Invisible Thread (Musical)
| Invisible Thread | |
|---|---|
| Music | Matt Gould Griffin Matthews |
| Lyrics | Matt Gould Griffin Matthews |
| Book | Matt Gould Griffin Matthews |
| Productions |
2014 Cambridge (as Witness Uganda) 2015 Second Stage Theatre (as Invisible Thread) |
2014 Cambridge (as Witness Uganda)
Invisible Thread (formerly known as Witness Uganda) is a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews. Based around the true story of Matthews' humanitarian trips to Uganda, and his work to fund his Uganda Project. The musical made its world premiere February 4 at Cambridge's American Repertory Theater. This production closed on March 16, 2014. The show later transferred to off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre in a production which opened on December 2nd, 2015.
From the A.R.T. website, "When Griffin, a young man from New York City, volunteers for a project in Uganda, he finds himself on a journey that will change his life forever. Inspired by a true story, this rousing new musical, staged by Tony Award-winning director and A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus, exposes the challenges confronted by American aid workers and the complex realities of trying to change the world."
The creation of the musical started around 2008, when the economy was suffering, Gould and Matthews needed money for their nonprofit Ugandaproject. Gould asked, "Why don't we write a musical about aid work?", to which Matthews replied "That's the worst idea I've ever heard!". Unbeknownst to Matthews, a few days later Gould recorded Matthews ranting about how frustrating it can be to raise money. Gould set music to it and the project had officially begun.
Once they had a couple of songs, the pair rented out a theatre and sold out two shows. Sadly, after paying to rent the theatre and the lighting designer, they made no money. They did however make an impact: people came up to them emotionally telling them that was their story. They were invited to Disney ASCAP and did a twenty-five-minute show the first night and a fifty-minute show the second night (to which they both said they didn't have fifty minutes and had to write a lot to put up the next night). Gould said of the experience, "The show was a mess at that time, but we knew what the heart of it was".
After the second performance, composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Pippin) said to them, "Boys, this is a musical. Just figure out what story you want to tell.
...
Wikipedia