Two Original Musicals Selected for Development at Yale

The Yale Institute for Music Theatre has selected two original book musicals, The Last Queen of Canaan, with music by Jacob Yandura and book and lyrics by Rebekah Greer Melocik, and Mrs. Hughes, with music and lyrics by Sharon Kenny and book by Janine Nabers, to be developed in an intensive lab setting in New Haven, June 4-16.

The residency culminates with open rehearsal readings of each project, presented as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, on June 15 and 16. More info: www.drama.yale.edu/YIMT.

THE LAST QUEEN OF CANAAN 

Kay McKenna, an eager young writer hired by the WPA, travels to Virginia on a mission to collect narratives from former slaves. In Canaan, she meets Cora Skye, a sharecropper who still farms the land she worked as a slave. Each woman wants nothing more than to forget her past. But, in this deeply haunted and slowly healing South, secrets are unearthed, and past and present collide. The Last Queen of Canaan is a powerful tale of legacy and forgiveness with a rich, gospel-infused score.

MRS. HUGHES

Writer Sylvia Plath yearns for an identity separate from her famous poet husband Ted Hughes. Assia, his mistress, wants nothing more than to be his wife. As their lives become tangled, each must face the high cost of blindly pursuing love, career, and fame. With an intricate, contemporary score, Mrs. Hughes explores one of the most sensational—and tragic—literary love triangles in history.