SHOW

From the Fire is a folktale about fire, family, and the power of art. 

Josefa lights a fire and prays to the gods to bring her a son, Alek. However there are terrible consequences: the parents of a young girl, Isabela, are killed in the same fire. Alek grows up and fails to become the artist his mother expected, and instead defies her by becoming an art thief. Isabela grows up to be an Inspector and is assigned to Alek's theft case. In the end, the two eventually meet for the first time, and face the essential questions about their shared past, what it means, and what they can do about it.

TEAM

CLEO HANDLER (book & lyrics) and JUSTIN FRIELLO (music) met in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop in 2012. Continuing on to the Advanced Workshop in 2014, they have since worked to expand and develop their full-length, original musical From the Fire. Together, they have self-produced 3 readings of the piece (Winter 2015, Brooklyn, Act I; Summer 2017, Ripley-Grier, full show; and Fall 2018, Areté Gallery, full show). After each reading, they’ve edited and improved the work based on their own observations and audience feedback. In the fall of 2017, From The Fire was selected for the Off Broadway Musical Theater Production Program at the Players Theatre, NYC, and in spring 2020, they were featured on the podcast “Everything Theater.”