Early during the COVID-19 pandemic, a friend asked writer Larry Little to name the moments that dramatically changed his life. He was inspired, and soon adapted the concept to create a Zoom musical focusing on teenagers and the defining moments in their lives.
That musical, aptly named The Moment, will make its Dublin premiere Sept. 10-11 at the Abbey Theater. Originally written as a Zoom musical for high schoolers, the production coming to Dublin has been adapted to a stage show featuring both school-aged and adult actors.
The show will run as part of the South Asian Theater Festival, which will be held at the Abbey Theater for the first time this year. The festival, organized by Spotlight Columbus, invites theater productions from anywhere in the United States to present shows that are representative of South Asian culture, characters or plots. While The Moment doesn’t specifically focus on South Asian experience, the range of stories portrayed and the flexibility with casting enable it to offer opportunities to South Asian performers.
“It’s important that what we put on the Abbey Theater stage represents the depth and breadth of the community,” says Joe Bishara, supervisor at the Abbey Theater. “I thought (The Moment) was great. It was something that we had not yet been able to provide.”
The Moment highlights diversity. Bishara says the production allows the Abbey Theater to share the experiences of people from various backgrounds with a cast representative of that diversity.
“It’s sharing the stories of the melting pot that is America,” Bishara says. “So you’re not just seeing caucasian people on stage. You’re seeing South Asian people on stage, you’re seeing African American people on stage, you’re seeing teens that are struggling with their desires to be considered adults.”
Collaborating with Spotlight Columbus to put on The Moment for the festival, Bishara says, helps the show to reflect the diversity that its story demonstrates.
“There are also some things where it says (the character) can be any race, any gender, and I’m probably going to push more towards those performers being South Asian,” Bishara says. “It’s an exciting piece. I’m really excited that it gets to be a part of something even bigger.”
To capture the many stories, Little, who is the lead producer at CPA Theatricals, spoke with numerous students and writers about the moments in their lives that caused a specific divergence. He used those stories to create characters and plot lines for the musical.
The production was altered to transition from the screen to the stage by adding additional scenes, characters and dialogue, Little says. The stage adaption also eliminated the Zoom version’s heavy reliance on monologues throughout the show. Now, The Moment is structured through various vignettes, making it more digestible to the audience.
“We took out about half of (the monologues) and added a dialogue that brought the characters together,” Little says. “We brought characters into some of the scenes so that we could make it a little more exciting, a little more palatable for being live, but the core of each of those stories is still there.”
The significance of the stories, Little says, is not only the fact that each character shares their life-changing moments, but that each of their stories are connected in some way.
“We call these Easter eggs in show business, where there’s little teeny things throughout the show that the audience members may not catch right away,” Little says. “All of the characters are connected and it’s very subtle.”
In The Moment, one story often leads to another. A mother speaks about her daughter’s social media craze, and later that daughter appears to give her own perspective and complain about her husband. The husband, of course, eventually delivers his perspective as well.
Prior to the performance of The Moment, the Abbey Theater will center high schoolers onstage for a production of Rent, which runs Aug. 11-21.
Jonathan Larson’s Rent, focused on poor artists in New York City, earned a Pulitzer Prize for drama and Tony Award for Best Musical following its debut in 1996. Rent: School Edition adapts some of the more adult themes in the musical while retaining its rock-inspired sound and La Bohème-inspired plot.
Mia Kadar, a Dublin Coffman High School sophomore who plays Mimi in Rent, says she enjoys her character’s sassy attitude and love of life, even against the darker backdrop that encases the show.
“It reaches many audiences of all ages: The message of it is that love triumphs,” Kadar says. “Dealing with things like HIV and child abuse, although those can seem like outside aspects to the younger generations, I think learning about that and learning about how these characters can gravitate toward each other is really important.”
Despite the heavier themes in the show, Lev Hund, a Coffman senior who plays Roger in Rent, says the Abbey Theater production offers an opportunity for students to work together and share their talents.
“I’m really excited to be able to put the project together along with my friends,” Hund said. “A lot of my friends from Coffman are doing the show as well, and they’re very talented.”
Both Rent and The Moment, Bishara says, demonstrate the breadth of programming that the Abbey Theater offers Dublin arts patrons, showcasing different styles, themes and issues throughout its productions.
“What we’re trying to do at the Abbey is light the spark, and I think that these two pieces reinforce that,” Bishara says. “We’re lighting the spark of imagination, we’re lighting the spark of conversation, by providing the community an opportunity to bear witness to pieces that have never been produced here.”
Lauren Serge is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
