FROM THE ABUELAS' WINDOW to Make Debut at SPARK Musical Theatre Festival

The creative team of Nancy Burke, Ignacio Valdivia and Ed Levy has announced that From the Abuelas' Window, their new musical, has been invited to perform at the first SPARK Musical Theatre Festival, by the Emerging Artists Theatre in New York City. The festival runs from November 2 through November 22.

From the Abuelas' Window is on the schedule for the final day of the festival, Sunday, November 22 at 5 PM. The festival will be held at the 28th Street Theatre (TADA) 15 W 28th street, New York City.

Says Burke, 'I am so thrilled with this opportunity to introduce our musical adaptation at a New York festival. We will showcase several songs that reveal to the audience the journey of Maribel, our young protagonist, as she joins the resistance to the evil dictator Pinochet and plots to rescue prisoners in her village. Our songs introduce the characters. Short dialogue will reveal the turns the story takes since this is a concert reading, not a full production. The performance promises to entertain audiences ages 9 to 99.

Burke visited Santiago de Chile this September to pay her respects to the disappeared by visiting the Museo de Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, on the anniversary of the coup, September 11th and to celebrate Chilean Independence Day on September 18th with the family of Ignacio Valdivia, composer. From Santiago she ventured south to Patagonia.

The Abuelas de La Plaza de La Moneda are the inspiration for this story. Since the coup that deposed democratically elected Salvador Allende in 1973, the grandmothers and mothers of the disappeared have marched demanding the government reveal the fate of their loved ones 'disappeared' by the military junta.

Sparked by an act of kindness by a neighbor, Karen Lateiner, right here in Montclair, Burke says, 'This story took itself to Chile. I merely went along for the ride.' That act of kindness was in the form of an old bicycle gifted to a frightened child who believed it when she was told, 'It's a magic bicycle, anyone who tries can ride it.'

Three years of development precedes the SPARK festival performance. The creative team is spread across the country and the globe. Burke is local to Montclair, Levy now resides in San Diego California, and Valdivia lives in Santiago de Chile. Weekly video calls are essential to their creative teamwork. Valdivia visited Montclair in Fall 2025, during which the Union Congregational Players cast and staged a developmental reading of the full work. Revisions and new songs emerged from that reading.

Montclair's Vanguard Theater included Welcome to Our Valley, the opening song, in the Montclair Theater Festival performance line up in July 2026 at Brookdale Park. Cast with MSU Theater program and Cali School of Music students as well as professional actors, directed by Sarah Jane Schostack and costumed and choreographed by Mary Blackburn, the opening song performance drew praise from the crowd.

The cast in alphabetical order: Janet Aldrich, Bill Amory, Juan Betancur, Lisbeth Maria Burgos, Ivanna Diaz, Brendaliz Gonzalez, Nirala Melissa, Jane Orlofsky and TBone Rube. Direction by Carlos Valdes-Dapena, music direction by Max Cavanaugh, costume and movement by Mary Blackburn.

'We are blessed to include experienced Broadway veterans, Janet Aldrich and Juan Betancur, along with rising stars from Montclair State University's theater program and the Cali School of Music. Tbone Rube, tenor, joined us through the NJ Theatre Auditions group and his own Project '63 for which he was nominated for a Perry award this year,' says Burke.

EMERGING ARTISTS THEATRE (EAT) is an award-winning theater company known as an incubator for new voices from the page to the stage. EAT was founded over 30 years ago to provide a dynamic home for diverse artists to explore their work and guide it through development to full artistic realization through our bi-annual Spark Theatre Festival NYC. Emerging Artists Theatre has built a reputation as a champion of equity and opportunity in theatre, ensuring that financial constraints do not dictate artistic opportunity. This is E.A.T.'s first festival devoted to new musicals.

Spark Theatre Festival NYC, under the direction of Artistic Director Paul Adams, has presented new work for the stage since 2006. Since its inception, numerous musicals, plays, solo shows, and dance pieces workshopped at the series have gone on to have full productions at the Edinburgh Fringe, NYMF, FringeNYC & Encores, Off-Broadway, as well as National and International productions. www.emergingartiststheatre.org

Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door.

Burke adds that the Sunday train from Bay Street Station in Montclair runs at 3 PM and arrives to Penn station at 3:40. The TADA 28th Street Theatre is a ten minute walk from Penn.

You can support this production by donating to their GoFundMe campaign at https://gofund.me/873fbbde8