INNER VOICES
licensing for One-act solo musicals by award-winning composers & playwrights
“In this complicated time and moving forward, I hope these MUSICALS provide an opportunity for theaters to offer their audiences exciting works and to employ many artists in their communities.”
Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director
Celebrating 20 years of producing, PREMIERES now offers a vault of one-act solo musicals for production and streaming licensing nationwide. Each musical originally premiered Off-Broadway as a part of the “Inner Voices” series - you can easily present each piece alone or curate a full evening with multiple acts.
PREMIERES’ “Inner Voices” provide an excellent producing solution for theaters facing new health and safety pressures as affordable, high-quality musicals by well-known and award-winning composers and playwrights. Despite the challenges for your theater, these shows can be easily produced on any scale as an exceptional offering for your audience.
Barbara Walsh, Premieres 2008 Production
A Thousand Words Come to Mind
By Michele Lowe and Scott Davenport Richards
Jeanie always knew her mother wanted to be a writer. What she didn’t know was that her mother was the muse for some of America’s greatest novelists. At least that's what her mother now tells her each day when Jeanie visits her in a Manhattan hospital room. Jeanie’s quest to find the truth leads her from the shelves of Barnes and Noble into her imagination as she conjures her mother’s chance meetings with Philip Roth, John Updike, Norman Mailer and John Irving. Could her mother’s story be true? What if her mother, an otherwise quiet and unremarkable woman had the power to inspire all of these great writers? Would she become more important to Jeanie? When a letter arrives in her mailbox after her mother’s death, Jeanie learns that sometimes the truth really can be stranger than fiction.
Drama | Female Solo | PIANO
Alice unwrapped
By Laura Harrington and Jenny Giering
Fifteen year-old Alice Bliss is trying to cope: Dad’s missing in action, Mom won’t come out of her bedroom, and her precocious little sister just wants a normal family. Somebody needs to take charge.
comedic drama | Female Solo | Young Audience | piano
Jennifer Damiano, Premieres 2008 Production
Hunter Foster, Premieres 2012 Production
Borrowed Dust
Book & Lyrics by Martin MorAN
Music by Joseph Thalken
In Borrowed Dust, George Richardson has just returned from a trip to his childhood home to claim and bury the body of his younger brother. As he recalls the experience and grapples with the sudden loss, the emotional landmines, the blood ties, and the secrets revealed, we bear witness to his story and his effort to find sense and acceptance.
male solo | DRAMA | Piano | Cello
Farhad or the secret of being
By Nilo Cruz and Jim Bauer
Farhad is a fifteen-year-old girl on the outskirts of Kabul who disguises herself as a boy to blend in a world where being a man is almost as being divine. She encounters herself in a difficult predicament when she has to start dressing like a girl again, and her father proposes to marry her off to a much older man. In her last twenty-four hours as a boy, she tries to indulge in all the liberties men have in that part of the world and chants to her beloved God in a lament.
Drama | female solo | GUITAr | OUD | PERCUSSION
Arielle Jacobs, Premieres 2012 Production
Heidi Blickenstaff, Premieres 2010 Production
Mosaic
Book by Cheri Steinkellner; Music & Lyrics by Georgia Stitt
MOSAIC is a multi-media, real-time half-hour in the life of Ruth, a woman blogging at the crossroads of birth, death, love and Diet Coke in the year 2009.
COMEDIC Drama | Female Solo | Piano
Scaffolding
by Jeff Blumenkrantz
A single mom's relationship with her brilliant only son is tested when he interviews for the college of his choice. On the eve of her son’s first-choice college interview, Helen, a single mother in NYC, excitedly prepares and reflects on their journey to this day. She has happily put her “exceptional” only child, Kevin, at the center of her universe. Kevin has dreamt of attending MIT for years, and Helen wants nothing more than to see his dream come true. When we meet her again a year later, she reveals what happened around that interview that would change their relationship forever.
Drama | Female Solo | Family Audience | Piano | Cello
Rebecca Luker, Premieres 2018 Production
Finn Douglas, Premieres 2018 Production
The Costume
By Daniel Zaitchik
Halloween, 1954: 10 year old Leo is given the unexpected task of caring for an injured bird overnight.
Light Comedy/Drama | Child Solo | Family Audience | PIano
THE OTHER ROOM
Music by Marisa Michaelson
Libretto by Mark Campbell
The Other Room is a 25-minute musical monodrama set in 1990. Lena stands at an easel, painting the tree outside the window of the one-room apartment in Chelsea owned by her friend Steve. She reveals that Steve, who has been very ill with AIDS, recently asked her to assist in his suicide and now lies bed in the other room waiting for the dosage of Seconal he took to achieve its purpose. As she paints, Lena recounts—with wit, ferocity and love—her friendship with Steve and the birth of their social activism.
Drama | Female Solo | LGBT | Piano | Cello
Phoebe Strole, Premieres 2014 Production
Nancy Anderson, Premieres 2016 Production
The Pen
Words by Dan Collins
Music by Julianne Wick Davis
Laura is on her way to work, triple checking that the appliances are turned off and looking for her keys when she discovers a purple pen in her purse. A purple pen that is not her own. Why is it there? Where did it come from? Who chewed on it!? As Laura struggles to answer these questions, it becomes evident that she has a compulsive fear of germs, which has been dramatically triggered by this alien pen. Retracing her steps and disinfecting every potentially contaminated corner, Laura is sent into an emotional tailspin as she attempts to restore order and return to her routine. But each action seems to uncover another, greater obstacle as Laura’s epic journey to exit her front door brings her to both unexpected depths and revelations.
Comedy | Female Solo | Piano | Guitar
Whida Peru
Libretto by David Simpatico, music by Josh Schmidt
Whida Peru’s salon is a rent-controlled limbo of musty shadows and haunted spirits. As She calls the spirits to attendance, three poltergeists wreak havoc on the apartment. When her husband, Juannie, arrives, Whida sets up their anniversary party. But Juannie has come to break up, forever,which forces Whida to examine the frozen status of her life, and the prospect of living without Juannie.
Comedy | Female Solo | PIANO
Judy Blazer, Premieres 2010 Production
Farah Alvin, Premieres 2018 Production
Window Treatment
Words by Deborah Zoe Laufer
Music by Daniel Green
Why do Dr. Carson’s romantic relationships always go awry?? She’s smart. She’s hard working. She’s as good-looking as almost anyone in the building across the way. It’s infuriating. But her romance with the man in 7G is different. After months of watching him through his window, following him, observing his every taste and habit, she decides that today is the day — she will meet him! But, he isn’t home at his usual time. And the waiting is maddening.