I had the pleasure of contributing to the development of a new musical called T.S. Eliot. In this new musical, the playwright asserts that the motivation behind the tone of most Eliot's poetry stemmed from sexual repression. Not being able to demonstrate his true feelings to his lover Jack for fear of religious judgement, Eliot decides to live a loveless life by marrying the first woman interested in him. The conflict that Eliot feels is represented to the audience by characters that are only seen by him and are based on characters found in his writing. My character, Madame Sosostris - a gypsy fortuneteller, was his voice of reason urging him to "show [his] hand, take a chance" so that he could "live life like [he] wants". This character is found in his poem The Wasteland.
The production was a part of the San Diego Fringe Festival and achieved the creative team's goal of experimenting how dance could be integrated into the story. It was exciting to be a part of this show at such an early stage.
Bravo for new musical theatre!!
To learn more, click below to listen to this NPR story:
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2016/jun/23/fringe-musical-takes-ts-eliots-sexuality/
