Beauty Will Save the World (Audio Musical Drama)
date. recorded February, 2024
released June, 2024
venue. Raven Street Studios, Ottawa, CA
credits. Charley Bouchard, George Dutch,
9th Hour Theatre Company
Beauty Will Save the World is an original work written and composed by Charley Bouchard, with dramaturgical and editorial support by George Dutch, and developed by 9th Hour Theatre Company during 2020-24 in Ottawa, Canada. It is a spiritual allegory for our time, suitable for the whole family, a seafaring adventure packed with satire, music, action, laughter, and tears, reminding us about the sacred things in life that make life worth living. The story is a thought-provoking cautionary tale about the importance of passing on beauty to the younger generation. Relationships once lost are found again as mothers, fathers, lovers, loners, sons, and daughters are tested to choose what they stand for and who they will stand with.
In the wake of a long since passed “Great Danger”, a teacher and her teenage son, and a veteran and his child seek to discover what it means to really live again. In a world of fantasy in which all things beautiful are forbidden by the always-watching entity “Control”, they must join a group of other citizens stuck in a repeating cycle to journey to a new promised land. Some eagerly and others reluctantly board the great ship “Pulchritudo” to begin their voyage together.
Each day the weary travellers are presented with more and more ever-changing absurd rules to follow in order to prevent beauty. While passengers sleep, nightmares of control surface and dreams of beauty erupt with forbidden breakouts of singing, dancing, and laughing. Tensions rise and chaos ensues on the high seas as competing values clash while passengers grapple with the consequences of their beliefs and actions. The story climaxes with one man's ultimate confrontation with “Control” that brings on a raging storm of beauty battling fear, culminating in a devastating shipwreck in which beauty appears to have been lost forever. Will they ever get to their promised destination? Will they end up repeating the same cycle again? Or will they choose to embrace beauty and be free from “Control” once and for all?
Coming Soon
THE PRODUCTION TEAM
SHAUNA AKKERMANS (Assistant Director, Rehearsal Manager) | SHANNON AU (Production Assistant) | CHARLEY BOUCHARD (Music Director) | GEORGE DUTCH (Director, Dramaturge) | SUSAN MARRINER (Graphics Designer) | JONATHAN HARRIS (Producing Artistic Director) | JAKUB RACEK (Sound Designer, Engineer, Mixer) | TINA SEGRETO (Production Manager)
THE ENSEMBLE CAST
SHAUNA AKKERMANS (The Youth, Various Citizens) | CHARLEY BOUCHARD (Voice of The Soul, Vocalist) | JAQUI CADIEUX (The Mother, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | TOM CHARLEBOIS (The Grandpa) | JULIA COLEMAN (The Teacher, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | GEORGE DUTCH (The Fool, Vocalist) | ASHLEY GILLARD (The Celebrity, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | JENN HENNESSY (Voice of Control, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | LOGAN INDEWEY (The Officer, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | NAOMI JAMES (The Journalist, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | SANJIV KALRA (Various Citizens) | ANDREW KENNEDY (The Boy) | OLGA KIRCHANOVA (Various Citizens, Vocalist) | NICOLAS LEBLOND (The Elite, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | NICHOLAS MAILLET (The Veteran, referred to often as The Child's Father, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | NORA MALHEARST (The Nurse, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | SARAH MCKAY (The Expert, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | ALEX MEEK (The Cleric, Various Citizens) | ISABELLA O’SHAUGHNESSY (The Child, Vocalist, Various Citizens) | JON PEIRCE (The Captain, Various Citizens) | MELODI UYGUR (The Artist, Vocalist, Various Citizens)
SPECIAL APPRECIATION
Raven Street Studios | Parkdale United Church | Lone Oak Cinema
