Photos: First Look At BAGGAGE AT THE DOOR At AMT Theater

Performances begin tonight, Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 7pm for the Off-Broadway premiere of Baggage at the Door, an original one-woman musical addressing the critical moment a (seemingly well-adjusted trauma-queen) survivor realizes she may no longer be able to cope; when falling in love triggers here lurking PTSD, she might by f*#&ed. Get a first look at the production in new photos below.

Created and performed by Dana Aber, with music direction by Jacob Stebly, and direction and dramaturgy by Joe Langworth, the show will play a limited engagement through November 16, 2023, at AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street – between 8th & 9th Aves). The show is a co-production between Big Thunder Productions, LLC and AMT Theater.

Four consecutive Januarys with four near-death experiences...um, Happy New Year? This particular January, the scorched survivor’s barricades are breached, and protective layers peeled away as she navigates the precarious terrors of falling in love. In Baggage at the Door, that bright-eyed city girl is unmasked as a poster child for high-functioning PTSD. If she can’t connect, she may miss out on a future she longs for. Struggling with internal dumpster fires on a spare stage richly textured with immersive sound and animated projections, she tap-dances eating cheese, sings her conflicted identifies, swaddles herself with protective rhinestones, and enlists the audience’s guidance on a witty, honest, and gripping journey to break the trauma cycle and find the courage to finally unpack.

Baggage at the Door features songs created in collaboration with: James Ballard, Christie Baugher, Alanya Bridge, Amy Burgess & Sara Cooper, Teresa Lotz, Joseph Trefler, Rachel Dean, Mika Kauffman, Martha Miller, and Thomas Jacobsen.

Original art created for the show by: Jamie Gaul, Josh Haplea, Chelsey Hill, Nichola Latzgo, Annie Moor, Bee Michael, Dr. Natalie J. Russ, and Dana Aber.

As a survivor of traumatic events and domestic abuse who has worked, through therapy and later through creative process, to confront the mental health damage created from them, creator Dana Aber is in a unique position to address how trauma and PTSD and anxiety can look, sound, feel to a person, and how it can be expressed or shown in a person’s life. And, equally, Dana’s play Baggage at the Door shows how those mental health challenges can be confronted and addressed in the struggle to achieve better mental health and quality of life. The Baggage at the Door project was created from essays and poetry written in response to the struggle; the acting, songs, and language of the piece - both libretto text and song lyric - are equal parts direct and reflective, serious and funny, angry and peaceful, regretful and wistful – and ultimately empowered. This play contains the mix of Everyperson’s interior landscape, but particularly the interior work of those struggling to regain mental health balance. Baggage at the Door is designed to be an approachable and complete piece of theater as well as an expression of the struggle and yearning for mental health with all of its ups and downs.

The creative team is Josh Freilich (orchestrations), Marc Halpin (set design), Aiden Bezak (lighting design) and Dana Aber (projection design). The production stage manager is Brent Michael Jones.

For more information, visit www.baggageatthedoormusical.com.

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