Buffalo Gal Productions

BIG ISLAND
(A New Musical)

ABOUT

HISTORY

Big Island is inspired by Minnesota history and the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company that built the original streetcars from St. Paul to Minneapolis to Minnetonka. Big Island was transformed into an amusement park from 1906 to 1911 by the Lowry family of Minneapolis. Big Island today is a nature preserve that only remnants remain of buildings.

ABOUT THE SHOW

Eleanor Lowry champions her family history (circa 1906) by creating, Big Island Amusement Park as the final destination for the family owned Twin Cities Rapid Transit train company. Eleanor hires a Chicago Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Sweet, a black, Band Leader for opening weekend. Alexander is intrigued by Eleanor’s intelligence and beauty; she finds him fascinating and his music savvy. Eleanor’s journey as a business entrepreneur, wife, mother, and daughter of Thomas Lowry, brings her heart-ache when she decides to leave her family to follow Alexander creating a new life. Eleanor’s new life does not come to fruition and Big Island is dismantled after her Father’s death, due to harsh winters and revenue loss. In this memory play, Eleanor Lowry, visits Big Island one last time, recalling her unrequited love for Alexander, as she sees the fate of her own mortality.

Book & Lyrics by Perrin Post

Compositions by Justin D. Cook

bigisland@buffalogalproductions.com

Buffalo Gal Productions

Big Island

Buffalo Gal Productions

Big Island / Art by Mark Herman

Buffalo Gal Productions

Big Island

Buffalo Gal Productions

Big Island

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Coming Soon.

CREATIVE TEAM

PERRIN POST

Creator/Producer/Writer
She/Her

Protest, a Revolutionary Rock Musical, is an artistic call-to-action to keep protesting alive and etched in our history. Current writing projects include Protest, Big Island and Eloise & Me. Past productions include Sweet Land, the Musical (Bookwriter/Director) at the History Theatre, Broadway’s Legendary Ladies (Ordway McKnight Theater, Loring Playhouse, Midwest Tour), The Spitfire Grill (Loring Playhouse, Jon Hassler Theater), Zombies From the Beyond (Bryant Lake Bowl), Vixens; Martinis, Girls & Guns; Monsters, Witches & Freaks (Loring Playhouse), Ten Years Later (Hopkins House), Working, The Sound of Music, Jesus Christ Superstar, Once Upon a Mattress (Lake Harriet Players). She created and directed the opening numbers for the Ivey Awards from 2005 to 2011, and was a 2015 Minnesota Artists Initiative Grant recipient for Sweet Land the Musical. www.sweetlandthemusical.com

JUSTIN D. COOK

Composer
(he/him)

Justin is a composer and writer from Minneapolis, MN with one foot in the midwest and the other in the NYC theatre scene. Having recently graduated with a degree in Musical Theatre Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, he specializes in composing for musical theatre, TV, and film. He has composed for projects such as Brother, a one-act musical premiered virtually in 2021 and premiered live at the Miranda Fellowship Summer in summer of 2023; Hidden Falls, a fantasy web series currently in production; and a variety of stand alone songs seen at venues such as Lincoln Center, Rattlestick Theatre, Nautilus Music-Theatre and numerous other venues. His new musical, The Myth of the Mountain (written with bookwriter and lyricist Danielle Koenig), debuted at OPERA America in New York City in May 2022 and made its west coast premiere at University of California, Los Angeles, in addition to being produced for Syracuse University’s New Works New Voices in upstate New York.

Justin has participated in the long-running Nautilus Music-Theatre Composer/Librettist studio with Ben Krywosz and is currently involved in the Latinè Musical Theater Lab in the Julia de Burgos Cohort as a co-writer. He particularly enjoys collaborating with other local artists, especially in interdisciplinary formats, and his work tends to explore modern fables, exposing current issues and trends by pointing people towards beauty through accessible, entertaining art. As easy to listen to as a pastiche pop musical, and written with the musical integrity and complexity of a Sondheim or Guettel score, his music endeavors to be highly accessible, using popular tropes and stylizations while allowing text painting and motifs to evoke the inner emotional monologues of the characters.

BIG ISLAND (A New Musical)

ABOUT

READ THE REVIEWS

​

CREATIVE TEAM

BIG ISLAND
(A New Musical)