection, distance, fear, uncertainty, all words that have become so uncomfortably commonplace in our isolated worlds.

     That is all this show is really: a series of isolated worlds. Some are worlds we borrowed from their original contexts, and some we transformed entirely, which you are more than welcome to choose whether or not you agree with as you watch. But I do ask that you suspend your disbelief for a little while, because - having seventeen actors spread out all across the world - we took a few creative liberties in the physical constructing of these worlds: living rooms became museums, backyards became cafés, the Trumbull College courtyard became Wonderland, and the Davenport College courtyard became Hell. Draw from that information what you will. 

     Throughout this cabaret you will see these themes take hold in different ways - joyous, beautiful, tragic, confusing - and I encourage you to focus on which of these individual stories you connect to, which ones draw you in, which ones you don't quite understand. Use your imagination on this one. We certainly used ours.