Demos from EARTH FIRST! a new musical

Book & Lyrics by Donna Oblongata
Music by Sequoia Sellinger

Earth First! (EF!), the radical environmental movement, has been at the forefront of direct action to save the planet since 1981. EF! made famous, dramatic, non-violent tactics such as tree-sits, road blockades, and activists chaining themselves to bulldozers. Over the past 40 years, the movement has grown, evolved, and splintered. Some members have “aged out”,  while some  served lengthy prison sentences for “eco-terrorism.” Many former members  became leaders in larger fights for social and environmental justice. EF! (a new musical) brings this movement’s culture, history and present to the stage through an immersive, sung-through musical. Audience members find themselves acting as participants at the “Round River Rendezvous,”the movement’s annual gathering. As always, the gathering will end with a mass action such as a blockade or sit-in and everyone is asked to prepare themselves. The ensemble-based play includes new twists on classic musical tropes. A queer love triangle unfolds between two of the tree-climbing instructors and a prison abolitionist. Microorganisms that break down human excrement get a bombastic kick-line moment. A “primitive skills” practitioner tangos while teaching us all about how to brush your teeth with a stick. Earth First! the musical has been developed at Macdowell. 

 Demos from WORK, a new musical

Book & Lyrics by Parade Stone
Music by Sequoia Sellinger

When Sydney receives a job offer in politics, she finds herself at a crossroads. Should she stay at her unfulfilling survival job until she finds a new passion, or can she reignite her now-disillusioned passion for politics? As Sydney traverses both fantasy and reality to come to a decision, she finds herself instead searching for the answer to the question that’s always eluded her: in a broken political system, how is she capable of bringing about real change?