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[0:01] Oliver Houser: The music of tomorrow is being written today.

[0:10] Hunter Bird: The music of tomorrow is almost ready to play.

[0:18] Oliver Houser: Experience the musicals of tomorrow today.

[0:21] Hunter Bird: Get a glimpse inside the blueprint of an original musical being developed in real time.

[0:26] Oliver Houser: With New York Theatre Barn's podcast, The Musicals of Tomorrow.

[0:32] Hunter Bird: The music of tomorrow.

[0:40] Joe Barros: I'm Joe Barros.

[0:42] Jen Sandler: And I'm Jen Sandler.

[0:44] Joe Barros: And we're the hosts of The Musicals of Tomorrow.

[0:46] Jen Sandler: As the Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director of New York Theatre Barn,

[0:51] Joe Barros: we make space to speak in community with musical theatre writers and their creative teams.

[0:56] Jen Sandler: Lifting up songs from original culture-shifting musicals in development

[1:00] Joe Barros: and introducing them to a global audience has become a major part of New York Theatre Barn's evolving story.

[1:06] Jen Sandler: Each original musical's intention, content, and journey are unique and extraordinary to the storytellers who create them.

[1:14] Joe Barros: We believe that there is no formula for musical theatre except authenticity.

[1:20] Jen Sandler: We recently spoke with the writers of She Reached for Heaven, Oliver Houser and Hunter Bird,

[1:25] Joe Barros: and the writers of Co-Founders, Adesha Adefela, Beau Lewis, and Ryan Nicole Austin.

[1:31] Jen Sandler: Our first musical is She Reached for Heaven, which has music and lyrics by Oliver Houser and a book by Hunter Bird.

[1:38] Joe Barros: On the outside, high school senior Jess Holt is doing everything she's supposed to.

[1:43] Jen Sandler: On the inside, she's never felt more alone and longs for something she can't name.

[1:48] Joe Barros: Set against the backdrop of the greatest drug crisis in our country's history,

[1:53] Jen Sandler: She Reached for Heaven is an original coming-of-age story about the devastations of addiction

[1:58] Joe Barros: and one woman's journey to choose life rather than escape it.

[2:02] Jen Sandler: And now, here's our conversation with the writers of She Reached for Heaven, Oliver Houser and Hunter Bird.

[2:08] Oliver Houser: Hi there!

[2:09] Hunter Bird: Hello!

[2:10] Oliver Houser: Thank you so much for having us!

[2:12] Hunter Bird: Of course! We're so glad you're here!

[2:14] Oliver Houser: Us too.

[2:15] Jen Sandler: Well, Oliver, you are a New York-based musical theater writer and a recent Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow,

[2:21] Joe Barros: the winner of the inaugural Stephen Schwartz Award and the ASCAP Foundation's Sammy Kahn Award.

[2:26] Jen Sandler: Your work has been performed and developed at Chicago Shakespeare Theater,

[2:29] Joe Barros: the Village Theater, the Soho Playhouse, the Rhinebeck Writers' Retreat,

[2:32] Jen Sandler: the Johnny Mercer Writers' Grove of Good Sweet Musicals, and the Royal Academy of Music.

[2:37] Joe Barros: Your other new musical written with Hunter, XY, will receive its world premiere at Seattle Repertory Theater soon.

[2:43] Jen Sandler: Hunter, you are a writer and a director of new plays and musicals,

[2:47] Joe Barros: and you're the recent Jonathan Alper Directing Fellow at MTC.

[2:51] Jen Sandler: As a director, your work has been seen at Ars Nova, Roundabout Theater Company,

[2:55] Joe Barros: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the McKittrick Hotel, the Village Theater, and Musical Theater Factory.

[3:00] Jen Sandler: You've co-written The Starry Messenger with Madeline Myers and, like I said, XY with Oliver.

[3:04] Joe Barros: And I first got to meet you at Good Sweet Musicals because you were up there making some magic

[3:08] Jen Sandler: while we were working on the Festival of New Musicals.

[3:11] Joe Barros: Through Hunter and Oliver, your show creates an awareness of the impact of addiction in our complex world.

[3:16] Jen Sandler: What was the impetus for your collaboration and what inspired you to tell this story?

[3:20] Oliver Houser: Well, I can start with that.

[3:22] Hunter Bird: Hunter sent me or showed me an article on an airplane in 2018 about the opioid epidemic,

[3:29] Oliver Houser: and I was so taken by the impact it's had on so many people.

[3:33] Hunter Bird: And also, it's so widespread now, it's more likely to die from an opioid overdose

[3:39] Oliver Houser: than a car accident in our country, way more likely, actually.

[3:42] Hunter Bird: And just so crazy to hear the stories of people who never would have thought this would have happened to them

[3:47] Oliver Houser: who suddenly just descend into this decline and the impact it has on their families and communities.

[3:52] Hunter Bird: And I am really interested in the topic of addiction, both on a personal level and a global level,

[3:58] Oliver Houser: because I know that I, and I think all of us, you know, in some way or another,

[4:03] Hunter Bird: can know what it's like to want to escape reality.

[4:06] Oliver Houser: And whether that's through a relationship or through a substance or an activity,

[4:11] Hunter Bird: you know, it's so easy to make that choice to dissociate and leave.

[4:14] Oliver Houser: And I, in my own life, am really interested in that choice we have of like,

[4:20] Hunter Bird: do I want to embrace the totality of the human experience, which is both beautiful and tragic and painful?

[4:27] Oliver Houser: And like, you can't have one without the other.

[4:29] Hunter Bird: So I got really excited about telling this story about a woman who basically has the choice of choosing life rather than escaping it.

[4:38] Oliver Houser: And as we've been sort of doing research and going deep into the world,

[4:42] Hunter Bird: we came across this really interesting idea by this sociologist named Peter Cohen from the Netherlands,

[4:48] Oliver Houser: where he says, actually, we should get rid of the word addiction altogether.

[4:52] Hunter Bird: Instead, we should use the word bonding to describe this relationship that people would have with drugs.

[4:57] Oliver Houser: Because as humans, you know, we need bonds with one another to move through our days.

[5:02] Hunter Bird: And if you've experienced some kind of trauma that makes you unable to establish a sort of deep bond with those around you,

[5:08] Oliver Houser: often you'll turn towards a substance or something that will give you that feeling of safety or security.

[5:14] Hunter Bird: And that bond could be with weed, porn, social media, opioids.

[5:19] Oliver Houser: And a central part of addiction is feeling like you're not able to get that connection from the other relationships in your life.

[5:25] Hunter Bird: So you turn to this relationship as a kind of place of safety and security.

[5:30] Oliver Houser: And the big question that we've been asking ourselves not only is how does someone get addicted,

[5:34] Hunter Bird: but more importantly, once someone is addicted, how do they escape that cycle?

[5:38] Oliver Houser: And I think the big question that we've been in dialogue with is, you know,

[5:41] Hunter Bird: this system of punishment and shame that we've seen to sort of address addiction doesn't work because as soon as these people sort of get back into the world,

[5:51] Oliver Houser: there's so much stigma and shame surrounding their experience with addiction that oftentimes going back to that connection is a place of solace as they're trying to recover.

[6:00] Hunter Bird: So those have been things that we've been grappling with as we've been working on the show.

[6:04] Oliver Houser: I also really love how you said how you are refocusing the concept of addiction in the word,

[6:09] Hunter Bird: similar to I'm trying to refocus the term committed suicide to died by suicide,

[6:15] Oliver Houser: to also take that pressure off of that person who's no longer here to defend themselves.

[6:20] Hunter Bird: Absolutely.

[6:21] Oliver Houser: There is this amazing TED talk, which we saw while we were working on the show at the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat,

[6:27] Hunter Bird: which was an incredibly transformative time for the show.

[6:29] Oliver Houser: This TED talk by this man named Johan Hari, and he posited that the opposite of addiction isn't sobriety.

[6:37] Hunter Bird: The opposite of addiction is connection.

[6:39] Oliver Houser: And it's these interpersonal relationships that we're able to have with one another that are really going to be the sort of route to how we solve the opioid crisis in America.

[6:48] Hunter Bird: Absolutely.

[6:49] Oliver Houser: So this show has been around for so long.

[6:52] Hunter Bird: It had a different title when you first started.

[6:54] Oliver Houser: That's true.

[6:55] Hunter Bird: The show used to be titled Almost Heaven,

[6:57] Oliver Houser: which we decided to change because that is coincidentally the title of the John Denver musical, which is coming out.

[7:02] Hunter Bird: But I think it all worked out because we are very excited about our title.

[7:06] Oliver Houser: Yeah.

[7:07] Hunter Bird: It was also a Reese Witherspoon movie with Mark Ruffalo.

[7:10] Oliver Houser: Yeah.

[7:11] Hunter Bird: My wife told me about that yesterday.

[7:13] Oliver Houser: I had no idea.

[7:14] Hunter Bird: It's a good movie.

[7:17] Oliver Houser: But your musical will be better than the movie.

[7:19] Hunter Bird: Awesome.

[7:20] Joe Barros: Well, we'd love to see your first song, Catch Me, if you could tell us a little bit more about that.

[7:24] Oliver Houser: Yeah.

[7:25] Hunter Bird: So in the show, this second song in the show, and of course, the opening number and the scene follows.

[7:31] Oliver Houser: We meet Jess Holt, who is beginning her senior year of high school, and things look to be going pretty well.

[7:37] Hunter Bird: She's well-liked.

[7:38] Oliver Houser: She has been doing well academically, has a reputation for being a good student, is on the cheer team.

[7:44] Hunter Bird: And so externally, she's really going through high school.

[7:47] Oliver Houser: People perceive that she's successful.

[7:49] Hunter Bird: But we see these relationships that she has setting up this song are really existing on a surface level.

[7:56] Oliver Houser: And we come to understand that this is the one-year mark of a pretty significant life event.

[8:00] Hunter Bird: And we see that she has no one to sort of deeply connect with on an authentic level to sort of process what she's really feeling.

[8:07] Oliver Houser: So in this moment, she's on the field in the middle of a cheer practice.

[8:11] Hunter Bird: And as the song comes in, she simultaneously is in the world and sort of stepping outside of it as the cheer practice moves on around her in a kind of underwater feel.

[8:20] Oliver Houser: And this is the first moment in the show where we get inside of Jess's head.

[8:24] Hunter Bird: The song is called Catch Me, sung by the incredible Julia Harriman.

[8:28] Oliver Houser: So here is Catch Me.

[8:42] ♪ Musical number: "Catch Me" — performed by Julia Harriman ♪

[11:35] ♪ Musical number: "She Reached For Heaven" — performed by Julia Harriman ♪

[18:07] Adesha Adefela: Oh, I'm so sorry.

[18:08] Beau Lewis: Yeah.

[18:09] Ryan Nicole Austin: Oh, my goodness.

[18:10] Adesha Adefela: Yeah.

[18:11] Beau Lewis: Yeah.

[18:12] Ryan Nicole Austin: Wow.

[18:13] Adesha Adefela: I think what's amazing is, I mean, I can't imagine that there's a person out there who hasn't been affected by addiction in their own selves or, you know, through a connection, through a friendship or a connection as well. I mean, I think it's a universal struggle for all of us.

[18:25] Beau Lewis: Yeah. And I mean, COVID really laid it bare, too. I mean, there's been so much challenge for so many people, myself included. And it's hard to stay with it. You know, it's hard to stay with reality. It's really easy to want to just like choose to look another way. And that's I'm really I'm hoping that this show can be something that encourages all of us to choose life and all of its messiness and beauty.

[18:53] Ryan Nicole Austin: Yeah. And I think, you know, do you hope it humanizes addiction for this younger audience now who they need to hear that?

[18:59] Adesha Adefela: Absolutely. Because, you know, one of the things that we've worked on with the show is originally the idea of addiction, putting the audience inside of the experience was all about the visual world and sort of the fantastical reality that Jess experiences when she's using. But as we've worked on the show, we actually pivoted it so that relationship that she has with the drug is personified and in a relationship that she's investing in like any other relationship in her life, because it really is a personal relationship that you that you continue to choose over the other ones. And so our hope is this can be a show that can both show how addiction happens and also how the pathway to healing can begin from all of us as a community. We need to choose life. We need to choose family and friends and the people who love us and care about us.

[19:43] Ryan Nicole Austin: Absolutely. Well, thank you both for your beautiful, beautiful musical and for this presentation.

[19:48] Adesha Adefela: Thank you both so much. And thank you both for this community. It is so awesome that you are championing new work like this. And we're so grateful to be a part of it.

[19:55] Beau Lewis: We're so grateful to have you. You know, the community wouldn't be what it is if we didn't have writers like you who are like-minded and have big ideas like what we're seeing right now.

[20:03] Ryan Nicole Austin: Thank you, everyone. Bye.

[20:05] Adesha Adefela: Our second new musical is Co-Founders, which is written by Adesha Adefela, Beau Lewis, and Ryan Nicole Austin.

[20:12] Beau Lewis: Co-Founders is the story of the two most unlikely partners in the history of Silicon Valley.

[20:17] Adesha Adefela: Assata Thompson, a black female coder from Oakland, and Conway DeLuche, a small town college dropout, take on the most competitive startup accelerator in the world, where the privileged make a killing while the people across the bridge grind to survive.

[20:33] Ryan Nicole Austin: And now here's our conversation with the writers of Co-Founders, Adesha Adefela, Beau Lewis, and Ryan Nicole Austin.

[20:41] Beau Lewis: What up, y'all? What up? What up?

[20:43] Adesha Adefela: Wonderful to be here.

[20:44] Ryan Nicole Austin: We're so excited to be here. Thanks for including us.

[20:47] Beau Lewis: Awesome. Well, we want to tell people a little bit more about you before we dive into the conversation. So, Adesha, you started acting in musical theater at age five.

[20:55] Adesha Adefela: Your mother, Deltrina Johnson, a Beach Blanket Babylon alum.

[20:58] Beau Lewis: And for anybody who doesn't know what Beach Blanket Babylon is, it's like Forbidden Broadway.

[21:02] Ryan Nicole Austin: In fact, it was there first.

[21:04] Adesha Adefela: I also read that you worked with Lettucey.

[21:06] Beau Lewis: And I'll never forget the time I got to see Lettucey go on for Renee.

[21:10] Ryan Nicole Austin: Joe is from the Bay Area and he will not stop talking about it this entire segment.

[21:17] Adesha Adefela: As a teen, I was to sign with Atlantic Records. But in an effort to uphold your personal values, you became an independent artist.

[21:25] Beau Lewis: And that decision led to nominations, sold-out shows in the San Francisco Bay Area, co-starring in a reality TV show produced by Warner Brothers, and becoming a Billboard charted artist.

[21:36] Ryan Nicole Austin: You are a Grammy-nominated polymath whose work meets at the intersection of art and activism.

[21:43] Adesha Adefela: You've led workshops, directed, and have been the playwright in residence at New York's Public Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, California Shakespeare Theater, and San Francisco's cherished American Conservatory Theater.

[21:54] Beau Lewis: You're an Emmy-winning writer, producer, viral media expert, and entrepreneur from Seattle.

[22:00] Ryan Nicole Austin: Your music videos have over two hundred and fifty million views online.

[22:05] Adesha Adefela: And your work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Fortune, and on Good Morning America.

[22:11] Beau Lewis: You are also the CEO of Rhyme Combinator, the media company dedicated to championing positive entrepreneurial culture.

[22:19] Ryan Nicole Austin: You also co-founded, pun intended, and sit on the board of GoldieBlox, the award-winning children's multimedia company challenging gender stereotypes with the world's first girl engineer character.

[22:32] Adesha Adefela: Wow. You're all incredible. No wonder Co-Founders is the future of musical theater.

[22:38] Beau Lewis: Hey, you said it. That's a great quote, Joe. We're going to type that up a few times tonight.

[22:44] Ryan Nicole Austin: So Co-Founders started as a weekly freestyle rap session in Oakland and San Francisco, among friends who saw meaning in getting vulnerable and celebrating the grit of Bay Area artists and entrepreneurs.

[22:54] Adesha Adefela: The show is inspired by your real-life experiences and you all happen to be entrepreneurs.

[23:01] Beau Lewis: And all of the characters, though they are varying socioeconomic statuses, are entrepreneurs in your show.

[23:07] Ryan Nicole Austin: From the Uber driver to the founder of the tech accelerator.

[23:12] Adesha Adefela: So Adesha, Ryan and Beau, how did you come to collaborate and what inspired you to evolve and weave your experiences into a musical? Great question. And let me just start by acknowledging the land that we're on. We're on Unceded, respectively, Chochenyo, Ohlone land and Tongva land. Just want to acknowledge that. And then I'll take the first crack at the question and pass it around to my homies. You know, we can talk about like the linear story of like how this all happened and the dates that we all came together. But I think it's also important to just talk about the significance of this collaboration. I joined the team last, actually. Came on to the squad as a performer at one of the initial performances of Co-Founders, initial presentation of it.

I think version four, three or something like that. And then was slowly weaved into the collaboration as a writer. The reason why I've been so integrally connected in this team and why I'm passionate about the story is twofold. One of them and the primary objective is because it was a story about the Bay Area and it was a story about Oakland. And if I don't bleed anything else, I bleed Oakland. If Oakland had a color, I would bleed that color. I'm all about this town. I'm all about the Bay Area. I love it for the reasons that we're talking about in the show, the innovation, the grit, the activism, the love and just the real people of this area. And I was really happy to be invited to champion a story about this place that we think is so special.

And then beyond that, you know, what I've learned over time is that this show helps challenge some of my assumptions. The show is all about challenging assumptions and it's doing a personal work in me. And I hope that I always hope to do work and be in relationship that challenge me and expand my parameters, expand my worldview. And I hope to create art that does that. And so I'm encouraged that the show will do that for me. I also encouraged it will do that for audiences who come and see it. So that's primarily the reasons why this collaboration is important to me and why I've joined.

[25:10] Ryan Nicole Austin: Yes. So I love that question. How do we come together? Because, you know, again, like Ryan said, we can tell a linear story. But one thing that plays a key role in our play is what we call fate as opposed to algorithms. And so, you know, what one thing that I believe is that the universe brought us together to tell this story for such a time as this. And so, you know, often I'll talk about how Bo actually came in contact with me. And it was basically through a chance encounter with a friend of mine on a Friday night performing at First Fridays and the thought that if he didn't turn down that corner that night and meet my friend, you know, we wouldn't have known each other. And so to see that the universe is orchestrating our meeting and coming together so that we can tell this story that needs to be told.

So I want to lean into that, just basically that we came together because the universe wants us to. And this story needs to be told for our city, for underrepresented people in tech, in the tech industry and things of that nature. For me, what drew me to the story, as you said earlier, Joe, all of us are entrepreneurs. I myself am a singer, songwriter, and have been really committed to making sure that something happens out of Oakland. Many things have happened out of Oakland, but wanting to see my career be successful in Oakland without having to move to New York or without having to move to L.A. and feeling like other industries have been able to come here and grow something from here. But I couldn't grow something from my own home and feeling the frustration of that and seeing the tech industry come in and just grow.

And, you know, and like exponentially while I'm still hustling, you know, and selling CDs when CDs were out or, you know, getting little download cards to hand out to my friends and just watching this industry grow. There's a part of me that was really angry and just felt like I wanted to be distanced from that industry. But, you know, I realized, you know, the only way that you're going to be able to work together and to understand is to engage. So when the opportunity presented itself for me to be a part of Co-Founders, I embraced it because I thought it was another way for me to understand the tech industry. And in addition, be able to create a bridge between what I would like to think of as the natives in the Bay Area and the non-natives in the Bay Area, which is the tech industry.

And for them to be able to understand each other, like there's something that I can learn from the tech industry that can help, you know, me as an entrepreneur. And there's something that the tech industry can learn from the entrepreneurs in the Bay Area as far as culture and putting people first before money. Seeing this as an opportunity not only to learn more about tech and to kind of just steer that ship in a different direction, but also as an opportunity to grow myself as an entrepreneur in my tech knowledge.

[28:03] Beau Lewis: All I would add is if Adesha comes from the lineages of musical theater royalty from San Francisco and the Bay, and Ryan bleeds Oakland, then I'm the white kid across the bridge in Silicon Valley who's been living in this crazy startup culture for 10 years trying to make it as an entrepreneur. And a white kid who grew up in suburbia listening to Too Short, Hiro, Blackalicious, those guys were my idols, everybody out in Oakland. They were selling tapes out of their trunks in Oakland when Steve Jobs and Wozniak were selling computers out of garages in Silicon Valley. And so both of those things are entrepreneurship. It's all a hustle. And, you know, we wanted to tell a story of what these dreams have in common and how they're different and how they can help each other.

[28:54] Ryan Nicole Austin: The hustle is real, whatever you were doing. So before we talk about the development of the show, we'd love to hear more about Rhyme Combinator and how it came to be. And I know you say that you believe regardless of color, class, anybody can be the next Mark Zuckerberg if they try. So tell us more about why you have this company together and how it's a part of your show.

[29:13] Beau Lewis: Yeah. So Zuckerberg or Elon Musk or whatever entrepreneur you want to mess with. But basically that, hey, there's like the current American dream that a lot of people are chasing and that there deserves to be diverse voices and that innovation thrives with diversity. And Rhyme Combinator came from that kind of spirit. It started out as a chant that we would shout in a cypher to call people together and freestyle six years ago. Rhyme Combinator! Rhyme Combinator! Then it turned to a reading and then a media company where we do viral campaigns to support causes that we believe in. One of those causes was motivating Get Out the Vote with rap cartoons and memes convincing people to vote against Donald Trump.

Another is around mobilizing people to get vaccinated. The big project, though, is this musical. And really, it's just kind of a production entity. We're a bit of outsiders in this world, although Rhyme has the credits with The Public and Yerba Buena and everything that I'm coming to recognize and appreciate even more and feel grateful that her and Adesha are this power team together. But it's sort of our little outsider kind of next generation vessel of digital media in our lens that we're putting this show and sort of everything we do that supports it online through.

[30:28] Ryan Nicole Austin: Wow. Well, I think it's time to hear more about the show and hear some music, and then we'll talk about the development in between songs. So tell us more about the first song we're going to see tonight.

[30:32] Beau Lewis: Let's see. What's the first song? It's Silicon Valley to Vallejo. And so it talks about bridging that gap, the literal, you know, 60 mile journey between Vallejo and Silicon Valley and all the life that exists in between, all the time that has passed, all the spirit of innovation that this cauldron of the Bay Area has created. And so it talks about that. It's presented by one of our primary characters, the first person that you see in the show, Demir, who is our streetwise entrepreneur. He's presenting himself currently as an Uber driver, but he does a lot of things. And he'll tell you in the song. And yeah, it puts the audience in the front seat and makes the audience one of the main characters of the show. And then we take this ride and it's on from there. And that's Austin Dean Ashford. And then you are you're there with him, too.

[31:23] Adesha Adefela: Yes, I am. Yeah. Kamaya is also a streetwise entrepreneur, again, another representative of the Bay Area tech hustle, entrepreneurship, grit and grind. So yeah. So here is Silicon Valley to Vallejo.

[31:38] ♪ Musical number: "Silicon Valley to Vallejo" — performed by Austin Dean Ashford ♪

[34:10] Ryan Nicole Austin: If you want to make it here, you need to make your own out. You're about to experience the tale of Osada and Conway, the two most unlikely co-founders in the history of Silicon Valley.

[34:47] Adesha Adefela: Yeah, sure. So a friend of mine's name, Leslie Touche, has a program called Next Play Events. And basically what he does is he is working to help people of color, black and brown people, get jobs in the tech industry, because as you can see, it's not very diverse. And so he'll have parties and socials where Twitter will come or eBay will come, and they are recruiting people of color. Of course, the angle for them is to make sure that they're having some diversity in their organization. And his is to basically help people of color get the jobs, the six-figure paying jobs so that they can also stay here in the Bay Area and in other places where the tech industry is. So Next Play Events, when I met Leslie, I thought that there was some synergy between what his mission was and what we're doing in our play.

And so basically we collaborated. I was initially singing for Next Play Events alongside my brother and just seeing what he was doing and looking at our play. And I just thought, man, this would be the perfect collaboration. So we were able to come together and do an event, not only at Netflix for one of their presentations or one of their Next Play Parties, but we're also able to perform at the Kapor Center. So it's also something that's interesting, especially during this diversity and inclusion language that's happening in the tech industry. Even sharing with one of my friends who works for Airbnb, and she heard about basically the premise of our play and was like, man, I'm interested. I want to get you to come to our organization so basically they can learn more about what it means to have people of color in the tech industry and why it's important, why it's needed now. And I think that's a good second to our next song. And you are not going to set it up because your song does such a good job of setting it up. Tell us what it is called and who our performers are.

[37:04] Adesha Adefela: It's called I Am the 1% and Slash Bad Pitches. We've got Amber Iman playing our lead protagonist, Assata Thompson, and Gerard Canonico playing our second protagonist, Conway DeLuche. And then they enter this accelerator and they get eviscerated by one Miss Sandy Hill. Who plays Sandy?

[37:20] Beau Lewis: Oh, you do. Some girl, some girl, some evil lady.

[37:22] Adesha Adefela: And then Victor.

[37:23] Beau Lewis: Victor was Jeb Brown. That's right.

[37:25] Adesha Adefela: Yeah, playing Victor, the main person who runs the accelerator. So here is I Am the 1%.

[38:04] ♪ Musical number: "I Am the 1% and Bad Pitches" — performed by Amber Iman, Gerard Canonico, and Jeb Brown ♪

[42:16] Oliver Houser: Wow. This could be a musical on stage. It could be a movie. It could be a TV show. It could be a podcast. I think your show dares to dream in so many different special ways and so many different mediums of art. How do you think the story does transcend so many different mediums and why, why do we need that kind of thing now more than ever?

[42:32] Hunter Bird: So we want a show that reaches the next generation. That's what we've said. We want to create a musical that reaches the next and the next generation. That it's a show that appeals to that, that very short attention span, you know, that has the bells and whistles, but doesn't miss the meat of the story. And I think, you know, our show is intending to work in that way. And so in that way, we have to think about all the mediums where our audience is. Our audience is on TikTok. Our audience is on IG. Our audience is streaming Netflix. And also our music. We want to make sure that the music is something that can play on the radio, you know, can play. Well, that's, that's funny. That's me telling my age, the radio is not, that plays on Spotify and SoundCloud and all of that, you know, that, that our next gen can, can stream and be connected to before they even put their butts in seats at the theater.

Dare to dream. And yeah, the more that you, the bigger we dream, the more the story gets out there. And I think that that's, what's important is that we're able to share it with many different people and different age groups. I was just even sharing with our team how I was at my friend's house and showing her the video and her son, her 11 year old son was downstairs and thinking to myself, wow, this is going to be a play that he's going to want to see. You know, he's not going to say, mom, please, I don't want to see, I want to sit down, you know, not to say that, you know, that's how every other play is. But this again, is for that next generation for them to actually not only see the play, but hear the messaging and be able to make better decisions for the future as a result of that.

[44:03] Ryan Nicole Austin: I love that. One of the things I've been saying that maybe you could say is, is quite entrepreneurial is that your target audience is not your only audience. I think there are many different audiences for the show, just like Jen said, there are many different mediums. And again, I want to thank NAMT, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre for choosing the show and for presenting it. Build it and they will come. Thank you.

[44:24] Beau Lewis: And I think, you know, the last thing I'm going to say is your show is for the quintessential theatre kid, but also the not, you know, someone who maybe doesn't think they like musical theatre, but they might listen to this and realize they do.

[44:36] Adesha Adefela: We hope so. I guess we could also say too, that Co-Founders is a gateway musical, especially like how Ryan was saying, if some of this music was recorded, and actually was in the mainstream, even before the musical gets to have its premiere, I think you can bring some people to the theatre who maybe didn't know that a musical could be about you, it could be about us, it can sound like anything.

[44:58] Hunter Bird: Right, right. That is really the hope. That's my primary goal. My personal primary goal and mission is to, you know, get audiences that are 50% traditional and 50% non-traditional, and both of them sitting in a room and enjoying themselves and rubbing shoulders with new folks that they wouldn't have sat in a space with. And that's what theatre is about. It's about the arts. It's about being different, but also finding things you didn't know were possible.

[45:20] Adesha Adefela: Yep, definitely.

[45:22] Hunter Bird: Right. That's why I love it.

[45:29] Oliver Houser: Awesome. Well, thank you, Co-Founders of Co-Founders.

[45:33] Ryan Nicole Austin: It's so meta.

[45:41] Adesha Adefela: Thank you.

[45:42] Oliver Houser: Thank all three of you for being here. And we hope to see you soon.

[45:51] Pauls Macs: The Musicals of Tomorrow is co-produced and edited by Paul Smock and Hector Flores Jr.

[45:56] Pauls Macs: Our theme song, The Music of Tomorrow, was written by Lynn Shankle and Sarah Cooper for their all-female identifying musical, Perpetual Sunshine and The Ghost Girls.

[46:09] Pauls Macs: Join us next time for more of The Musicals of Tomorrow.