Local theater-lovers are invited to peer into a different realm, where dancing brings out the beauty in life and helps overcome momentous challenges.
Intimate songs and moving music helps tell the story of grief, romance, comedy and ultimately happiness.
And audiences in Johnson County will have the first chance to see it on stage.
“Dreamers,” a new original musical, is making its world premiere in Greenwood this weekend. Staged by central Indiana acting troupe Beyond Curtains Theatre Company, the musical tells the story of the power of dance in the face of grief, with elements of comedy, romance and magic intertwined.
Directors Doug and Theresa Robbins worked with writer Anna Miriam Brown, whose hit debut “His Story the Musical” has earned critical acclaim, to put on the production. The Beyond Curtains team hopes that in experiencing the musical, audiences find inspiration and wonder in the show as a whole.
“We hope they take away a beautiful enjoyment of a theatrical experience, but be moved deeply in heart if they relate to their lives — that they’re grieving and haven’t had closure for, or there is something in their life that needs to go,” Theresa Robbins said. “We hope they leave better people, which is what theater should do for people.”
Beyond Curtains is a theater group for young actors based on the southeast side of Indianapolis. The Robbinses have been active in theater throughout the community, often fusing it with their faith-based youth programs that they’ve led for more than 30 years. In the summer of 2020, they brought a group of actors for an outdoor production, “Curtains,” which was staged at Mallow Run Winery. The show proved to be a success, not only in terms of audience support, but in interest from the actors themselves.
“It was a great show, right when everybody needed theater, because they hadn’t been able to have that for four or five months,” Doug Robbins said. “The actors loved it, and a big group of them loved us enough that they wanted to keep hearing from us and having a relationship that extended beyond the show. Thus, Beyond Curtains.”
The group continued to meet, focusing faith-centric discussions on issues the members were facing in their life. While the name playfully referenced their first production together, it also served as a mission, to help young people pull back the protective veils they may be holding and reveal themselves to the world, Theresa Robbins said.
“We want them to come out of their masks, to be real,” she said.
Through their previous youth group work, the Robbinses had first met Brown. The Indiana native and songwriter had an inspiring story to tell — of struggling with dyslexia throughout her life, being unable to read or write before the age of 9, but finding her calling and flourishing through the arts.
“His Story the Musical” started coming together when she was just 15 years old, partially written during a mission trip to Africa. The musical tells the story of the life of Jesus Christ, but with a tone that blends the hip-hop sensibilities of “Hamilton” with the melodies of “Dear Evan Hansen” and the orchestral foundation of “Alan Menken.”
Theresa Robbins had done a review of “His Story the Musical,” and their youth group had been moved by the production. The writer and musician had come to spend a week with the group, shared her testimony and working with young people.
One night, she sat down at a piano, mentioning that she had written another musical — “Dreamers.”
“I was enthralled by it. She had such a knack for beautiful music. Then she said she had a script too, and I told her I’d love to read it,” Theresa Robbins said. “Our wheels got turning, and we thought that one day I could maybe direct it. But we didn’t talk that much more about it.”
Momentum picked back up in 2020, when Brown attended the staging of “Curtains.” She loved the group’s approach, and serious discussions started about working on “Dreamers” together. Beyond Curtains actors did a read-through of the script, and Theresa Robbins helped edit it for the stage, since it was originally written for animation.
“Dreamers” is loosely based on the fair tale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” a German story collected by the Brothers Grimm and originally released in the early 1800s. While Brown maintained some basic elements from the tale, she took its framework and constructed a vivid world to plumb the depths of her characters.
In the story, King Antonio bans dancing in his kingdom after the death of his wife. But his 12 daughters refuse to give up their mother’s favorite artform, and work with their aunt to create a magical plan to continue dancing in a realm called Trancia.
Brown had the music she had written produced, so the cast could have demos to listen to and practice with. Over the past three months, the show has come together.
The cast of 38 ranges in age from 7 to 27, and cast members come from all over central Indiana. One of the most exciting parts of the process is that they’ve had the chance to truly connect with their roles; with it being the first time the musical has been staged, they had more flexibility in shaping their characters, Theresa Robbins said.
“When you do something that’s an old standard, you have in your mind what you’re going to do. With this, we have all kinds of ideas,” she said. “They got to think about what the characters would wear, how they’d react in this situation. We were building the characters from the ground up.”
“Dreamers” premiered at Studio One, the Greenwood-based space operated by Creative Grounds Performing Arts Co., on Thursday, and runs throughout the weekend.
Brown was in attendance for Thursday’s show, and her entire family joined her. They’ve been incredibly supportive of the entire show; Brown’s father is even helping with the lighting, Theresa Robbins said.
To have so much support has been outstanding.
“It’s been a labor of love, a labor of joy. We feel honored that we’ve been chosen for something like this, because it’s so unique and rare,” Theresa Robbins said.
