News: Podcast Musical "The Metamorphosis of Barry Schleckman" Reimagines Kafka

The Metamorphosis of Barry Schleckman is a story of survival.

It’s a story for every kid who’s ever had to do it on their own.
It’s for the resilient ones, the ones who make it,
the ones who somehow, finally, find their way.

Maybe it’s for you.

This re-imagining of Franz Kafka's famed novella -- about an ordinary person who one day awakens as a giant insect -- explores the terribly human struggle for identity, the journey from seeing ourselves as others see us to accepting ourselves as we are. Now set within an American Jewish family in 1959, The Metamorphosis of Barry Schleckman expands on the original, adding comic Kafka elements and a few surprising twists. Conceived for the stage, this radio play was produced in an effort to prove that -- even in an era of jukebox musicals and commercially-safe spectacle -- audiences still hunger for theatre that asks difficult questions, and for musicals that leave them, in some small and beautiful way, transformed.

Watch the trailer here:

The book and music for The Metamorphosis of Barry Schleckman were written by Oakland, California-based singer/songwriter Ira Marlowe, who, after finally finding his true calling writing for the theatre, has penned the songs for four shows by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a Tony-winning political theater company; created sci-fi podcast musical The Unseen World; and taught songwriting at UC Berkeley. He currently teaches and performs (solo and with his band The Slow Reveal) while also hosting assorted events at The Monkey House, the fifty-seat theater he founded in 2012. 

 

For more, visit www.iramarlowe.com and www.kafkamusical.net.