Capital Arts Theater Guild To Present WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND

Capital Arts Theater Guild will present its inaugural installment of their new national musical development program, the National Music Theater Foundry, featuring the latest new musical by veteran writers Jenny Giering & SEAN BARRY,

Taking place on January 24 & 25, 2025, at the Theatre Raleigh Arts Center's TR STUDIO.

CATG's pinnacle new works development program dedicated to the creation of new musicals, “The Foundry” is partnering with Theatre Raleigh to foster the development of the new musical, WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND, directed by Broadway veteran, Paige Price, from its staged readings for public audiences this January, where the writers will be provided a wealth of feedback from various sources, including professional panelists as well as audience members, culminating in a full production premiere in Theatre Raleigh's MainStage Season in October.

WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND is a profound and timely musical exploring the impact of chronic illness on a family. Jenny is a composer who has made musical theatre her life's work. When she receives a diagnosis of breast cancer, it seems as though her world has come crashing down around her. Yet her prognosis is good. Her surgery is successful. Why, then, hasn't Jenny recovered?

By turns sensuous and heartbreaking, WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND moves seamlessly between the glories of Jenny's past and the struggles of her present. Before, she and her husband, Sean, shared a life of artistic collaboration and a glorious year with Anna, the beautiful third partner in their marriage. Now, Jenny is on her way to becoming someone else…But who, exactly? And what will her debilitating, mysterious illness means for her art and her marriage?

WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND is the musical expression of one artist's struggle with chronic illness and how that struggle impacts her entire family. When we fall ill, we expect to recover. But what happens when that illness never ends? Are we still the person we were, or have we become the illness itself? How can an artist continue to produce art when she can barely get out of bed? And what does it mean for a husband and a son when the wife and mother they love has become someone else?

Written and composed by husband-and-wife team Jenny Giering and Sean Barry and based upon their shared journey, WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND is a compelling one-woman show addressing some of the most pressing questions of our time with both heartwarming humor and heartwrenching honesty. 

About The Writers

Jenny Giering'S current projects include Alice Bliss (book by Karen Hartman, lyrics by Adam Gwon, directed by Mark Brokaw) commissioned by Playwrights Horizons and Stacey Mindich Productions (2018 Weston Playhouse New Musical Award, 2021 Theatreworks Silicon Valley New Works Festival), and What We Leave Behind (co-written with Sean Barry) (Aspen's Solo Flights Festival) for which she received a 2021 Barrington Stage Spark Grant. She has written numerous incidental scores including music for Silent Sky (TheaterWorks 2015), Peter Pan & Wendy (Shakespeare Theater, 2019), Georgiana & Kitty (Marin Theater Company, 2021) all by Lauren Gunderson, Gertrude and Claudius (Barrington Stage, 2019) by Mark Saint-Germain, Elizabeth Rex, Red Velvet and As You Like It, all for Chicago Shakespeare Company, among many others. 

She has participated in residencies at The Orchard Project, Theatreworks Writer's Retreat, Weston Theatre Company Writers Retreat, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Goodspeed's Mercer Colony, Sundance TheatreMakers Lab, Sundance's White Oak Residency, Sundance's Ucross Residency. Her awards include The Jonathan Larson Award, The Dramatists Guild Jonathan Larson Fellowship, The Constance Klinsky Prize from Second Stage, The Tilles Music Chair from Chicago Shakespeare, The National Art Song Prize, The Weston Playhouse New Musical Award (for Saint-Ex and Alice Bliss) and a Meet the Composer Grant.

Past projects include Saint-Ex (book and lyrics by Sean Barry), which premiered at The Weston Theater Company; The Mistress Cycle (book and lyrics by Beth Blatt), which ran at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; Crossing Brooklyn, (book and lyrics by Laura Harrington), which was commissioned and produced by The Boston Music Theater Project, subsequently produced by The Transport Group, and won the Kleban Prize for best libretto; Alice Unwrapped, commissioned by Paulette Haupt for Inner Voices/Solo Musicals, and subsequently produced by Nautilus Music Theater, The Minnesota Fringe Festival, Baldwin-Wallace College and Pace University. Jenny holds an AB in Music from Harvard & Radcliffe Colleges, and an MFA from the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at Tisch School for the Arts, New York University.  She has appeared on many albums, including PS Classics' release Windflowers: The Songs of Jerome Moross; and her song “I Follow” appears on Audra McDonald's debut release Way Back To Paradise on Elektra/Nonesuch Records. Jenny has a solo album, Look for Me, available on all streaming platforms. 

SEAN BARRY wrote the book and lyrics for SAINT-EX (music by Jenny Giering), which was selected by The Sundance Institute for the Theatre Lab at White Oak, awarded the Weston Theatre New Musical Award, and premiered at the Weston Theatre in Weston, VT. Sean's fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications, including Bright Corners, Mississippi Review, and Boston Review. He has been in residency at the Southampton Writers Conference, the Ucross Foundation, the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, the Rhinebeck Writers' Retreat, and the Johnny Mercer Writers' Colony at Goodspeed. Sean is currently at work on SUMMERLAND, a new musical commissioned by Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (Jenny Giering, music), and WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND (Jenny Giering, music), which has been developed at the inaugural Theatre Makers Lab at The Sundance Institute in Utah, the Weston Theatre, the Rhinebeck Writers' Retreat, and Theatre Aspen's inaugural “Solo Flights” festival. He is the author most recently of The MythBreakers, a Fantasy/Sci-Fi series for young readers.

Tickets are FREE and are available now at https://capitalartstheaterguild.com/nmtf/.

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