In the Darkness Show Me the Stars, 2021
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Description
In the Darkness Show Me the Stars is written by Canadian multi-award winning-artists, Twin Flames. The musical explores the despair of COVID-19 victims, as well as those living with mental health and anxiety. It also captures the desperation of George Floyd’s final moments. The musical represents the alienation of ‘the people’ in a dwindling democracy, and is an awakening to the need for people to address systemic racism and sexism all over the world.
In the production, a crescendo builds up slowly, often under a set rhythm or music. There’s no question that 2020 was a year that built up as the days and months passed, getting louder and louder, drowning out the voices of racial minorities and making it hard for any of us to breathe. In the Darkness Show Me the Stars is a deep look into the moments of four young characters living through 2020. They are joined only by the wishes they whisper to the stars.
While governments stoke the flames of racial and political division, these young ones find a way through the darkness and to one another. If you’ve ever experienced a nightmare that you’ve struggled to wake up from, only to finally yourself jolted awake, screaming, covered in sweat and unable to breathe, then you will know what each of these young characters are feeling with their own struggles.
Each character fights to find their strength and stand up for what they believe in. They hold on to the light in the darkness and follow the guiding stars. What is revealed is a lasting change that will leave them forever connected in ways they will never fully understand. We are like constellations — imaginary boundaries formed by connecting the dots.
Book, Music and Lyrics by Twin Flames
Director: Mary Francis Moore*
Choreographer: Esie Mensah
Publication Date
2021
Production Year
2021
Theatre Location
Virtual
Cast
Clarence (CJ) Jura
Krizia Natale
Makenna Matwijec
Seth Zosky
Keywords
In the Darkness Show Me the Stars, Theatre Sheridan, musical theatre
Terms of Use
Terms of Use for Works posted in SOURCE.
Disciplines
Theatre and Performance Studies
Faculty
Faculty of Animation, Arts & Design
School
Theatre and Performance Studies
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
SOURCE Citation
Sheridan, Theatre, "In the Darkness Show Me the Stars, 2021" (2021). Theatre Sheridan Productions. 184.
https://source.sheridancollege.ca/faad_visu_uniq_theatre/184
Original Citation
Moore, M.F. (Director). ( 2021). In the Darkness Show Me the Stars [Theatre Performance]. Oakville: Theatre Sheridan.
Comments
In the Darkness Show Me the Stars is one of 5 works that is part of the First Drafts series that reimagine, reconstitute, and reanimate the Western “musical theatre canon” in a way that acknowledges the truth of where we are now and where we hope to go. First Drafts is grounded in an urgency to make space for stories that must be told now and must continue to be prioritized in our art form.
We are releasing these works in a variety of media that reflect the hybrid delivery model of our work and learning in the past year. Four of the works have been recorded as podcast-style audio recordings, accompanied by production-style photos that showcase the costumes and sets that were designed and built for these works. The fifth production was rehearsed and presented fully online. Both a video recording and an audio recording of that piece are shared here.
Thank you to all our guest artists and staff for your support and dedication as we navigated this journey. Most importantly, thank you to our students — both from our Honours Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance Class of 2021 and from our Advanced Diploma in Technical Production for the Performing Arts Industry — for your hard work, perseverance and unrelenting commitment as First Drafts was brought to life.