Havana to America: ‘Pedro Pan’ Goes to NYMF

Stephen Anthony Elkins (Music and Lyrics) and I (Book and Lyrics) have been writing musicals since 2009. As a team, we have also written Legacy (Prospect Theatre Co. Musical Theatre Lab 2018), Sweet Tea and Jesus (Best Musical SASF 2010),  and Acceptance (EAT’S Illuminating Artists Series 2010/SASF 2009). This past year, we were awarded a Writers Group residency at Musical Theatre Factory from 2017-18 to further develop our work on Pedro Pan. We also received a residency at Rhinebeck Writer’s Retreat. We are both actors/performers/producers and we also have a bluegrass band Wild Magnolia.

We were commissioned to write a children’s musical by the Truf Theatre in 2014. The specs to write the musical were that it had to be Latinx based and tie in to a fairy tale. As I researched Latinx fairy tales, I wasn’t connecting to the stories until I ran across a website detailing the history of Operación Pedro Pan. I understood this story because it was my parents story. While they were lucky to each leave Cuba beside one of their parents, both my parents had to flee Cuba as young children. My father left behind his father behind in Cuba never knowing if he would see him again, his father was in prison for having ideals against the government. That idea of seperation, the trauma of leaving behind your country, language, and everything you know—was something I understood very well and knew deep in my gut that it was a story I could tell.

We start with book first and then I build in song ideas or framework for a song in the script. Sometimes, Stephen reads the script and sees an opportunity for a song. I’ll write terrible lyrics and the hook, then Stephen will take that idea and build a song. We then spend days or weeks depending on the song, finessing it–until it says what we want it to say and sounds the way we want it to sound. It’s very fluid process between the two of us to build the book and songs.

The music is heavily influenced by Cuban music from the time period (1960’s), old Cuban boleros and a mix of classical musical theatre. It also draws upon traditional Cuban music like the bolero and the son, which feature the acoustic sounds of piano, percussion, trumpet, and bass.

We’ve been writing this musical since 2013. The initial script took me about two weeks to finish and then we started building the songs. I would say the first version start to finish took us about a month and a half. The rest has been a very long process filled with lots of research and workshopping over the past year in our writer’s group at Musical Theatre Factory.

 Being able to tell a Cuban story and to tell it as authentically as possible.