World Premiere BalletCollective THE NIGHT FALLS

A BalletCollective and PEAK Performances Production

Book and Lyrics by Karen Russell

Music and Lyrics by Ellis Ludwig-Leone

Direction and Choreography by Troy Schumacher

Set Design Jason Ardizzone-West BalletCollective Artistic and Administrative

Costume Design Karen Young Management Kristen Segin

Lighting Design Amith Chandrashaker

Production and Company Management and Abigail Hoke-Brady

Sound Design Garth MacAleavey

Stacey-Jo Marine

Production Stage Management

Projection Design Hannah Tran Zachary Jenkins

Visual Art Harold Garcia V

Assistant Stage Management

Hair and Makeup Design Suki Tsujimoto Beatrice Perez-Arche

Music Direction Naomi Woo

Rehearsal Direction Michael Breeden

Assistant Music Direction Mila Henry Assistant Rehearsal Direction Elise Monson and Daniel Schlosberg

Production Assistance Lauren Koval

Assistant Set Design Kenny Duecker and Esther Bermann

Ableton Programming Dana Haynes

Additional Graphic Design Katrina Peterson

Orchestration Assistant and Engraving ASL Interpreters Kimberlin Chelinski, Franky Rousseau Jenna Marcoux

Cast

Felisberto, a teenager from Queens ............... Amari Frazier (dancer), David Merino (singer)

Angela, the athlete ...................................... Dabria Aguilar (dancer), Olivia Puckett (singer)

George, the musician ................................ John Selya (dancer), Alexander Dobson (singer)

Nadia, the mother Laurie Kanyok (dancer), Ilene Pabon (singer)

Allan, the python hunter Brendon Chan (dancer), Allen Tate (singer)

Jarvis, the acrobat Reed Tankersley

Siren Singers ........................................................... Eliza Bagg, Claire Wellin, Angela Yam

Sirenette/Sufferer Dancers ........................ Kellie Drobnick, Katarina Smith, Tatiana Nuñez

Sufferers ..Sam Assemany, Nicole Ashley Morris, Courtney San Martin, Joshuan Vázquez

Additional Casting by Jason Styres of The Casting Collaborative.

The Night Falls Musical Ensemble

Isabel Gleicher, Flute; Kristina Teuschler, Clarinet; Nicolee Kuester, Horn; Daniel Schlosberg, Piano; Chelsea Lane, Harp; Jeremy Smith and David Stevens, Percussion; Benjamin Russell, Violin; Hannah Levinson, Viola; Clare Monfredo, Cello

Co-produced by BalletCollective, Inc., and PEAK Performances at Montclair State University. The Night Falls was commissioned by BalletCollective. The Night Falls was developed during a 2018 residency for Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals with further support provided during a virtual creative residency in 2021.

Leadership support for the world premiere production of The Night Falls is provided by Stephen Kroll Reidy, Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals with lead support from the Jerome Robbins Foundation and other funder support, Jonna Mackin, National Endowment for the Arts Grants for Arts Projects and Geoff Woolley Family Fund.

Singer rehearsal space generously provided by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Better Company Records.

Duration: 1 hour, 22 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission.

In consideration of both audiences and performers, please turn off all electronic devices. The taking of photographs or videos and the use of recording equipment are not permitted. No food or drink is permitted in the theater.

Staging Note

Act Two

Felis arrives at the abandoned, decaying Night Falls and discovers he is not alone: The space is divided into two spheres: others have been drawn here by the Sirens’ the lower world of the stage, where the song. A sign reads THE SIRENS WILL SING action unfolds, and an upper plane that AT NIGHT FALL. Fearing the song’s return, represents a kind of metaphysical limbo. they band together and begin to tell each Each character, aside from the Sirens, is other stories. A mother relates the pain of represented by a Dancer on the lower level, losing her daughter to addiction; a python and a Singer on the upper plane. They are hunter shares his horror at becoming prey; two halves of a whole person—someone an acrobat pantomimes a joyful day in his who has been torn apart by the Sirens’ song. life; a professional athlete relives her public breakdown; and a composer whose wife has recently left him shares the simple melody

Plot Synopsis

Overture from the beginning of their love story.

Right at sunset, Felis moves into the center Three Floridian Sirens once sang to lure of the group. He is surprised and overjoyed visitors to “The Night Falls,” a roadside when the others merge into his story with attraction built around a mysterious grotto. him. But as the light disappears, the Sirens’ They drowned during a nocturnal concert, voices rise in volume, and Felis is spun away each failing to rescue the others. Their spirits from the group and into the shadows. were transformed into monstrous birds, and their song became a spell of despair. Now Act Three they haunt the grotto where they once An old video from “The Night Falls” flickers performed. All across America, suffering to life. It informs the group that the concert people begin to hear this song in their is about to begin, synced to high tide and the dreams, calling them to the water’s edge. solar eclipse. The athlete searches for Felis. The group firms up its bonds, preparing to Act One enter the grotto together to save him. The show opens in the Queens, NY, bedroom of a teenager named Felisberto, Inside the grotto, the Sirens have become in the middle of his recurring nightmare. prisoners of their own echoing song, their Three winged women sing a dark lullaby to wings fused to the rocks. They sing to Felis, him. They promise to relieve him of every urging him to drown and dissolve, solid to earthly care and drown out his pain. The void. The group calls to him, waking him out Sirens sing at a shattering pitch, creating a of his trance. They pit everything they have fracture in Felis. A gulf opens between the against the song of the Sirens. Their voices part of him that wants to live and the part tether Felis to the world outside the grotto. that has been possessed by the song. Felis addresses the Sirens. He asks them Felis wakes and reminisces about his who they were when they were fully human, boyfriend who has recently died. Without before this song possessed them. They, too, him, Felis feels unmoored and unable to begin to wake out of their long nightmare. move forward. Ignoring his mother’s calls They fall silent at last. from behind the door, Felis sinks back

The humans are reunited with the parts into sleep. of themselves from whom they have been Felis has another nightmare: he sees exiled. The group exits together, no longer dozens of people struggling to resist the isolated sufferers but something closer to Sirens’ song. Troubled, he wakes and a family. The Sirens’ spirits are freed and scans the channels of his television, released into the dawn. landing on a commercial for a place called “The Night Falls.” He recognizes For access to the full lyrics of The Night Falls, the singing women from his dreams. He visit thenightfalls.net/lyrics. decides to go there and learn why this song is haunting him.

Full program with all artists biographies to be found at