A New Brain
music and lyrics by William Finn
Directed by Dan Stearns
A Production of the University of Mississippi Department of Theatre and Film,
scheduled to open April 17, 2020 and suspended due to the COVID emergency
I debated whether to include this item in my portfolio, since the production was never fully realized. We had rehearsed for two weeks when the students left for spring break in March, 2020. We were all enjoying the discoveries in rehearsal, the music was learned, and I was hopeful they would be off book when they returned. Instead, the chancellor declared that the rest of the semester would move online and no students would return to campus. We abandoned A New Brain, to much disappointment.
But a lot of my work, and that of the designers, was already accomplished. I would like that to be acknowledged. Below I include several items that will give an idea of what we had planned. I no longer have access to the original design work. But I include here my director’s concept, cast x scene, scanned blocking diagrams, and a scan of my annotated script.