The Pier: Composing & producing a song cycle music theatre work

Abstract

The Pier is a new song cycle music theatre work that I composed and produced for this dissertation project. The final document outlines the show’s background and my creative process while providing musical analysis of several songs from the show and a summary of the immediate outcome of two workshop-casts’ involvement in the show. The Pier takes place in Seaside, Florida, where six members of a larger film cast recount stories from the past fifteen weeks through words and song. I was inspired by the location, the melody and rhythm I heard in the waves, and the unbelievable weight of possibility I envision for a story that focuses not on me for me, you for me, or us for me; the story is about us for us.