The Secret Cities Project

From Luna Stage’s virtual premiere of Ping Chong & Company’s 2.2 Square Miles of Soul: Voices of Orange (May 2021)

About the Project

The Secret Cities Project is an ongoing collaboration between Luna Stage and its surrounding communities. Beginning in 2018 with the site-specific WALKING THE VALLEY, a series of short plays set in venues and outdoors in the Valley Arts District, Luna has commissioned and produced new work inspired by local interviews and history. In June 2019, HEART OF ORANGE celebrated people and stories along Main Street in Orange, New Jersey. Currently, Luna Stage is developing SONGS FOR UNSUNG HEROES, which will present a cycle of commissioned songs inspired by local community heroes.

"We Knead" by Miranda Ferriss Jones, sung by Allison Posner with piano by Ben Morss, inspired by Phil Serrani's Sanitary Bakery in Orange, NJ. Serrani's opened its doors in 1948, and is one of many local small businesses supporting their communities today and every day.

SECRET CITIES: SONGS OF UNSUNG HEROES is a cycle of commissioned songs that celebrate the people who inspire and uplift our New Jersey communities.

Luna Stage began development of SONGS OF UNSUNG HEROES just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. While development of this piece was delayed due to the pandemic, Luna Stage recorded two of these songs and shared them online. With the return of live theater, Luna Stage will continue to develop this song cycle over 2023.

Do you know someone whose story should be sung? Email us and let us know! (And if you're a composer or lyricist or singer who is interested in joining us as a creator on this project, please reach out too!) To suggest a song idea, please email Luna's Artistic Director at ari.laura.kreith@lunastage.org.

Songs for Unsung Heroes is supported, in part, by Stages Online, a partnership with New Jersey Theatre Alliance to bring theatre content into homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. www.njtheatrealliance.org

SONG OF UNSUNG HEROES

SECRET CITIES 2020-23

"Burgers and Fries," with music/lyrics/keyboard by Ben Morss, performed by Varín Ayala. This song is inspired by an interview with a West Orange diner cook who knows that what matters isn't the food, it's the way food brings people together.

Excerpt from LOOK UP ORANGE, created and performed by Orange resident Turron Kofi Alleyne for Luna Stage’s Secret Cities: Heart of Orange (June 2019).

Six playwrights, two composers, two lyricists...and one neighborhood.

Eight short pieces inspired by real locations and people in the City of Orange—performed on location in the spaces that inspired them on June 8, 2019.

Written by Turron Kofi Alleyne, Jessica Baskerville, Sergio Caetano, Phoebe Farber, Miranda Ferriss Jones, Kait Kerrigan, Ben Morss, and Diane Polledri. Directed by Chris Kuiken and Ari Laura Kreith.

HEART OF ORANGE

SECRET CITIES 2019

Excerpt from BURGERS AND FRIES by Ben Morss, performed by Chris Kuiken at State Diner as part of Luna Stage’s Secret Cities: Walking the Valley (March 2018).

Secret Cities: Walking The Valley was a site-specific theatrical adventure with music inspired by the Valley Arts District of Orange and West Orange.

Set in three distinct locations in the Valley, the piece included a score Emmy Award-winning composer D.D. Jackson, with choreography by Chantel Adams (Dallas Black Dance Theatre) and vocals by Marlaina Sims Powell (Broadway's The Lion King) and three site-specific new plays (written on location in just 48 hours!). The performance began at Artfull Bean Cafe, 400 S. Jefferson St in Orange, at 3pm on March 18, and traveled from there to State Diner and Luna Stage.

Written by Jessie Field, Stephen Kaplan and Doriane Swain, with songs by Clint Edwards and Ben Morss (Cake, Wheatus.) Performers included Turron Kofi Alleyne, Andrew Binger, Ilana Ruth Cohen, Aaliyah Habeeb, Jevonnah Mayo, Brittani Murphy, Alexa Teebo, and Joanna Warner, with creative support from Maggie Borgen and Chris Kuiken. Directed by Ari Laura Kreith.