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EARLY MUSICALS AND ONE ACTS
THE OTHER ROOM
A solo music-theatre piece with music by Marisa Michelson and Libretto by Mark Campbell
The Other Room is a 25-minute solo work for female performer, cello, piano and electronics. The time is 1990; the place an apartment in Chelsea, New York. Lena works on a painting in the apartment of her best friend Steve to distract her from assisting in his suicide. As she does, she recounts her friendship with Steve and the birth of their activism during the AIDS epidemic.
Still Life With Toe Shoes
Music and Book by Marisa Michelson
Book and Lyrics by Joshua H. Cohen
A chamber musical for seven young women and one man. Inspired by Degas' paintings
When a painter visits a ballet class to paint the dancers, the young women start to see themselves through his eyes. Old alliances are broken, rivalries are upended, and one girl falls hard for the painter and must choose to stay in herself, in her own life, or else to fly off after him and become someone new.
Still Life With Toe Shoes tells its story through an innovative blend of shimmering vocal textures, narrative storytelling, and dance.
Still Life had a workshop with Old Deerfield Productions in Deerfield, MA, 2008, culminating in three sold-out performances.
It was subsequently produced by the Musical Theatre Society of Emerson College, Boston, MA, in March, 2011.
THE LOVERS
Book and lyrics by Joshua H. Cohen
Music and book by Marisa Michelson
When Leslie announces he’s walking out on his marriage to Avery, she does the only thing she can think of: she throws a canvas bag over her head, offering him a blank slate on which to project his fantasies. When he doesn’t want to play, she makes him, and her fantasies prove more powerful than he can handle. Inspired by Rene Magritte’s painting of the same title.
“The Lovers was commissioned and produced by Prospect Theater in New York, NY 2008, directed by Stephanie Sertich, with the following cast:
LESLIE – Doug Shapiro
AVERY – Sarah Corey
It was subsequently produced by Calliope Theatre Company in August 2011 and by The Vineyard Playhouse on Martha's Vineyard in October 2011.
MEASURE THE HEART
Words by Rinne Groff
Music by Marisa Michelson
Commissioned and produced by Prospect Theater, part of “The Dome” project
A couple in their late 30s become accidentally pregnant. This one-act musical for two soloists and vocal ensemble (omnipotent presence/voice of the unborn baby) follows them and their relationship as they wrestle with what it means to be a parent.
All great thoughts rehearsal moment
Hotel Sarajevo
Book, Music, Lyrics by Marisa Michelson
Additional material by Orion Johnstone
Inspired by Jack Kersch’s novel of the same name. As seen through the eyes of 14-year old Alma, HOTEL SARAJEVO is the story of nine young people struggling to survive in an abandoned hotel during the recent siege on Sarajevo. Their story is told by Alma who confronts her own mortality as she explores what it means to become a woman in a war-torn city.
In 2004 HOTEL SARAJEVO was work-shopped in NYC’s hotInk Festival (where it was directed by Rebecca Holderness), at CAP 21’s Barbara Woolf Reading Series in 2005, and at Smith College in 2007.