Amas Musical Theatre Announces Recipients Of Eric H. Weinberger Award For Emerging Librettists

Amas Musical Theatre has announced the recipients of the second Eric H. Weinberger Award for Emerging Librettists, a juried cash and production grant given annually to support the early work and career of a deserving musical theatre librettist, commemorating the life and work of playwright/librettist Eric H. Weinberger (1950-2017), who was a Drama Desk Award nominee for Best Book of a Musical (Wanda's World), and the playwright/librettist of Class Mothers '68, which earned Pricilla Lopez a Drama Desk Award nomination.

Cheeyang Ng and Eric Sorrels, 2019 graduates of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, were selected from over 50 blind submissions for their full-length musical M?Y?. In addition to a check for $2,000 to help pay cost-of-living expenses, Mr. Ng and Mr. Sorrels receive development assistance from the "New Works Development Program" of Amas Musical Theatre, culminating in the work being rehearsed and performed by New York theatre professionals in an Amas Lab production. Amas was the development home for several of Mr. Weinberger's musicals, and which produced the World Premiere of Wanda's World and the New York Premiere of Tea for Three.

M?Y? is many things: it's a philosophy of Hinduism; it's the idea that the world around us is really an illusion; and it can be a girl's name, as is in the case of our story. Set in the British Raj in 1930, M?Y? is the story of a struggling poet in need of an awakening, not unlike India herself. When Gandhi's non-violent Independence Movement arrives on Maya's doorstep in the form of her former servant, our heroine is thrust into one of the most turbulent political climates in history. When she commits herself to the cause, she begins to shatter the illusions (or m?y?) that have been deceiving her: illusions about her dreams as a lauded poet, her affair with a British officer, her privilege, and ultimately, the difference she will really make. The story is told with contemporary language and an urgent, rhythmic score that fuses Western pop and Indian classical music.

In an artistic statement for the submission Mr. Ng and Mr. Sorrels said "The initial source of inspiration for M?Y? came from the second act of A Midsummer Night's Dream, where the Fairy King and Queen fight over the Indian changeling child. We took that conflict and its impact on romantic relationships and adapted it for a story set in the the British Raj. Our "changeling child" would be Maya, and her soul would be torn between Britain and India. Our research led us to Sarojini Naidu, the perfect model for Maya. She was a lauded poet who later became an activist for Indian independence. Naidu's poetry, "The Golden Threshold," encapsulated a paradox of the British-Indian relationship: gorgeous language evoking a uniquely Indian experience thanks to a topnotch British education. That this art came out of an imperialist system that oppressed millions of people - that she could be both a British poet and Indian freedom fighter - was a contradiction we wanted to explore.

This led us to Mahatma Gandhi's 1930 Salt March, a seminal protest of which Naidu was an active part. Our research took off here as we delved into Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence and civil disobedience, called satyagraha. As we learned more, we realized satyagraha brought a new set of contradictions that we wanted Maya to confront in her journey. The very notion that Truth and Love (satya and ahimsa) have the power to overcome the violent oppressor is difficult enough to swallow. But the real challenge for Maya, and for us, is in the way that change is achieved: not by reforming the enemy, but by reforming the self. "Reform yourself, and you have begun to reform the world; reform the world without violence, and you have reformed yourself." This impossible task leads us to the message of the show, and Maya's struggle. She begins as a young and ambitious artist seeking to make waves and achieve success and fame. But our story ends with a call to action that takes that ambition and points it inward: "Let my life be my song. / Let its melody survive when I am gone. / ... Let the music and the message carry on." In the same way Maya takes a journey from chasing the tangible ("outside") and finds the success she's been craving in an inward journey of self-reform ("inside") we as artists have grown in a similar way as we've tried to bring this story to life.

"We are thrilled to welcome Cheeyang and Eric to the Amas family, says Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer of Amas Musical Theatre. "We are happy to continue to commemorate Eric's memory and look forward to developing this unique piece."

M?Y? (formerly The Golden Threshold) was originally conceived at the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. It was developed at "Live & In Color" (Devanand Janki, Artistic Diretor) and then showcased at Millenium State at the Kennedy Center as part of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Week. Upcoming: NMTC Eugene O'Neill Theatre Conference Incubator 2020, Pace New Musicals Lab 2020, Hypokrit Theatre Industry Presentation 2020.