Help 'Amity' Bring Her Music to Fix a Broken World

Amity

‘Are you only but a fantasy or did you make it on through?’

Amity as her name infers

Could nudge the warring worlds together.

Down from a place uniquely hers

Her canopy in unsettled weather.

I am an 82-year-old writer whose first musical play, “Amity,” has been selected to be part of New York Theater’s 2024 Spring/Summer Festival/Competition, this June.

The theater company wrote:

“We only choose the most original, fresh and dynamic scripts from among our hundreds of submissions. We have chosen your work because we believe that your show will be an invaluable contribution to our festival.”

“Amity” is a story of the granddaughter of Adam and Eve. She is the daughter of Abel and Aclima, who was pregnant when Cain murdered Aclima’s husband, Abel. An immediate favorite of God, Amity lives in a timeless present in Paradise, after Cain has been banished to earth for his murder of Abel. Cain’s lineage has grown into a world of conflict. When God has had it with what he sees below, he sends Amity to create a new direction through the purity of her love.

No, I didn’t decide I needed to spend some idle retirement time writing a play. I have spent a lifetime in writing, music and other creative arts. My resume includes songwriter, novelist, business books author, journalist, photojournalist, essayist, editor and publisher. So now I guess I can add playwright/composer to my resume. I tell people writers never stop writing; we just stop getting paid. Such is the case with the New York Theater Festival/Competition. I don’t participate in ticket sales. There is only prize money, most of which is $300-$500, awarded after the season.

I have a wonderful composing partner. My director has directed two plays at the theater and others at playhouses across the country. My musical director is a world class guitar player. What I don’t have are the funds to present Amity in her best light.

I will need to raise money to pay the cast, all of whom are members of Actors Equity, and our musicians. I will need funds for scenery elements, posters, costumes, to produce and print a playbill-style magazine, and I am sure many more things I am unaware of at this point. We already have identifiable expenses of close to $8,000; if we can raise $10,000, it could give us some cushion.

We have the best possible material in the book for the play and the music is wonderful, if I do say so myself.

Help us bring a good deal of joy to audiences at our three performances in mid-June. The world damn well needs a heavy dose of Amity these days. Help her remind people what love can do. As her soulmate, Navi, sings:

Where are you, Amity?

Where on Earth are You?

Are you here to be with me?

Did you make it on through?