We could not be more excited about ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME, a one-woman fever-dream musical/solo show for Val. La Jolla Playhouse came on board last year to co-commission the piece, together with our longtime artistic home TheatreWorks of Silicon Valley.
In August 2009, Brendan and Val spent 2 incredibly productive weeks at TheatreWorks—together with bookwriter Joe DiPietro and director Kent Nicholson, we presented 3 readings at the TheatreWorks New Works Festival, making significant progress on the writing before each performance. By the 3rd one, we knew we had something really promising: the audience response was fantastic, we had a second curtain call (rare indeed at at reading!), and we were so euphoric we didn’t even care how sleep-deprived we were.
Next, we were invited to present 25 minutes of SHACK at Joe’s Pub on Monday, October 5, 2009, as part of the Public Theatre’s Musical Theatre Initiative (MTI) program. The kickoff “Songwriter Showcase” evening, put together by Ted Sperling (dear friend and STRIKING 12 director), featured fun sneak preview songs from 3 new pieces in development: ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME, FEBRUARY HOUSE by Gabe Kahane, and DOGFIGHT by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. Val flew in to NYC alone to do the gig, with violin, laptop and lots of gear…and blogged about it here.
Then, we did a workshop in La Jolla June 12-16, 2010, with director Leigh Silverman, with one public reading on Wednesday, June 16 in the 99-seat Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre at La Jolla Playhouse. We took some big steps forward with the piece, and will have more news about its future imminently.
Meanwhile, Val has begun doing some solo concerts, and is including the opening number from SHACK with excellent results.
Just for fun, here’s the sea chantey of love that Ernest Shackleton sings to Kat (Val’s character) over the phone.
| Song | Hear | Price | Buy |
| $1 |  |
From TheatreWorks program, August 2009:
Sleep-deprived Kat writes great music. Okay, it’s for video games–but great. And so is her baby, even if her boyfriend split and an explorer named Shackleton keeps phoning from beyond time. Inspired by Kat’s music, he shares his Antarctic journeys with her as both struggle toward new horizons. Broadway’s Joe DiPietro (MEMPHIS) wrote the funny script, and GrooveLily violinist Valerie Vigoda stars in this solo of a lifetime, co-written with STRIKING 12′s Brendan Milburn. Contains mature language.