HOW TO NOT DROWN
Book/Lyrics by Alecia Baxter
Music by Paige Menneci
How to Not Drown is a pop-rock-R&B musical rom com that begins at the end of the world: The Beach! Here, we meet Norah–a highly successful, highly-suppressed, 27 year-old black woman who has just been passed up for her dream promotion. With her self-worth crumbling and her boss’s reminder to ‘open up’ ringing in her ears, Norah is faced with another end of the world scenario: her mother has set her up on an inescapable blind date with Eddie, the new guy from church, whose grandma is just as scheming as Norah’s mother. Norah agrees to show an enamored Eddie around town in exchange for his help on her quest to be vulnerable - just enough to get her promotion, of course. This dredges up some of the core traumas and insecurities that have kept Norah's authentic self suppressed her whole life. This piece explores the interwoven themes of vulnerability, double-consciousness, reconciliation, body dysmorphia and identity, and how they all ‘color’ our ability to give and receive love.
Developed at the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program
LAWS OF MOTION
Book/Music/Lyrics by Paige Menneci
Full of coming-of-age angst and heart, Laws of Motion follows Michelle: a valedictorian-turned-college-dropout-turned-snarky-barista, Kara: a hopeless romantic trapped in a will-they/won’t-they ever get married relationship, and Randall: a jock with a secret crush on his best friend and a failing grade in science. By all laws of physics, they should have nothing in common, but when Randall needs tutoring and Kara needs a distraction, they drag Michelle into a scheme that forces her to reckon with the hard decisions about growing up and choosing a path in life. With rock/singer-songwriter music, Laws of Motion is a love letter to everyone still in the figuring-it-out stage.
Laws of Motion was developed and presented as a song cycle at the College of Saint Rose Musical Theater Workshop. It is currently being reworked as a book musical.
