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, NJ. During the pandemic, SONGS FOR UNSUNG HEROES, a cycle of commissioned songs inspired by local community members, celebrated the people making a difference in our lives. In 2023-2025, THE GROUND ON WHICH WE STAND chronicled the history and legacy of the James Howe House, the first home in Monclair to be owned by a formerly enslaved person. This fall, MADE IN ORANGE, created in collaboration with artists from Pink Fang, will feature Orange residents sharing their own stories.
COMING OCT. 23-26
MADE IN ORANGE:
Our Voices. Our Stories.
Secret Cities 2023-2025: The Ground On Which We Stand
The Ground On Which We Stand is a theatrical performance collaboratively written by 12 playwrights, which exists in three different formats (an 18-actor, two-hour site specific version, a 6-actor abridged version, and a 45-minute solo performance with one actor playing all the characters.) Created in collaboration with historians, community activists, and genealogists, the play reflects over 200 years of African American experience in the United States, as well as the importance of oral history and the fight for historic preservation.
Inspired by the history and legacy of The James Howe House, the first home in the Township of Montclair to be owned by a formerly enslaved person, The Ground On Which We Stand interweaves diverse historic and contemporary voices and honors African American history and its role in shaping our future. The play spans 190 years, reflecting post-emancipation struggles, abolitionist history, the role of Black soldiers in the Civil War, the impact of de facto segregation past and present, and the way a community can come together to reckon with its past and make intentional choices to preserve and honor historic spaces.
SECRET CITIES 2020-2023:
SONG OF UNSUNG HEROES
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 creating SONGS OF UNSUNG HEROES just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. While development was delayed due to the pandemic, Luna recorded two of these songs and shared them online. With the return of live theatre, we 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, lyricist, or singer who is interested in joining us as a creator on this project, please reach out as well! To suggest a song idea, please email Luna's Artistic Director.
SONGS OF 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
"We Knead" by Miranda Ferriss Jones. Sung by Allison Posner with ben Morss on piano. Inspired by Phil Serrani's Sanitary Bakery in Orange, NJ. The bakery opened its doors in 1948 and is one of many local, small businesses supporting their communities every day.
"Burgers and Fries" with music/lyrics/keyboard by Ben Morss and 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.
SECRET CITIES 2019
HEART OF ORANGE
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.
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).
SECRET CITIES 2018
WALKING THE VALLEY
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 by Emmy Award-winning composer D.D. Jackson, 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 on March 18 at Artfull Bean Cafe, 400 S. Jefferson St in Orange 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.
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).