Success for “To A Muse”

“To A Muse,” with book and lyrics by Emily Clare Thomp­son, was per­formed Feb­ru­ary 25, 2015 at the school where she teaches in East Hanover, NJ. This was the sec­ond per­for­mance; the show pre­miered in 2012. To A Muse is set in a modern-day mid­dle school, where stu­dents worry about a uni­ver­sal theme: get­ting an ‘A’ on their project! But what to project to do? Dur­ing a school trip to the local museum, Theodore com­plains that if only he had some inspi­ra­tion, he’d get a great grade. He hap­pens to voice this wish in front of a paint­ing of the nine muses, who sud­denly mate­ri­al­ize, com­mit­ted to help­ing Theodore with his project. The muses explain that, once invoked, they are not per­mit­ted to leave until they pro­vide the requested inspi­ra­tion. Theodore’s sis­ter, Thea, and his best friend, Hec­tor, worry over Theodore’s seem­ing loss of sanity–until, that is, they too acci­den­tally invoke the muses. While Cal­liope works on Theodore, the other muses busy them­selves with try­ing to repair the dull, hum­drum life they see all around the school. Soon, every­one is act­ing a lit­tle crazy, all under the spell of a lit­tle inspiration!

Here are sev­eral pic­tures from the show; click for a larger view.

A rehearsal

The view from the piano

Emily Thomp­son direct­ing, with Rich Lovallo at the piano

Theodore at the museum

The muses step out of the painting

Two of the nine muses

“Can’t You See The Beauty of the Stars?”

The prin­ci­pal falls under the spell of the muses

The cast takes a bow