The Passage
2017 Festival
Director
Shelley Butler
Music Director
Mark Hartman
Cast
Farah Alvin, Cat Brindisi, Brian D. Coats, CJ Eldred, Daniel Marcus, John Rubinstein, Isabella Russo, Jennifer Sanchez and Ian Saraceni
For More Information Contact
David Darrow, Dwdarrow@gmail.com, 973.865.5261, www.DavidWDarrow.com
Number of Acts: 1
Number of Principals (Male): 2
Number of Principals (Female): 2
Preferred Ensemble Size: 4
Total Cast Size: 8
Orchestra Breakdown:
Piano, Guitar, Cello, Bass, and Percussion
Casting Notes:
The piece requires two children – Albert and Cassie. Both are in sixth grade. In the first production, the ensemble actor who played Cassie’s Mom also played Knight #1.
Genre & Style:
Synopsis
Albert, a sixth grader, has a monster living in his basement. When it captures his father, he enlists his brave new friend, Cassie, and together they embark on an epic journey to save his Dad and his family. The Passage is a coming-of-age story about two imaginative children confronting a reality stranger than anything they could imagine.
The unfolding of this mystery engulfed us even once we’d thought we’d figured it out. We found this a beautiful, compelling and poignant coming-of- age story with extremely well-drawn characters. Charming at first, it evolves quickly into a meditation on the circle of life.
- Festival Committee
Development History
The Passage was originally developed and produced by 7th House Theater in 2016. It received an internal developmental workshop with 7th House and a full production in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie.
Festival Successes
August 2018 reading at Village Theatre’s (WA) Festival of New Musicals and a subsequent February 2019 developmental production as a part of their Beta Series. Apples and Oranges Theatre Accelerator (2020)
Fest Fast Facts
- The Passageis autobiographical. It is based on the author’s experience of a moment of deep crisis for his family. The house in which the musical takes place functions almost like another character.
- For a musical, it is small and very intimate. There are scenes that take place in tiny areas—a tent, a closet, a bathroom—but the world should feel enormous to Albert, and his journey into the basement should feel epic.
- The main characters don’t sing. There is a chorus of four actors who play various parts of the world—a dog, a box of memories, a pile of coats—and they supply the music of the world. The chorus in many ways represents the inner life of the characters.
- Although the two leads, Albert and Cassie, are children, The Passage is not a piece of children’s theater.
- This piece had its first workshop and world premiere production at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, where it was developed and produced by 7th House Theater. I am looking for partners to help with the next stages—further development and a larger production.