Today I went to Greenwich to explore on a beautiful (rare) sunny day. After making the schlep, it was so wonderful to see a completely new side of London: seeing the ship, and the more traditional looking streets reminded me of 18th Century England. The market was bustling with people and stalls with makers and artists selling their work. The giant ship, the Cutty Sark, looming over the harbor and the observatory looking over the perfectly manicured park marking the spot where time as we know it begins. The naval academy where historical figures have attended, sitting silently in Greenwich without anyone wandering around. Being in Greenwich felt like a little bit of time travel, a bit of a vacation elsewhere, still within London but also in a seaside town far away, a ghost of London's past. It was also striking to be in the spot that every time zone is based off of, representing our interconnectedness as well as marking a moment of history.
The Production:
A sea shanty musical about a Greenwich in 1884, when Greenwich Mean Time first came into existence. Stories of people across the world navigating important issues of the time in their own shipping towns, a sweeping historical drama about the beginnings of globalization and the ways in which shipping and commerce shaped the way we see the world. Inspired by the musical Ragtime, this production will take stories of individuals within a historical context and create a collective story as the characters all come together. Using the observatory, and the moment time was marked, as a nucleus where all the stories come together, the story will be told through music told in the style of sea shanties, representing the maritime energy of Greenwich.
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