Music and lyrics by RYAN SCOTT OLIVER, based on photographs by MATTHEW MURPHY.
Representing a collision of artistic disciplines as disparate as musical theatre, photography, and pop/rock music,” 35mm, according to press notes, “pushes the limits of self-expression to create an art form utterly its own. A collection of ‘snapshot stories’ are woven together as each of the evening’s original songs is performed – with gusto and musical virtuosity — while the audience is immersed in stunning projections of the photography that inspired it. 35mm brings the connection between pleasures visual and aural into razor-sharp focus, creating a singular, multi-sensory emotional journey.
35mm: A Musical Exhibition was produced by Tony-winning producer John Johnson in association with Very Intense Productions, and received an initial concert production at Galapagos Art Space in the spring of 2012. Thereafter it has been performed all over the United States in over two dozen productions, as well as around the world in Canada, England, Scotland, and soon Japan in a new translation. In 2014, it was acquired for licensing by Samuel French.
The acclaimed 2014 Off-Broadway hit was presented later at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theater.
Book by HUNTER FOSTER and RYAN SCOTT OLIVER, music and Lyrics by RYAN SCOTT OLIVER.
Jasper in Deadland tells the story of 16-year-old Jasper, who journeys into the Afterlife to rescue his recently deceased best friend, Agnes. But in this version of the hereafter – known as “Deadland,” a hybrid of mythology, religion, and superstition – the dead forget Life… And so, too, will Jasper, if he can’t get past the seven circles of Deadland, fearsome Cerberus, heavenly Beatrix, mysterious Mr. Lethe, and ultimately himself. Can Jasper bring his best friend back from the dead, or will he join the dead forever?
A collection of spooky story songs inspired by the queen of psychological horror herself, Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House, “The Lottery”). Among the stories included:
In “My Life with R. H. Macy,” a young woman gets a job working at a dystopian department store where everyone’s called Miss Cooper and sales associates go missing all the time.
In “What a Thought,” a man is enjoying an evening at home with his husband, when he gets the thought, “I should kill him.”
In “The Story We Used to Tell,” two women become trapped in a photograph and must fight for their lives to escape.
Newlyweds “Pooch” and Amy Harvey—he, a once great but now conflicted composer, and she, a combat photographer fighting in Iraq—are proud of their progressive views on sex and marriage, and are anxious for their forthcoming child. When they miscarry and struggle to conceive again, their marriage (and sex-life) strains to the brink. The couple seeks relief and finds personal growth in new partners when Amy re-deploys for her second tour of Iraq and Pooch takes on an attractive pupil.
With an electronic pop-rock score, Three Points of Contact checks in on contemporary American marriage today the way Company did in 1970. Anyone who has ever committed themselves to another person will discover themselves in this daring new musical, with plenty to discuss on the drive home.
A southern Gothic musical thriller by RYAN SCOTT OLIVER.
We Foxes is a southern Gothic thriller set in small-town Missouri, 1945. It’s the story of WILLA, a tough and unmannered orphan girl, and her adoption by the crafty Sheriff’s wife, VESTA QUIMBY. When Willa discovers the dark secrets beneath the floorboards, a war cuts them apart and Willa must fight to survive. After all, Vesta Quimby is the most beloved and powerful woman in town … Yet she’s less humanitarian socialite than she is Machiavellian sociopath… Can Willa discover her own salvation, deliver herself into courage, and sacrifice everything to escape Vesta? It is a story of intense human struggle, deliverance, and the great salvation found only through oneself.
We Foxes was originally commissioned in January, 2013 by Broadway Across America. It was written and developed at Weston Playhouse (Weston, VT), CAP21 (NYC, NY), Theatreworks Silicon Valley (CA), the 5th Avenue (Seattle, WA), Pace University (NYC, NY), San Diego State University (CA), Goodspeed Opera House (East Haddam, CT), and the York Theatre (NYC, NY). It is the winner of the New Horizons Musical Theatre Festival Award.
