THE SECRET LIVES OF COATS

a coatcheck play with songs

by Stephanie Fleischmann
music by Christina Campanella

Three coatcheck girls in cahoots while away a long night in their booths, confiding in each other their hopes and dreams. Besieged by snooty customers and dodging the bullets of an oily-headed maitre d’, Coatcheck Lila, Leeanne, and Lisette take us on a vaudevillian romp through the coat closets of the service industry. Peppered with song and dance, melodrama, slapstick, and a little bit of Dada to boot. A riff on class and identity, on silver spoons and starlets in the making, on foundlings and photographic memory, and the holes in the pockets of our coats.

production

premiere: Red Eye Theater, Minneapolis, 2014
directed by Hayley Finn
with Charlotte Calvert, Dustin Valenta, Anna Hickey, Gail Ottmar,
Dan Hopman, Nike Kadri, Kaija Pellinen
music directors: Craig Harris / Robert Frost
designed by Gary Johnson, Liz Josheff, Adam Vachon
 

development

• The Kilroys list nomination, 2014
• Workshop: The Playwrights Center, Summer 2014
• Readings: NYC, September 11. 2011 & February 2011
• Workshop production: Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, 2010, director: Cindy Croot
• New Dramatists/New Georges Mini Workshop, 2010
• Trailer produced by Playwrights Center, 2009
• Guthrie-supported play at Playlabs Playwrights Center, 2008
• Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, 2008
• 3 workshops at the Playwrights Center with director Hayley Finn, 2008 and 2007

[CAST: Soprano, Mezzo, Alto; Ensemble: SATB; minimum band: piano/bass/drums plus additional instruments played by ensemble]

press

L'ETOILE MAGAZINE • "A few of our favorite things: Best Performances of 2014” 

LAVENDER MAGAZINE • "Outstanding New Musical Collaboration"—John Townsend's 2014 Roundup

STAR TRIBUNE • "A charming new musical."

CITY PAGES • "A charming look into all the absurd humans and the beloved garments they wear."