IF IT RAINS - (originally titled: Dust) was chosen for inclusion in the 2017 New Plays for Young Audiences programming as NPYA celebrates 20 years of helping to develop new works.
Set in 1934, Dust is a new musical with book and lyrics by Laurie Brooks and music by Paul Carrol Binkley. Jeff Church directs. This historically situated musical tells the story of two siblings – a 10-year-old brother and 15-year-old sister – hoping for rain and trying to survive along with their family in the Dust Bowl.
New Plays for Young Audiences
New Plays for Young Audiences (NYPA) is a series devoted to the development of plays and musicals while providing NYU students the opportunity to study and experience the process first-hand. Housed in the historic Provincetown Playhouse and supported by NYU Steinhardt’s Program in Educational Theatre, NPYA was founded in 1998 by Lowell and Nancy Swortzell as a supportive space to nurture and evaluate new scripts.
Public rehearsed readings are performed each weekend of the series. This series honors the history of the Provincetown Playhouse where the early plays of Eugene O’Neill, Susan Glaspell, and Edna St. Vincent Millay were first presented. However, this series changes focus by devoting its efforts to development of new works written by noted authors in New York City, the US, and abroad.
In keeping with the goals of the Program in Educational Theatre, this series offers both students and theatre professionals the opportunity to test new ideas and methods within the field of TYA.
Celebrating its 23rd season, New Plays for Young Audiences will stage rehearsed readings of three new plays. These staged readings are presented by NYU Steinhardt’s Educational Theatre program at the historic Provincetown Playhouse and are free and open to the public.
This prize-winning series has developed dozens of new plays written by leading playwrights, many of which have gone on to receive both national and international recognition, publication, and production.
Notes from Laurie Brooks:
During the summer of 2017, PCB and I spent ten productive and enjoyable days in New York City, having been given the opportunity to develop our new musical, If It Rains (at the time called simply Dust). The process of collaborating on the project so far, we agreed, had been inspiring and we were ready to take it to the next level. It’s one thing to create a theatre piece, but the real test and the most learning often arrives when the work comes to life on the stage for the first time.
My week consisted of reworking moments and scenes, paying close attention to the flow of words as the actors experimented with meanings. Paul music directed, with impressive ability and patience, teaching the songs and harmonies. Director, Jeff Church, Producing Artistic Director of The Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, found the patterns of movement that would help the audiences “see” the story.