Past And Present Collide In New Work About Three Strong Queer Women

Afterwords, a contemporary musical currently in development, will begin its Beta Series production at Village Theatre's First Stage Theatre in Issaquah on February 16, 2018. While current Broadway productions cater to mostly male heteronormative story lines and production teams, Afterwords aims to change that by featuring a story focused on three strong and unique queer women, and led by a female creative team with a book by Emily Kaczmarek, music & lyrics by Zoe Sarnak, and direction by Adrienne Campbell-Holt.

 

When a young war reporter's mentor is killed on assignment, his diaries are left to her care. But their pages provide her with more questions than comfort, chronicling his turbulent midlife love affair and pointing mysteriously toward two artist sisters mourning the loss of their volatile mother. As entanglements deepen and past collides with present, these young women relay three sides of one story through the show's music, set, and book.

 

Audiences may remember Afterwords from The 2017 Village Originals' Festival of New Musicals. "There was a pretty significant book rewrite the summer before The Festival," says Kaczmarek. "The Festival was the first opportunity to put the new show on its feet and see how it read to an audience." With the Beta Series, Kaczmarek and Sarnak will be able to further test the show in front of a theatre-savvy audience using simple sets and costumes. After each performance, audiences are invited to ask questions and share their feedback with the writers. No two performances will be exactly the same since the writers will rewrite and make changes between shows. Audiences are encouraged to witness the evolution by seeing the performance multiple times. "We're both of the mindset that a musical, until it's frozen, is always in progress," says Sarnak.

 

Zoe Sarnak's works include: Secret Soldiers, The Years Between, Galileo, Teddy & Max, and musical short films Landed, Alma Mater, and Hold Your Peace. She is a 2018 Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist, Davenport Songwriting contest winner, NY Stage & Film's Founders Award finalist, Fed Ebb Award finalist, two-time Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award Honoree, and Women's Project Lab Artist. Her music has been featured on NY Times Live, Lilly Awards, Women of Note, and Cutting Edge Composers. She was educated at Harvard University. Emily Kaczmarek is a New York-based writer, teacher, and performer. Works include: Sam & Lizzie, Afloat, American Kids, Paper & Glue, Anything New and musical short films Landed, Alma Mater, and Hold Your Peace. She is a finalist for the 2018 Jonathan Larson Grant and the 2018 Kleban Prize. She was educated at New York University.

 

Joining Kaczmarek and Sarnak on the production team is director Adrienne Campbell-Holt, an artist-on-the-rise who is currently the associate director of the Broadway smash hit Dear Evan Hansen, and music director Kris Kukul (Warner Brothers' Beetlejuice, Joan of Arc: Into the Fire at Public Theater). The team is rounded out by the same designers behind the previous Beta Series production of How to Break, which includes scenic designer Christopher Mumaw (Newsies at Village Theatre), costume designer Brynne McKeen (Green Day's American Idiot at ArtsWest), lighting designer Robert J. Aguilar (Seattle Repertory Theatre's Dry Powder), projections designer Gregory W. Towle (Into the Woods at Village Theatre), and sound designer Natalie Kinsaul.

 

The show will feature a cast of local Seattle favorites including: Andi Alhadeff (Ragtime at The 5th Avenue Theatre), Kirsten Delohr Helland (Les Misérables at Village Theatre, Lizard Boy at Seattle Repertory Theatre), Eric Polani Jensen (Billy Elliot, Les Misérables, Fiddler on the Roof), Trent Moury (Peter and the Starcatcher at ArtsWest), Mari Nelson (Six Degrees of Separation on Broadway, Into the Woods at Village Theatre), Taylor Niemeyer (Newsies), Sarah Russell (Dreamgirls, My Heart is the Drum), and Saxton Jay Walker (Peter and the Starcatcher at ArtsWest).

 

Afterwords is on stage at Village Theatre's First Stage Theatre in Issaquah February 16 - 25, 2018. For tickets, please visit www.VillageTheatre.org or call the Box Office at (425) 392-2202.

 

About Village Theatre
Based in Issaquah, WA, with operations in Everett, WA, Village Theatre is a leading producer of musical theatre in the Pacific Northwest. Producing entertaining, quality productions since 1979, Village Theatre has grown into one of the region's best-attended theatres, with more than 20,000 Subscribers and 220,000 projected total attendance each season. Through its Village Originals program, Village Theatre is nationally recognized for its contribution to the development of new musicals, having supported the development of over 160 new works to date. Village Theatre also takes pride in nurturing tomorrow's audiences through its Youth Education and Outreach programs, KIDSTAGE and Pied Piper, serving over 58,000 young people and their families annually.

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