Back to the 37th Annual Festival of New Musicals
Drama
PARTICLE
2025 Festival
For More Information Contact
Selda Sahin, seldania@gmail.com, 917-568-1003
Number of Acts: 2
Preferred Ensemble Size: 3
Total Cast Size: 11
Orchestra Breakdown:
Keys, Guitar, Bass, Drums/Percussion, Ableton Live Musician
Casting Notes:
Ideal ensemble is 5, but can be done with 3.
Genre & Style:
Synopsis
PARTICLE is a multi-dimensional coming-of-age story set in the world of elite gaming. Will Cora help her team win the high-pressure Interglow championships — and what about her twin brother Seth, the one left behind? At its heart, PARTICLE is a story about connection and the transcendent power of love.
Development History
PARTICLE was written during the pandemic over Zoom by a bi-coastal writing team. The musical was also developed during a two-week workshop at Michigan State University, a workshop at Nazareth College, and a 29-hour reading at Missouri State (co-produced by Broadway Unlocked).
Fest Fast Facts
- The creators met in Los Angeles when Autumn was brought in to direct a workshop of Selda & Derek’s musical Modern, about Amish teenagers on their rumspringa. The collaboration worked so well that the three decided to write a musical together from scratch, which became PARTICLE.
- PARTICLE was written during the pandemic, over Zoom, from apartments on opposite coasts—the perfect origin story for a musical about the online world. The creators were never all in the same room together until workshopping their show at Michigan State.
- The leads of PARTICLE are 17-year-old twins, Cora & Seth, who are obsessed with an online game called “Interglow.” One of our show’s creators, Selda, also happens to be a twin herself!
- PARTICLE refers to our lead character Seth’s avatar in “Interglow”, as well as hinting at the foundation our show has in particle physics and pointing to an underlying theme of connection.
- Early in our creative process, Derek found a synthesizer sound called “particle “and we used it for a couple songs. The sound encapsulated something essential about our story, which led us to explore quantum physics and how it supported our lead character Cora’s journey—and which ended up becoming the title of our show.