New York Stage and Film has announced the musical works-in-progress for its 2021 summer season, including a new show by Pulitzer winner Michael R. Jackson, performed in person at venues around Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The series begins with performances of songs from Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson’s Mexodus: on July 17 at Vassar College’s outdoor amphitheater and on July 24 at Marist College. The musical tells the story of U.S. slaves who pursued freedom by moving south into Mexico instead of north into Union territory. Below is Quijada singing the show’s title song.
On July 23-24, the Poughkeepsie music venue Revel 32° will host showings of South, a solo musical about finding one’s roots, with book, lyrics, and music by Florencia Iriondo and music and arrangements by Luis D’Elias. Below are Iriondo and D’Elias performing the show’s “Vengo del Sur.”
On July 25, Marist College will host a presentation of Interstate by Kleban winners Melissa Li and Kit Yan. Their show follows transgender slam poet Dash who goes on a cross-country tour with his best friend Adrian, a lesbian singer-songwriter. Below is Li singing “I Don’t Look” for Musical Theatre Factory’s 2017 Lift Every Voice at Joe’s Pub.
The NYSAF series ends with Jackson’s White Girl in Danger on July 31 and August 1. This musical follows a young woman in the “Blackground” of the soap opera Allwhite who sets out to become its leading heroine by appropriating storylines of her three main rivals. Below is the show’s title song sung by Onyie Nwachukwu, Brynn Williams, Sarita Lilly, Larry Cornelius Owens, LaDonna Burns, and James Jackson Jr. for Musical Theatre Factory’s 2017 Lift Every Voice at Joe’s Pub.