PGHwrites: Andrew Swensen & Yan Pang’s “Shelter” (Musical Theatre Production)
Shelter tells the story of scars carried from childhood into adulthood, exploring how they distort our vision of ourselves and damage our relationships, but also ultimately create the challenges by which we claim our strength.
This special PGHwrites program features a staged performance of Andrew Swensen and Yan Pang’s Shelter, building off the showcase held at City of Asylum last fall. Shelter tells the story of scars carried from childhood into adulthood, exploring how they distort our vision of ourselves and damage our relationships, but also ultimately create the challenges by which we claim our strength and achieve self-determination.
Paige, our protagonist, takes a journey through a series of memories, traveling with her childhood self through her past. Her life telescopes into an unhealthy mix of self-serving selflessness and psychological isolation, a well-wrought “shelter” that she has constructed from the pain of life. She emerges on the other side when she confronts her own role in what she has become, releases her blame toward her mother, and opens herself to the prospect of a genuine, balanced connection to another.
Paige, our protagonist, takes a journey through a series of memories, traveling with her childhood self through her past. Her life telescopes into an unhealthy mix of self-serving selflessness and psychological isolation, a well-wrought “shelter” that she has constructed from the pain of life. She emerges on the other side when she confronts her own role in what she has become, releases her blame toward her mother, and opens herself to the prospect of a genuine, balanced connection to another.
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