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Book and Lyrics by |
SYNOPSIS |
HeartLand is the story of three unhappy sisters who are scattered around the United States and are called home to Moscow, Iowa one last time before their mother sells the home in which they grew up. It is a musical about examining old dreams, and why they didn’t come true; about the damage caused by keeping secrets; about three sisters who get to go back to Moscow only to find out it isn’t the happy, verdant place they’d kept preserved in their memories, and to which all other places were compared. It is instead a place that kept their mother’s dreams in check; that is filled with memories that can never be re-lived; that has a very dark side, which is revealed in the troubled character of Maddie, the wife of the hired hand, with whom one of the sisters was once very much in love. The story is told with quirky humor, and the songs are tinged with country-western themes as well as period music of the 50s and the Springsteen era. |
BIOGRAPHIES |
DARRAH CLOUD ’s most recent work includes the stage adaptation of Disney’s classic, Snow White , now playing at Disneyland five times a day, 365 days a year. Her adaptations of O Pioneers! and The Boxcar Children, with composer Kim D. Sherman, have toured all over the United States. O Pioneers! was filmed for American Playhouse with Mary McDonnell in the lead. Her play The Stick Wife continues to be produced all over the U.S. and Europe. Sabina, a chamber musical about Jung, Freud and Sabina Spielrein, will open at Madison Repertory Theater next October, Rick Corley directing. HeartLand, an original musical, also with Kim D. Sherman, has been produced in the regional theaters since 2000. She has won numerous awards, writes for television as well as theater, and is an alumna of the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa and New Dramatists. |
KIM D. SHERMAN was born in Crystal Lake, Illinois and attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. After graduation from Lawrence in 1976, she studied composition, orchestration and opera with Thea Musgrave. Early in her career, Ms. Sherman lived in Minneapolis and worked with such companies as Illusion Theater and the Tony Award-winning Theatre de la Jeune Lune. Two of her chamber works, Sea Changes and The Moon Piece, were performed by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under the baton of William McGlaughlin. Sherman also had a concert of her music produced by The Walker Art Center. For the theater, she has written incidental scores for numerous productions throughout the US. Ms. Sherman also wrote the music for the Broadway hit I Hate Hamlet as well as the score for annual Dallas Theater Center’s production of A Christmas Carol. Her many works for the musical theater include: O Pioneers!, The Two Orphans, Honor Song For Crazy Horse, HeartLand, The Boxcar Children, Leaving Queens, Lenny and the Heartbreakers, and the opera trilogy Three Visitations. With Scott Killian, she co-created a score and sound-scape for Jonah's Dream a new play-with-songs by the acclaimed writer William Gibson. Sherman's choral work, Service for the Dead in Bosnia-Herzegovina has been performed throughout the US and abroad. “Graveside” (the 5th movement of Service…) was recorded by Musica Sacra on the BMG Catalyst label and distributed internationally. In 2001, Ms. Sherman was commissioned by The San José Chamber Orchestra to write Song of Songs for soprano, string orchestra and harp, with text adapted by Erik Ehn from The Song of Solomon. Song of Songs has been published by Roger Dean. This December, SJCO will premier her new work The Songbird and the Eagle for chamber orchestra, chorus, narrator, soprano and girl soprano. |
CONTACT INFO |
kdsherman@mac.com |