DUST CAN’T KILL ME: a new folk musical
by Abigail Carney & Elliah Heifetz
directed by Srda Vasiljevic
Drought, desperation, and a prophet’s promise of Paradise set a ragtag group of wayward souls on a Dust Bowl journey into the desert. But when they arrive, their promised land is unlike anything they ever imagined or even desired. “Vitality marks every musical moment” (The New York Times) in this bold new folk musical, directed with an “inspired vision” (Theatre Reviews Limited) by SPRING AWAKENING’s Srda Vasiljevic and bringing audiences “a sound that should be heard in the theater more often” (TheaterMania). The winner of five New York Musical Festival awards including Best Music and Outstanding Ensemble, DUST CAN’T KILL ME asks what’s worth fighting for when all you’ve got is dust.
ABIGAIL CARNEY is a writer from rural Ohio. Her plays have been produced at the Young Playwrights Festival, The Secret Theatre, The Yale Playwrights Festival, The New York International Fringe Festival, The Kraine Theatre, and the Alaska Day Festival. Her and Elliah Heifetz’s folk musical, Dust Can’t Kill Me, ran at the 2016 New York Musical Festival, where it won five Awards for Excellence. Her play Sunday Morning will premiere at the Road Theatre in the fall of 2016. LA’s Montserrat will produce another new play of hers this October. As a spoken word poet, Abigail has competed and performed at Rustbelt, the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, Brave New Voices, and opened for The Strivers Row. Her work was recently published in The Feminist Utopia Project.
ELLIAH HEIFETZ is a composer, lyricist, and pop songwriter from Philadelphia whose works have appeared both on major label releases and New York stages. His first musical, Dust Can’t Kill Me, won the NYMF Award for Best Music in 2016 and the Fringe NYC Award for Best Music & Lyrics in 2014. His pop writing is published by The Brain Music. A recent graduate of Yale, Elliah has studied with Jeanine Tesori and Michael Korie. Whiffenpoofs of 2015.
SRDA VASILJEVIC is a Bosnian-American theatre director recently named “Who’s Next” by NEXT Magazine and described as “theater wunderkind already making his mark on Broadway.” Recent credits include: When I Started Dating Men (Dixon Place), What’s the Deal with Olivia Lee (#serials@theflea), Deaf West’s Spring Awakening (AD/Brooks Atkinson), New York Spectacular (AD/Radio City Music Hall), and Frozen, A Musical Spectacular (Associate/Disney Creative Entertainment). Srda is a member of the ENCORES! Off-Center Artists’ Board and Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. www.sr-da.com