Our 2024-25 Children's Theater Series launches next week with a beautiful new production developed by Playhouse Square's Education team. Inspired by the Margery Williams classic The Velveteen Rabbit, this production - Velveteen, A New Musical - is an uplifting story about the importance of being your authentic self. We recently sat down with the show's composer Molly Andrews-Hinders to hear more about the development process.
What is your role at Playhouse Square?
I am the Education Content Creation Coordinator at Playhouse Square. Along with Ananias J. Dixon, I write, produce, and perform for our digital Classroom Connection Workshops that are streamed in schools all over Ohio (and some other states!). Additionally, I serve as artist and line producer for new play development within the Education Department.
How did you first become involved in Velveteen, A New Musical?
Daniel Hahn, Vice President of Education, had a meeting with Treva Offutt (Director of Education), Ananias J. Dixon (Education Content Production Coordinator), and me and pitched the idea of adapting Velveteen Rabbit. We were eager to try our hands at producing as a team.
Can you tell us about your background in composing and songwriting?
Songwriting is at the heart center of my creative practice. I’ve crafted musicals, musical scenes, soundscapes, and sound design for performances at Cleveland Public Theatre, Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, Near West Theatre, Borderlight Fringe Festival, Prop Thtr (Chicago) and more. I’m thrilled to now include Playhouse Square in that list. I’ve been creating new work with Emergence, an ensemble of vocalists, since 2018. We are recording our first album together in November of this year. I also perform under the stage name Creating Lewis and released my first album Naked Dinner in May of 2023. I have a non-traditional arc when it comes to writing music. I grew up doing musical theater and have always loved choral singing. When I went to college to get my BFA in Musical Theatre, however, I found the anxiety around singing to be overwhelming. Eventually, I switched my major to Acting. Once I got away from sheet music, once I departed from the expectations of the “perfect” musical theater voice/piano playing, I began to write music. I began to uncover and explore a passion for crafting song.
How did the original Velveteen book inspire your production?
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams tells the story of a stuffed bunny who becomes real through loving relationship with a child. We wanted to keep that storytelling arc and bring it up to date so that the show would be relatable to young audiences today. The original Velveteen Rabbit introduces us to toys who bully our main character, a wise Horse that helps Velveteen process hard change, a family of Real Rabbits, and a Fairy that brings the magic of transformation. We kept these elements in our musical.
Could you tell us about the cast and creative team that you are working with to bring this show to life?
We are very excited to feature a cast and creative team of all local, Cleveland Artists. Joanna May Cullinan is Director, Ananias J. Dixon worked with me to write the libretto and is the Assistant Director, and Anthony Trifiletti is our Music Director. Our cast and design team are all incredibly talented, having worked at such places as Karamu House, Near West Theatre, Dobama Theatre, Cain Park, Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland Museum of Art’s Parade the Circle, Talespinner Children’s Theatre, Playhouse Square and more.
Tell us more about the creative process. What’s been your favorite part and also the most challenging aspect?
I’ve had a brilliant time working with Ananias on the libretto. We have a great collaborative relationship where we’re able to bounce ideas off one another, always going back to the “why” of each moment. It’s so important to have collaboration where you aren’t afraid to throw out “bad” or “unfinished” ideas. Our conversations have been really generative and helped anchor the arc of the piece.
I love asking questions and capturing emotional journey through writing music. A song that I especially loved crafting was “You Know I Know You Know.” In it, I wanted to share how a child and stuffed animal can bond in such a strong way. I remembered back to my own childhood and my deep connection with a stuffed bunny that my grandmother gave me. I felt like the bunny could absorb what I was thinking and feeling without me saying anything. That kind of bond can be reassuring for a kid, especially when you have big emotions that are hard to articulate. That was the inspiration for the song – “I know you know what I’m thinking. I know you know how I’m feeling. I know you know why I’m giggling. It’s a cool kind of feeling when I know you know I know.”
One challenge within the process was letting go of material created in order to distill the storyline and make it better. There were a handful of songs that I loved, but needed to discard because they no longer served the piece. There is a special kind of trust that’s built within this practice: trust within your team, trust within yourself as an artist, trust that oftentimes the process will be messier/murkier before it takes its true form. Another challenge of creating this piece was balancing the intention of how we honor the original book while also bringing it up to date. What is essential that must be kept from the original storyline and where are the places we can introduce new elements? I think we were successful in keeping the themes of the original piece alive, while making the piece relevant to audiences today.
What do you hope audiences take away from this production?
I hope audiences leave feeling the transformative power of loving relationship. I hope they remember the fun characters, sing the songs long after the curtain falls, and consider what it means to grow up and tend caring relationships.
Why is experiencing theater and the arts so important for children?
Theater has the power to expand minds, open hearts, and call us into loving presence with one another. It is a craft that requires collaboration, listening, patience, imagination, empathy, and play. In an era of extreme isolation and siloing, is it a powerful practice to come together in one room: to collaborate, create, witness, and care for and with one another. It is a practice of building the world we want to live in. We need theatre to honor our humanity, our story, our song, our lives.