Tonight, my devised theater class will present their original musical: The World Before. It’s about twin brothers, Prometheus and Epimetheus, who betray their own people for a shot at godliness. But while Epimetheus obsesses over becoming just like his de facto father, Zeus, Prometheus schemes to build a creature more powerful than god himself.
It’s dark, moody, and the music is full of EDM beats and gang vocals. I love it! I always love devised musicals though. Being in the room where something original has grown out of literal empty space is sensory for me. I’m excited by every line of dialogue and lyric. After all, before this group of artists came together, those lines and lyrics did not exist.
It’s like playwriting and screenwriting, only better because the text is born out of human connection. It would not be what it is if it were written by one person, or even two people. The World Before is born of 7 artists who acted as playwrights, composers, lyricists, and actors. There is no running crew, no house staff, and no orchestra. Everything the audience sees tonight is in the hands of those 7 people.
The pride I feel is immense. I always shed a half a tear at devised theater because I wonder: “does everyone in this audience know how f***ing impressive this is? Do they recognize that this is primordial theater, and that very few people on earth ever go into studios and watch the first version of something, whether it’s a play, flim, song, dance, or even a restaurant??” And likely, no, they f***ing don’t. It’s likely that at least one or two people in the house tonight think they’re about to see something like a production of Mamma Mia or Death of a Salesman- something established, polished, oft-produced, reliable, yawn, snore, and gag me with a ticket stub.
I don’t know how long I’ll work here. I’m drawn to music more than acting, and I have to carve out time in this studio to infuse the training with music. I’m succeeding at it, but my forever home is probably sitting in front of a piano and not in a director’s chair. Oh well. While I’m here, there will be original things and they will be musical.
Also, Prometheus definitely did the humans a solid, but I could never betray my brother like he did.