LIKE THE WIND To Receive Staged Reading at The Brick

After a highly successful presentation at the New Musicals Lab, Collard & Rosenblatt's Like the Wind will receive a staged reading on December 19th and 20th. Directed by Daniella Caggiano, with music direction by Rai Arsa Artha and stage management by Isabel Schwartzberg, the two-night only staged reading will debut at The Brick in Brooklyn, NY.

Like the Wind is a new electronica-pop musical that explores the lives of Bennie and Cai, two queer teenagers running away from a conversion therapy facility in the summer of 2018. Loosely inspired by Bonnie and Clyde, Bennie and Cai choose to change the fate that society has set for them and break through the constraints of expectations and rules. With a queer, female writing team at the helm, Like the Wind explores themes of identity, forgiveness, and queerness in young people.

The cast includes Renee Kauffman, John Byrd, Remy Thompson, Matt Stevenson, Sarah Allbrandt, and Diego Bly, with Alia Cuadros-Contreras and Kalonjee Gallimore understudying. Kauffman, Byrd, Thompson, Stevenson, Allbrandt, and Bly were all members of the original presentation of Like the Wind, this summer in Newport News, VA at the Ferguson Center for the Arts/New Musicals Lab. For a sneak peek of the cast singing the title song, click HERE.

"We are thrilled to be able to bring awareness to the very real, very serious topic of conversion therapy which is still legal in many states," says Rosenblatt. "As two queer writers, we set out to bring stories to the stage that are honest above all else. We are so proud of this company and cannot wait for them to share this story with a larger audience."

"I'm just happy to be brought another opportunity to be working on live, in-person theatre," says Arsa Artha. "It can't be overstated how much I will never take that for granted, especially after the last two years."

"I am so thrilled to be bringing Like The Wind back to New York! We can't wait to get it on its feet, hopefully in front of an audience packed with old friends and new friends! This show has such a special place in my heart, especially as a queer writer - I never got to see queer stories growing up, and I'm so thrilled to be helping provide that representation," says Collard.

Like the Wind will be presented on December 19th and 20th, at 8:00pm at The Brick (579 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY). Tickets can be found online on The Brick's website, or by clicking HERE.

Collard & Rosenblatt are a queer, female writing team made up of Elspeth Collard and Sam Rosenblatt. Together, they have written four musicals (Like the Wind, A Princess Story, Mother of FYRE, and Twenty-Six Percent), all in various stages of development, as well as The Girl with the Rose-Colored Eyes with collaborator Amber Delaluz. The duo also released an album featuring twenty-nine performers in March of 2021, Little Love Notes from Collard & Rosenblatt, that can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music. Collard & Rosenblatt's work has been heard at the Green Room 42, Dixon Place, Don't Tell Mama, and The Duplex, with an upcoming show at Feinstein's/54 Below on March 1st (Collard & Rosenblatt: Quarter Note Crisis). Semifinalists of the Eugene O'Neill NMTC in 2021, as well as a part of Shotgun Players 3030 Vision and Volume II of the Lotte Lenya Songbook Competition, Collard & Rosenblatt are proud emerging writers who look forward to changing the face of musical theatre. The pair's work hopes to illuminate queer experiences, tell the stories of women+, and help end the stigma surrounding mental health.