A musical-opera about plant spirits, teenage rockers and refugees.
This page features the story in a podcast format.
A limited series in 6 episodes
.

A musical-opera about plant spirits,
teenage rockers and refugees.
A world premiere in the form of an
old-fashioned radio drama,
with live sound effects, voice actors,
singers, musicians and narration.

Date and time

Sat, June 18, 2022, 7:00 PM EDT

Doors at 6:00 PM

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Location

The Cutting Room

44 E 32nd St.

New York, NY 10016

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Cast for the Magic Hummingbird
LIVE production

On June 18.

 

Lauren Haughton-Gillis, Director
Richard Dueñez Morrison, Music Director, Conductor
Barb Macz, stage manager
David Smith – sound effects, live foley

Featuring: 
Rudy Alexander Giron, counter tenor,      “Francisco”
Karen Garcia, soprano, “Apolonia”, “Ixazaluoh,”
and Francisco’s mother, Spanish translation
Cat Rojo, alto, “Clara”
Leonard Patton, tenor, “Franklin”
Gustavo Alcoser, tenor, “Elias”, co-writer
Scene one, composer of mariachi music
Scene two.
Charles Coleman, baritone, “The Preacher
Philip Gomez, countertenor, plant spirit, refugee
Geoffrey Burleson, piano and accordion

Daniel Castro, guitar and mandolin, additional Spanish translation
and additional audio editing and recording.

Michael Jones, electric guitar
Andrew Michel, bass
Daniel Pate, percussion and drums
Todd Rewoldt, saxophone
Antotina Styczen, piccolo, alto flute, bass flute, nose flute

Joseph Waters, narrator, composer, librettist, lyricist, sound design.

Book by Joseph Martin Waters, Gustavo Alcoser and Michael Gillis

Story by Joseph Martin Waters

Three San Diego, California teen rockers head to Tijuana to perform in a punk club on the TJ boardwalk… One of them, Francisco, was born in Oaxaca, Mexico but doesn’t know it.
He is visited continuously by visions and struggles to comprehend their meaning, being both scared and fascinated.
His bandmates Clara (his soulmate) and Franklin (his sometimes frenemy) struggle with their own issues. Franklin’s father is a shaman in a white separatist cult…
After their gig Clara and Franklin chase Francisco down the beach, into a storm, and they stumble onto a magic hut in the jungle….

Francisco gets stranded, finds a new community and begins to learn of his past and purpose.

In Tijuana Francisco and Elias make a sacred journey to the desert in the moonlight, while north of the border The Preacher hatches plans for world domination.

The Preacher makes a pact with the Lord Of The Crows.  The refugees travel through the body of a snake…

The refugees and the cult finally meet, with life changing consequences for both. 

Next day, sunrise… ..  the desert sand is wet from the downpour…
as the sun stretches one hand up over the precipice, the mountain’s shadow blankets a multitude of human shapes …
intertwined, snuggled into the warm bosom of the magic mountain….

From their pheromone world where plant spirits chant quietly inside rays of light, Apollonia, Skeleton Rose and Mother-Father hover …

Episode 6 is the dramatic climax of “The Magic Hummingbird”