LIGHTHOUSE
2024 Festival
Director
Sarah Rasmussen
Music Director
Remy Kurs
Directing Assistant
Kathryn Carter
For More Information Contact
lighthousethemusical@gmail.com lighthousethemusical.com @lighthouse_the_musical
Number of Acts: 2
Number of Principals (Female): 6
Number of Principals (Trans / GNC): 1
Total Cast Size: 6
Orchestra Breakdown:
piano, guitar, percussion, base guitar, cello, banjo/mandolin/guitar 2
Casting Notes:
While the cast should only be performed by actors who do not identify as cis-men, it can of course include non-binary actors. While, because of the conservative environment the show takes place in, it’s unlikely any characters would OPENLY identify as anything but women, actors can optionally explore gender exploration/expression how that might realistically happen in this confusing, conservative-baptist midwestern town. The character of Snow, especially, could have this as an added element to her/their character.
Genre & Style:
Magical Realism, Pop-Country
Synopsis
With graduation in the rearview mirror, Bus is desperate to run away from her Minnesota hometown and everyone in it. The only problem? She can’t outrun herself. LIGHTHOUSE is a sweeping pop-country musical that celebrates the idea that maybe, just maybe every version of yourself is worth being.
Development History
LIGHTHOUSE was developed at NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program as our thesis project (2022-2023). Since then, LIGHTHOUSE been selected for the Richard Rodgers Award (2024), Eugene O’Neill National Music Theater Conference (2024), NAMT Festival of New Musicals (2024), Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (2024), Syracuse University’s New Works, New Voices (2024), Olney Theatre Center Arts Fund finalist (2023), Write Out Loud winner for “Runaway Girl” (2023), Vanguard Theater’s New Work Festival feature (2023), NY Theatre Barn’s New Works Festival feature (2023), and recipient of a developmental production at St. Olaf College (2024).
Fest Fast Facts
- LIGHTHOUSE takes place in cornfield, Minnesota, where nothing happens except goin’ to church and waiting to slip on an icy sidewalk and die. This is also where abs is from. She’s still waiting to slip and die so in the meantime she’s at NAMT.
- We met at NYU in our graduate musical theatre writing program and bonded over our shared midwestern roots and love of the unparalleled cheese curd. We also bonded over our love of pop-country music! We wanted to write a score that featured pop country music in the style of songs you might typically hear on the radio, and blend that with musical theater. By capitalizing on the fusion of two genres that thrive in storytelling, we’ve been able to reach new audiences and tell a complex story!
- Visions? Stormchasing? Blizzards? Epilepsy? OCD? CULVERS?!? Sounds like a perfect storm to me! But in all seriousness, between us we share some mental and physical health struggles that we wanted to represent on stage in ways that aren’t typically represented, and we feel that this is a story that needs to be told.
- Our show centers an 18 year old girl, our unreliable narrator named “Bus.” It’s been really important to us to center someone who isn’t your typical lead— it’s not often that a quirky teenage girl is taken seriously as a real, complex leading lady. We’re excited that this piece not only gives such a weighty role to a young actor, but also provides opportunities for women of all ages to be featured and celebrated in our multi-generational cast.
- LIGHTHOUSE is a 2024 Richard Rodgers Award Winner— after developing this piece at the O’Neill’s National Music Theatre Conference, Rhinebeck, Syracuse’s University’s New Works program, New York Theatre Barn, St. Olaf College, Vanguard Theater’s New Works Festival, and NAMT, we’re ready to see this show staged. We’re interested in collaborating with producers and theaters who believe in this show and its message as much as we do!