Barn On Fire to Launch 4th Summer Season With LEWIS LOVES CLARK And SUNKEN CATHEDRAL
Centering the artist and their work, the 10-day intensive retreat in Fire Island Pines is for writers and their creative teams to collaborate.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 20, 2024
Next summer, New York Theatre Barn and the Fire Island Pines Arts Project will join forces for the 4th annual season of Barn on Fire. The summer residency on Fire Island will make space for two musical theatre writing teams and their original culture-shifting musicals in development, including the new musicals Lewis Loves Clark and Sunken Cathedral.
Centering the artist and their work, the 10-day intensive retreat in Fire Island Pines is for writers and their creative teams to collaborate and further develop their shows in a supportive, creative, and tranquil atmosphere. At the end of the week, the artists have the opportunity to present what they have been working on before a live audience on a remote barrier island off the southern shore of Long Island, New York. The final presentation will be on Saturday, June 21st, 2025 at 6PM in Whyte Hall's Brandon Fradd Theater and tickets will be available at a later date.
The new musical Lewis Loves Clark, with book and lyrics by Mike Ross and music by Dylan MarcAurele, is a funny, fast-paced epic about the famous Corps of Discovery expedition. Combining bluegrass, folk and pop, this tragicomedy follows Meriwether Lewis (a depressed closeted alcoholic), William Clark (just breathtakingly oblivious), Sacagawea (permanently exasperated), and York (would rather be birdwatching) as they grapple with the not-so-great unknown. The show was featured in the 2024 NAMT Festival of New Musicals and the writers are the recipients of the 2023 Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theater.
The new musical Sunken Cathedral has book and lyrics by Taylor Fagins and music by Chase Uram. Within the fantastical world of the first act, the grief-driven desires of a king and a princess lead to the tragic sinking of their kingdom, while the second act parallels this in modern day through the estranged relationship of a homeless man struggling with dementia and his daughter. With an alternative rock vibe, Sunken Cathedral is a musical journey of contending worlds, exploring the unhoused community, dementia, and familial caretaking. The show was previously featured in New York Theatre Barn's award-winning New Works Series.
Under the mentorship of Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell and Tony nominated director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun for its first three seasons, the residency previously supported the musicals Ghost in the Machine, Spectrum, King of Pangea, The Bubble, Coming Soon: A New Rock Musical, Skyward: An Ending Elegy, Sueños: Our American Musical, Buried, How to You: A Musical Guide to Black Boyhood, Little Miss Perfect, and Andy, Keith & Jean-Michel.
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