LoveFest: A Concert of Songs, Scenes and Stories from Loveville High

Director’s Note  

Last year on March 12th, Broadway, a symbol of New York resilience, announced that it was shutting down amid the virus threat.  This year on March 12th, I am listening to the first round of “rough cuts” after having “wrapped” filming the scenes and songs that make up our LoveFest theatre production—recorded for you in hope that audiences will one day be together again in a theatre. Last year, theatres and theatre programs across the globe experienced the stark reality of closing their doors and keeping their theatres dark for an indefinite period of time. Most are still closed. During this time, many of us still turn to things that hold us together—such as live performances that are now recorded or streamed so we can experience them safely from our own home. This is what we have brought to you in LoveFest. 

Music and storytelling will always endure. It is what we know, how we feel, and who we are as humans. The combination of arranged vibrations of sound and the transformative potential of a good story have the power to evoke the energy that can at once feel freeing and frightening—and in doing so remind us that we are still alive.   

The impact that live theatre has on our lives is immeasurable. We remember performances we have attended, performances we have given, and performances that didn’t feel like performances because they were so real. In considering how exactly to evoke a real experience of live theatre for an audience watching it from home,  the choice was made to set this event in our very own University Theatre so that there is no question where we are and what we are doing for you. There is no set, only actors, lights, a few benches—and a whole lot of love—a collective love of live theatre! We present live bodies and live voices of actors in the space, singing and acting together, who even while having to be physically distant from each other still are able to ignite the space between one another and between themselves and you, the audience. We hope you feel the love! 

Note from the Creators 

DAVID: Loveville High started its journey in January 2016. Eric sent me a melody without words––we’d been looking for new ways to collaborate after having met adapting a Disney show––and as soon as I heard it, I knew I wanted it to be a love song. As it happens, this was a couple weeks after David Bowie’s passing and I couldn’t stop thinking about him, how much he meant to me, to so many, and how his music had been exactly what so many of us needed when we were young. A lyric soon flowed out of me that became “Sparkle Like Bowie” …and then a scene of two young people bonding over him. In short order there were other couples, other love stories, and more songs and scenes. And soon they were all at a prom.

ERIC: Very early on we decided the musical we were writing should become a podcast, an emerging form that also spoke to our childhood love for radio plays and original cast albums. And after a few more years of writing and then recording, Loveville High: A Prom in 9 Episodes debuted in January 2019 with a truly stellar cast. It felt like a risk, launching without a producer or theatre supporting the project––but also liberating just to send our work out into the world. And we were thrilled by the response! Over 40K downloads (and growing) from around the world. We were also over the moon when my longtime friend and collaborator Tamara Meneghini reached out to me about having the world-premiere of a live stage version at CU Boulder.

DAVID: Although the past year did its best to make us postpone, we are so excited that LoveFest is still happening. It’s been an absolute joy to work on this with the cast and creative team as we navigate this utterly unexpected pandemic time. But like the characters in Loveville High, we now stand at a precipice caught between a familiar world that is ending and a new one that we are just starting to remake. So on that note, please enjoy your time in Loveville!

Setting/Synopsis

Loveville High takes place in the fictional town of Loveville––the kind of small community that might easily get overlooked, just as a lot of these characters might get overlooked. We placed the town in Ohio, because among other things, it’s a state that has just about every kind of place you might find in America: vibrant cities, old factory towns, acres of farmland, Appalachian foothills, and even a Great Lake. It felt like the perfect place for these stories of all kinds of love, featuring all kinds of kids.

We’ll skip a synopsis of the nine scenes (you can check out each episode’s description on www.lovevillehigh.com) but will let you in on a secret: in some ways, we tried to tell one love story. You’ll see the arc if you look for it. Our characters go from getting ready (“Tonight We Shine”) to falling in love (“Sparkle Like Bowie) to a pregnancy (“Pregnant at the Prom!”). They continue by wrestling with long term commitment/infidelity (“You’re the One”, “Math”) through heartbreak (“Turn the Page”) to getting back in the game when you feel burned (“Sweet, Sweet Like,” “Normal Amazing”). Finally, our characters must understand how to love even when one of the pair has passed (“Unbroken”) and still emerge full circle, ready for the next chapter (“When it’s for Real”).