Andrew Stevens Purdy

Class of 2020

Major:
  • Music Theatre

Art Without Eyes: The Process of Creating a Podcast Musical

Project Mentors:

  • Valerie Maze, lecturer in performing arts
  • Linda Sabo, associate professor of performing arts (retired)

Project Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore how an existing work of musical theatre can be reimagined and presented to a broad audience in an innovative format. High quality theatre is often inaccessible to the general public, whether it be due to its concentration in major cities, or its soaring ticket prices. In an attempt to broaden the accessibility of theatre, specifically musical theatre, an existing musical has been adapted into a podcast musical, a modern descendant of the 20th Century radio drama. The musical Floyd Collins, written by Tina Landau and Adam Guettel, was used as the model for this research. As a supplement to the podcast, a video presentation was created, focusing on background research, obstacles faced, discoveries made, and recommendations for future scholars, as well as clips from the podcast. The aim of this research was to inspire other artistic scholars to reimagine the ways in which their dramatic stories can be told in order to reach a more demographically diverse audience.

Project Video