to be alive. a new musical.
After dropping out of his second year at college, Ben Carter, an aspiring playwright, moves to San Francisco with his girlfriend Emily to find his place in the grand scheme of things.
act ii sample
I started gaining inspiration for writing this show when I was a junior in high school reading a study about the higher levels of stress measured in students attending university. It mentioned the constant pressure by society to feel as if you have to know exactly what your “life plan” is from a young age. Something that I found interesting when reading those articles was the constant mention of “post-graduation depression” and the “lack of stability and understanding” of millennials going through college and most importantly, life itself.
I looked around at my own friends at the time and it checked out. It seemed as if they were grasping onto this anxiousness about college, job concerns, their families, and their relationships. Especially now in our social-media dominated world, people are following their friends on social media and have this out-of-proportion sense that everyone else has it figured out. A study I read described a new factor that millennials today have to deal with, the ability to embrace the unknown. I wanted to write a script that dealt with these issues of social anxiety, fear of the unknown, the spontaneity of life, and accepting the world for what it is instead of what it should be.
To Be Alive embraces these ideas and drives a different commentary than what is usually seen from articles or exemplification seen today. We don’t know what is ahead in the future, but we should embrace that fact. To know that’s the beauty of life, to know that we don’t know.
MUSIC SAMPLES
interview with Philip magin of MainStage mavericks
Josh Concepcion sits down with Philip Magin of Mainstage Mavericks to talk everything about the development of To Be Alive and delve into the beginnings of how Josh got started in theatre in the first place.
