SELFIE THE MUSICAL
BOOK AND LYRICS BY CORI ANNE LAEMMEL
MUSIC BY CORI ANNE LAEMMEL AND ERIC FRITSCH
July 22-August 1, 2021
"There was a time when we were all playing in a sandbox, figuring out how to share and not bite our friends and not eat the sand and learning how to socialize in a way that didn’t totally mortify our parents or leave us to play dump truck alone because we smashed the kid next to us in the head with it. And then, all of a sudden, we were teenagers and instead of a sandbox, we got tossed into a desert. A giant desert where all of your playmates are there all the time. Where you try to “use your words” like your mentors taught you, but you can’t actually say them out loud. So they just hang there to be interpreted a zillion different ways and the mistakes we make are public, and permanent. I would love to meet the inventor of the “screenshot” and let them know that they have made adolescence a bazillion times harder. And don’t even get me started on on “likes.” Thanks social media for turning my entire world into a popularity contest. I mean, I can post a picture of my face and my friend can post a picture of her face and within minutes I can see who is better “liked.” Because of their face. Awesome."
Edie, a 15 year old girl with extreme social anxiety has always longed to fit in, so when one of the popular girls at her high school talks her into posting an embarrassing photo online of her best friend, Veda, she makes a terrible choice and does. Marla, also 15, posts a photo in her bridesmaid’s dress and becomes the target of online bullying and body shaming. Meanwhile, Sam has decided to take himself totally offline to be with his sick mother. Being a teenager in the age of social media is a brand new kind of difficult. This musical addresses cyber bullying, body positivity, and navigating relationships when your whole life is online.