Fire Island Residency BARN ON FIRE to Launch 2nd Season With Three New Musicals

This summer, New York Theatre Barn and the Fire Island Pines Arts Project, in association with the P. Austin Foundation, will again join forces for the 2nd annual season of Barn on Fire. The summer residency on Fire Island makes space for three musical theatre writing teams and their original culture shifting musicals in development. Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell serves as a mentor to the residency which includes the new musicals The Bubble, Coming Soon: A New Rock Musical, and King of Pangaea.

Centering the artist and their work, the week-long intensive retreat in Fire Island Pines is for writers and their creative teams to collaborate and further develop their show in a supportive, creative, and tranquil atmosphere. At the end of the week, the artists will have the opportunity to present what they have been working on before a live audience. Tickets to the final presentation on Saturday, June 24th, 2023 at 6PM in Whyte Hall's Brandon Fradd Theater on Fire Island Pines can be purchased on FIPAP's website.

The Bubble tells the story of Noam, a disillusioned Israeli soldier, and Ashraf, a closeted Palestinian man, who fall in love amidst the bohemian energy of 2000s-era Tel Aviv, with the tragic conflict between their people as the backdrop. After meeting at a border checkpoint, the two men try to build a life together in Tel Aviv, the titular "bubble", surrounded by chosen family who support their love and others who threaten to tear them apart. Based upon the acclaimed film by Eytan Fox and Gal Uchovsky, this explosive new musical by Janine McGuire and Arri Lawton Simon pulses with energy, urgency, and hope for a more peaceful world.

Rachel Lark's Coming Soon: A New Rock Musical invites audiences on an exploration of kink, queerness, non-monogamy, and healing from trauma. Maggie loves Mark. And Mark really loves Maggie. But Maggie has a secret - she's been faking her org*sms for their entire eight-year relationship. With the help of her inner voices, Maggie goes on a wild adventure to pursue sexual satisfaction, and finally stop faking it. Directed by Rachel Dart (Summer, 1976), the show had a sold-out 2-week run at Z Space where the San Francisco Chronicle gave its highest rating, calling it a "must-see" and the "sex musical for both inhibited normies and kink veterans."

Martin Storrow's King of Pangaea explores the rich, complicated, and at times beautiful world of loss, examining what it means to become king or queen of one's own heart. After a sudden loss shatters his world apart, twenty-one year old Christopher Crow travels back to the imaginary island of his childhood in hopes of finding answers that will bring the pieces back together. Directed by Richard Israel (A Very Brady Musical), the show was featured in the 2022 NAMT Festival of New Musicals.

The Barn on Fire residency is made possible with generous support from Dalip Girdhar + Paul Austin (The P. Austin Foundation), Robert Littman & Sully Bonnolly, Straighten Your Crown Productions, Henry Robin & Bob McGarity, John Krawchuk & Vinnie Petrarca, Denise Lucy & Francoise Lepage, Isaac Namdar & Andrew Mitchell-Namdar, Carlos de la Puente & Simeon Kline, Gary Clinton & Don Millinger, Richard Winger, and Matthew Woolf. The residency previously supported the musicals Sueños: Our American Musical, Buried, Little Miss Perfect, and How to You: A Musical Guide to Black Boyhood.