Polyphone
A Festival of New and Emerging Musicals
Presented by the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at University of the Arts
Kerry Walk, President, University of the Arts
Kikau Alvaro, Interim Dean, Ira Brind School of Theater Arts
Maggie-Kate Coleman, Artistic Director Polyphone Festival
April 18–21, 2024
Sweetwater
Book & Lyrics by Patricia Noonan
Music by Liz Filios
Directed by Megan Nicole O'Brien
Choreographed by Kat Borrelli
Music Direction by Garrick Vaughan
Sweetwater was developed as a part of the Goodspeed Writers' Grove and Festival of New Musicals presented by Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT.
Where:
Arts Bank Theater
601 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Dates and Times:
Friday, April 19 at 8 PM
Saturday, April 20 at 2 PM
Sunday, April 21 at 8 PM
*Note: Ticket reservations will be held until curtain. All unclaimed tickets will be released to the waitlist at 2 PM and 8 PM accordingly. Dates and times are subject to change.
About:
As World War II shakes the nation, sisters Beth and Frankie journey to Sweetwater, Texas, where they join with women from across the country to fly for the US Army Air Forces. Though they master 77 types of planes and become among the first to test the new B-29 bomber, these pilots know all too well they risk their lives every day without the benefit of military status. Frankie, Beth, and the others must decide how to serve a country that needs their skills but refuses to fully acknowledge their sacrifice – and how to honor the sisters they have found in the process.
From the fringes of the history books, Sweetwater brings the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) center stage in a story of duty, love, sisterhood, and the joys and costs that come with being pioneers.
Content disclosures:
Sweetwater contains allusions to war, combat, violence, and the atrocities of WWII and the Holocaust as well as references to death, grief, physical risk, and danger.
The piece engages with and honors the struggles this group of pilots faced in the 1940s, including covert and overt forms of racism and misogyny.
Sweetwater is not intended to be a docu-drama. Historical events and stories have been interpreted and ellided to give us a glimpse into this group’s journey from 1938-1944. Though several of our characters (such as Jackie Cochran and Hap Arnold) were indeed real people, their stories have been distilled and filtered through the lens of time and story for this piece. The rest of our characters are fictional creations inspired by various combinations of the words, spirits, and lives of pilots who served as WASP and beyond – they are impressionistic paintings, not black and white photographs. We dedicate this piece to them, and recognize that we are a group of artists in 2024 channeling the whispers of a story from the margins of history 80 years ago. We are grateful to “sing” a version of their song for a moment – and we hope it inspires you to listen to the radio waves a little differently yourself – to “tune into” their story and explore it more on your own as well.
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Please Note: UArts students, faculty, and staff will be required to present an up to date UArts ID.