Emote: An Original Musical

Emote is an original musical by Tim Carullo and June Spiegel sprouting from questions about our emotional attachemnt to self-discovery through dilemma. In a dystopian future where income is based on “how happy” the characters are, the role of artificial intelligence and human mimesis take on new possibilities.

From the creators:

“The primary objective of our project was to create a musical theater production that explores the subjects of human emotions and the rise of artificial intelligence in modern society. In our show, the characters live in a world where instead of working towards a paycheck, one’s income is based on how happy they are. The key themes we employ throughout the show are the nature of happiness, ethical dilemmas, and self-discovery. We are inspired by composers such as Stephen Sondheim and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Sondheim offers a variety of musical leitmotifs and recurring themes throughout his musical scores and we planned to create our compositions in a similar manner. On the other hand, Miranda employs a very distinct lyrical structure throughout his work as seen in “Hamilton” that makes the music very catchy and fun to sing along to. Thus, we planned to emulate this approach throughout our writing as well. After writing the show, the remaining objective for the project was to gather a creative team consisting of directors, dramaturgs, and choreographers to successfully produce it at the end of the academic year. We sought out students willing to be a part of the cast and pit to execute our vision.”

Credits:

Tim Carullo (Co-Director, Writer)

June Spiegel (Orchestrator)

Arrim Jung (Co-Director, Script Doctor)

Lou Feng (Dramaturg, Script Doctor)

Jocelyn Selby (Orchestrator, Choreographer)

Jack Brink (Music Editor, Music Director)