The two sophomores appear in “The Elementary Spacetime Show,” a show about a teenager who attempts suicide and ultimately finds herself in a cosmic Vaudevillian game show. The imaginative new musical by CĂ©sar Alvarez, with a book by Alvarez and Emily Orling, features more than two dozen Montclair student performers, stage managers and musicians. Performed at Montclair’s Alexander Kasser Theatre, students debuted a special concert presentation at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium on April 26.

Kavuma, who plays a giant mosquito and belts out a showstopping solo, says: “I’m very excited to say I made my Lincoln Center debut at 20 years old.”

For Smith, her role marks her debut production. “It’s an amazing thing. I get to tell people and put on my resume that I performed at Lincoln Center in New York City.”

Ryan Kasprzak, head of Musical Theatre at Montclair State, explained that the creative team behind “The Elementary Spacetime Show” was seeking a company of actors that they felt could sustain the musical in a full production. “We’re grateful that, once they got to work with our students, they felt this is a company of actors who are capable of carrying this piece.”

Despite the show’s heavy subject matter, “there is a surprising amount of levity, which helps the audience access the deeper questions about humanity and what it means to exist,” Kasprzak says.

Montclair students, faculty, and staff benefit from exceptional cultural engagement at Lincoln Center, located just across the Hudson River from campus. The iconic venue has showcased: an opera created by Professor Scott Richards of the Cali School of Music. Additionally, Montclair’s Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Assistant Professor Oscar Perez, performs annually at the renowned Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Most recently, Music History Assistant Professor Leah Batstone presented a pre-performance talk on Verdi’s La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, an event attended by Cali School of Music Director Shea Scruggs, along with various faculty members and students.

About the Collaboration

The production came about because of a professional relationship between Alvarez and Theatre and Dance Professor Kathleen Kelley. Alvarez and Orling have been working on the musical for many years. “It has always been part of the plan to fully realize it with students,” Alvarez says. “‘The Elementary Spacetime Show’ is meant to be a space of transformation for young people, and the brilliant young artists at Montclair are the perfect people to bring it to life.”

The production includes students from first-years to seniors. According to Dante Green, a New York-based director who has collaborated with Alvarez and Orling for a decade, the students brought an essential authenticity to the storytelling.

“The students are incredibly talented and very mature and nuanced with their performances,” Green says. “The age of the Montclair students aligns perfectly with the characters, making it a very authentic casting and learning experience.”

Green also suggests that if the show continues development, there exists “a strong opportunity to continue collaborating with the students after this production is over.”

Why Montclair’s Musical Theatre Program Stands Out

Only 12 miles from New York, Montclair’s Musical Theatre program offers students the best of both worlds: Access and opportunities to audition for productions while maintaining a mid-size campus life and small class sizes.

“We are uniquely situated geographically, in the sense that students get a four-year career launch,” Kasprzak says. “They’re going to spend time in New York City, they’re going to go to auditions, see a bunch of different shows, build these creative relationships, and that’s a huge advantage.”

That proximity and the valuable industry connections and experiences attracted both Longview, Texas native Kavuna and Jacksonville, Florida native Smith. “It’s very reassuring to know that our professors are actively working. They’re in the industry. Everyday,” Smith says.

Montclair’s Musical Theatre program has seen an 86% increase in auditions for admission over the last two years, Kasprzak says, noting that this year, 1,600 students auditioned for 20 spots.

“It has become extremely competitive to get into the program, so we’re really taking the top 5% of applicants,” Kasprzak says. “So, while the freshmen maybe don’t have any expectations, I know how gifted they are and how talented and how unique.”

Vibrant Theater Scene in the Garden State

ČŃŽÇČÔłÙłŠ±ôČčŸ±°ù’sÌę program also offers myriad local and regional opportunities, says Head of Theatre Studies Jessica Brater, who directed a student production, a collaboration between Montclair and , at the  in Montclair. “The Quilt Keepers,” a play written by Montclair alumni, Dania Ramos, BFA Acting ’98, weaves a tale of Montclair’s 4th ward.

“Although we’re lucky to be so close and connected to the NYC theater community, there is an active and exciting professional theater world right here in New Jersey,” she says. “Many of those theaters have employed our students both before and after graduation because of the relationships we have built with them.”

The Vanguard Theater’s Producing Artistic Director Janeece Freeman Clark is also an adjunct professor at Montclair. “I know firsthand the caliber of talent, curiosity and heart these students bring. They have been collaborators in every sense, and their various roles of responsibility mirror the reality of professional theater in a way that a classroom alone simply can’t.”

How Theatre Students Engage with the Local Community

Building a show from the ground up, based on an historic neighborhood for a local theater production, helps fulfill the University’s larger role of benefitting local communities, Brater says. “Part of the University’s mission is to bring the resources of the University to benefit communities beyond the campus gates. This works both ways – faculty and students benefit from what we learn from communities, and it helps us in our work as a university to prepare well-rounded citizens,” Brater says.

As a bonus, she adds: “It demonstrates for both students and community members that the arts can be a powerful tool for activism, education and collective memory.”

Advice for Future Theatre Studies Students

Montclair students in “The Quilt Keepers,” which was two years in the making from development to production, have valuable advice for prospective theater students.

• Elijah N. Maldonado, a senior Theatre Studies major, values how the major encourages students “as artists and theater makers to branch out and try new things.” He urges others to seek faculty support for guidance.
• Maxwell Hollis, a sophomore who has explored both acting and lighting design, emphasizes that “professors are willing to work with you one-on-one” and advises students to never be afraid to ask for help to get the most out of the program.
• ł§±đČÔŸ±ŽÇ°ùÌęKaitlyn Valentin, who gained skills in management and design, suggests students “try everything once” and volunteer for student-run shows. She believes that “a theater person can”t get a job if you’re not multifaceted.”

Join the Next Generation of Storytellers

Are you ready to take your craft from the classroom to the local, area or world stage? Explore our BFA in Musical Theatre, BA in Theatre Studies or many other programs in the College of the Arts.ÌęApply today.

ÌÇĐÄvlog’s Department of Theatre and Dance will present a full-scale production of THE ELEMENTARY SPACETIME SHOW, a musical by CĂ©sar Alvarez with a book by Alvarez and Emily Orling. Performances will take place at the Alexander Kasser Theater in Montclair, New Jersey, followed by a concert presentation at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium on April 26, 2026.

The musical follows Alameda, a teenager who, after attempting to take her own life, finds herself in a surreal game show that she must win in order to die. As she encounters a series of characters—including a mosquito, an android, a doppelgĂ€nger, and a piece of rhubarb—she moves through a series of trials that explore identity, loneliness, and meaning.

The work features music and lyrics by CĂ©sar Alvarez and blends indie-rock influences with experimental theatre and philosophical themes. The musical has previously been developed at Ars Nova, University of the Arts, NYU, and New York Stage and Film.

Alvarez said, “We’ve been working on this musical over many years and it has always been part of the plan to fully realize it with students. This is a musical about teen suicide. The piece tries to strike directly at the stigma around the mental health struggles which are ravaging young people. The Elementary Spacetime Show is meant to be a space of transformation for young people, and the brilliant young artists at MSU are the perfect people to bring it to life.”

Creative Team
The creative team includes CĂ©sar Alvarez (composer/lyricist), Emily Orling (book and additional lyrics), Alaina Ferris and CĂ©sar Alvarez (orchestrations), Dante Green (director), Spencer Weidie (choreographer), Piper Hill and CĂ©sar Alvarez (music direction), Alexander Tom (music coordinator), Emily Orling (scenic and costume design), Nick Kolin (lighting design), Ansel Brasel (stage manager), and Max Vann and Isabella Ferrara (assistant stage managers).

We live in challenging times that keep many of us perpetually on edge. What a delight to spend an evening that asks only that you look, listen and sometimes laugh out loud.
That’s the premise of Lighten Up!  a two-night program of dances at the Theater at St. Jeans, performed by a roster of highly competent groups and soloists who all deserve appreciation.
From the opening number, The Skaters Ballet, a reimagining from the 1948 musical comedy film, Up in Central Park, it’s clear that pure enjoyment is the expectation. Even the opening image, a Currier and Ives print of “Central Park-Winter—The Skating Pond”- is a nostalgic delight and comes to life with the dancers.
Other standouts were For Ella, three numbers choreographed by Margo Sappington, set to music by the queen of scat and danced by members of the Joffrey Ballet School’s Pre-Professional Trainee Program and the numbers danced by Henning RƱbsam, who excels at mime, acting and movement.
As the subtitle of the program title phrased it, there was ‘nothing to ponder, nothing to analyze.”
Cheers to soloists Antonio Fini, Aoi Matsuda whose tossed-in shrug is perfection, Claire Porter and Mr. Rubsam and to the Joffrey Concert Group NY; members of the Joffrey Ballet School, NY.; ÌÇĐÄvlog Dance Ensemble and Valentina Kozlova dancing with Andre Jouraiev.
Costumes are modest yet highly effective especially those by Christian Holder.
A cheerful, entertaining evening with no deep thinking required: just what we need.

“The Elementary Spacetime Show” tells the story of Alameda, a teenager who, after attempting to take her own life, finds herself in a cosmic game show that she must win in order to die. Alameda faces down a host of avatars—including a depressed mosquito, an arrogant android, a self-loathing doppelgĂ€nger, and a talking piece of rhubarb. Through eight existential trials, Alameda confronts questions of identity, loneliness, and the meaning of existence, discovering that her darkness may be a gift.

With music and lyrics by Alvarez and a book by Alvarez and Orling, the musical blends indie-rock soundscapes, experimental theatre, and philosophical storytelling. Playbill has noted that the work “bends the rules of space and time to grapple with suicide and the stigma tethered to it.” The Philadelphia Inquirer suggested the musical could become “Rent for the social-media generation.”

Alvarez says, “We’ve been working on this musical over many years and it has always been part of the plan to fully realize it with students. This is a musical about teen suicide. The piece tries to strike directly at the stigma around the mental health struggles which are ravaging young people. “The Elementary Spacetime Show” is meant to be a space of transformation for young people, and the brilliant young artists at MSU are the perfect people to bring it to life.”

The musical has been developed in earlier iterations at Ars Nova, University of the Arts, NYU and New York Stage and Film.

Following the Montclair performances, the full MSU company—including student actors and musicians—will bring excerpts from the production to New York City, giving students the opportunity to share their inventive staging on one of the city’s most prominent public performance stages.

ÌÇĐÄvlog’s production of “The Elementary Spacetime Show” is a show that challenges the topic in a way no other Broadway show I’ve seen has done. Trying to break through in a time that so many feel so strongly about.

“The Elementary Spacetime Show” is a musical about a young woman named Alameda, who attempts suicide and finds herself in a cosmic vaudevillian gameshow that she has to win in order to die, all while finding the need for recovery through each challenge.

With a story this unique and dark, it was certainly going to be a challenge to figure out how this story would work for audiences. The show is blunt, dark and at times, disturbing.

The show will put you in moments of pure despair and wrap up in a giant blanket, wanting to hide, only to be then picked up and out of the chrysalis. It’ll then cause you to break out to fly again in happy thoughts and relief, going through an experience that makes you appreciate life.

Co-author and co-music director of the show CĂ©sar Alvarez emphasizes this point.

“One of the most dangerous things about suicidality, is the stigma around it,” Alvarez said. “So many people have these feelings and there’s a terror around how to confront them or how to share them, and the show sort of just absolutely blows that apart
 by the time that you’re done seeing the show, you’ve been so immersed in such a wild, raucous, multi-dimension conversation around this topic, that it feels liberating.”

This production and the team also made it a point to make sure that the cast is coming into a safe and mentally supportive environment, according to Andrea Avilés, a freshman BFA musical theatre major, who plays Razmush in the show.

“Our creative team has been so wonderful,” AvilĂ©s said. “At the beginning of rehearsals we have our access check-in, where we go around and ask if we have any mental blocks and how we can keep ourselves physically well.”

She also discussed how the creative team brought in two mental health experts to come in every Monday during the process to discuss the students’ mental health and how each is feeling.

As a student myself and a person who’s been always fascinated and engaged in the art of theatre, it was truly fascinating to see a musical based around a topic that you would never find anywhere else.

Actors dressed like characters you’d normally find out of Tim Burton film, discussing topics you would normally hear in often in coming of age literature, is a big swing to take for a group of college theatre students. But because of the writing by co-authors Alvarez and Emily Orling, it proves to be such a memorable show both allowing an audience member to experience the pain one feeling with suicidality.

Not only this but the costumes and scenic design, courtesy of Orling, go hand in hand with the “freak-show” mentality of this production, showing how fantastical the story and characters are while still allowing them to tie into the messaging and themes of this show so wonderfully.

However, even with this show’s bleak themes, it still reminds people that with a conversation, they have the choice to either give up or to keep going on the journey.

It is quite surreal for an audience to be transported to another field of vision and begin to experience life before their eyes and the choices they made and the words people said around them.

Watching this show, you can go from laughing at the dark jokes one character says to sobbing your eyes out as another character makes you question the weight and guilt one would feel putting a tragedy on a family member.

It’s truly exceptional to see why a production like “The Elementary Spacetime Show” is important to see and experience, especially in the times that we live in. This is not just a show about suicidality, or what it means to die. By the end, “The Elementary Spacetime Show” shows that it is a musical about the importance to keep on living.

United States Artists is dedicated to supporting artists unconditionally, guided by the belief that investing in artists strengthens the cultural and social fabric of society. Through this fellowship, the organization affirms the importance of artists’ voices in broadening perspectives, fostering dialogue, and enriching public life.

A , choreographer, and educator, Shah spent more than twenty-seven years creating work that confronts cultural narratives and hierarchies that diminish the dignity of South Asian women. Drawing from the rich tradition of North Indian classical dance, her choreography embodies resistance, artistry, and personal agency. Her works center stories of women who push against boundaries, whose labor, histories, and voices have too often been overlooked or erased.

“Rooted in the storytelling traditions of Indian classical dance, my body becomes a vessel where memory, resistance, and transformation intertwine. Through gesture, I give voice to forgotten narratives.”

-Parul Shah

Trained in India by the late, groundbreaking choreographer Kumudini Lakhia, Shah developed a distinctive movement language that expands Indian dance technique while challenging male-dominated and Eurocentric frameworks. Her work has been presented at major venues including City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and Asia Society in New York City. Equally committed to education and community engagement, Shah teachers while pursuing a doctoral degree in Dance Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where her research and pedagogy emphasize embodied practice and critical inquiry to disrupt dominant narratives.

Shah’s selection as a United States Artist Fellow honors both her artistic excellence and her sustained commitment to cultural equity, education, and social impact.

This year marks DEL’s 30th anniversary, and to honor the milestone, the organization is spearheading the creation of 30 MSCs across the globe. ÌÇĐÄvlog was invited to participated by DEL founder Jody Arnhold and the DEL Team, joining an international network of dancers and educators marking this special occasion.

The session was facilitated with the support of students Vicky Batista and Caitlyn Scott, both , along with adjunct faculty member Susan Pope, a specialist in dance education. Live accompaniment on drums and piano was provided by musician Glen Fittin.

A DEL Movement Sentence Choir combines two powerful ideas: Rudolf Laban’s iconic movement choirs, which are large groups moving together in harmony, with DEL’s ‘movement sentences,’ which are short phrases built from two or more action words. For Bell’s clas, the guiding words were:

“Weave. Spin. Expand.”

-Facilitators of the Danced Education Laboratory creating a Movement Sentence Choir

After warming up and engaging in improvisational exercises that encouraged connection and awareness, students developed their own movement sentences. They then learned a choreographed phrase by Caitlyn Scott, before collaborating in small groups to create additional phrases. These sections were woven together into a complete MSC, performed collectively by the end of class.

The culminating moment featured all dancers joined in a static, connected shape, as a visual representation of unity and artistry.

DEL, known for its transformative teacher training programs, emphasizes the artistry of teaching while centering equity and justice in dance education. Each participant in the event received a t-shirt with the message “Dance for Every Child” – a reminder of DEL’s mission and vision.

This class highlighted the creative journey from improvisation to composition, as students moved from spontaneous exploration to the shared act of building and performing a finished piece.

Presented by the Princess Grace Foundation–USA, the award upholds the legacy of Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco (nĂ©e Grace Kelly) and her lifelong commitment to advancing the arts in the United States. The Foundation supports exceptional early-career talent in theater, dance, and film through transformative grants, and continues to nurture and champion Princess Grace Award winners throughout their careers.

A proud son of immigrant parents, Martínez is a Honduran-American, award-winning freelance theatrical sound designer based in the NYC/NJ area. He earned his degree in Sound Design from Montclair State in 2018. Known for his ability to collaborate with bold playwrights and bring new stories to life, his work has been featured at leading venues including Lincoln Center Theater, Atlantic Theatre Company, American Repertory Theatre, Repertorio Español, and George Street Playhouse, among many others.

Follow his work on Instagram at .

Synopsis: At the start of the Great Recession, one of the last auto stamping plants in Detroit is on shaky ground. Each of the workers have to make choices on how to move forward if their plant goes under. Shanita has to decide how she’ll support herself and her unborn child, Faye has to decide how and where she’ll live, and Dez has to figure out how to make his ambitious dreams a reality. Power dynamics shift as everyone is torn between doing right by their family, and by the red tape in their office.

marcus d. harvey is an award-winning performer, writer, director, educator, and cultural strategist. A first-generation college and graduate school graduate, he holds an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College, an MA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, and dual BAs in Dramatic Arts and Performance Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill.

He has performed on stage with companies including the National Black Theatre, The Old Vic, Triad Stage, and PlayMakers Rep, with appearances in both film and television. As a playwright, his works include homegrown, Are We Not Men?, and baba: a black boy’s cry. His upcoming play a bright light, addressing mental health in Black and Latin communities, will premiere at Passage Theatre in 2025.

As a director, marcus has led productions for the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Lean Ensemble, and The Working Theatre, among others. He has taught at institutions including NJCU, Franklin & Marshall, and Marymount Manhattan College, and is a noted August Wilson specialist.

He also serves as an Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging consultant, partnering with organizations such as Lean Ensemble and NY Classical Theatre to advance inclusive practices in the arts.