ARTICLE | “Next to Normal” rocks more than the WICA stage

Some things defy expectations. Next to Normal, at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley, is sure to be one of them.

“Next to Normal is the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical about a suburban American family and one woman’s journey through her bipolar episodes and depression,” described director Deana Duncan, WICA’s Artistic Director. “It is at turns funny, heartbreakingly tender, and stunningly beautiful.”

With a small cast of just six actors, Duncan said the music is easily the seventh character.

“This music begins soft and plays at your heartstrings, then it drives deep into your belly and soul and then it rocks the foundation of your emotions,” she described. “I’ve been listening nonstop to this music for over six months and it’s only getting stronger. The music holds, carries and matches the authenticity of the emotion this story shares.”

“The music is composed as part and parcel of the telling of the story - the melodic riffs, the rhythmic impulses, the chosen instrumentation are all very intentional as a way to convey the reality of each character AND the arc of their development as the play unfolds,” said musical director Sheila Weidendorf. “The music is the heart of the story…” — Kathy Reed, Whidbey Weekly

Read the entire article here.

RELATED PROGRAMMING

Next to Normal | Apr 05-20, 2019

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts would like to begin by acknowledging that we gather on the ancestral homelands, originally known as Tscha-kole-chy (SHA-KOL-CHI) in Lushootseed (LU-SHOOT-SEED), of the Coastal Salish Peoples, on the lands of the lower Skagit, Tulalip (tuh·lay·luhp), Swinomish (SWIN-ə-mish), Snohomish (snō-hō-mish), Stillaguamish (still-uh-GWAH-mish), and Suquamish (soo-kwah-mish), who have lived in the Salish Sea basin since time immemorial and have hunted, fished, gathered, and taken care of these lands.

We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and we honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water.

Please join us in expressing our deepest respect and gratitude to the indigenous people of this territory and for their enduring care and protection of the land in which we currently occupy and share through the Treaty of Point Elliott signed by 82 tribes in Múckl-te-óh (Mukilteo) on January 22, 1855.