BEETHOVEN, THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE MUSIC
Music by Ludwig van Beethoven
Libretto by Cindi Sansone-Braff
Following Aristotelian unities, this Four-Movement Music Drama centers around Beethoven’s obsessive love for his nephew and deep devotion to his “Immortal Beloved.” Like the star-crossed lovers in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, whose tragic romance continues to captivate our consciousness centuries later, the story of Ludwig and Josephine will fascinate today’s audiences as they witness what happens when a great soulmate love – due to deep-seated fears, social conventions, and cultural constraints – falls asunder. Beethoven endured bouts of insufferable distress and debilitating depression, but ultimately, this indisputable genius used his undying passion and exquisite pain to create some of the world’s most memorable music.
- Cast Size: 2M 2W Mixed Choir
- Running Time: 90+ minutes
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
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About the Playwright
Cindi has a BFA in theater from the University of Connecticut and is a proud member of the Long Island Authors’ Group and the Dramatists Guild. Her full-length drama, A Whole, Empty House, was a finalist in the Robert A. Forest Playwriting Competition. Her full-length romantic comedy, Angel’s Mice and Men, was a finalist in Lodi’s National New Play contest and Theatre Festival, produced in 2019 at the Summerfest Theater Festival at the Hudson Guild Theatre in NYC, and published in 2021 by Next Stage Press. Her full-length drama, Phantom Pain, was a finalist in Minneapolis’s Playwrights Center’s Playlab program. Her full-length music drama Beethoven’s Promethean Concerto in C Minor WoO was produced at the BACCA Center on Long Island in 2017 and is published by Next Stage Press under the title Beethoven, The Man, The Myth, The Music. Her plays, To the Zoom and Back, The Karma Bums, and Welcome to the House of Karma, received staged readings by the Fishlickers Improv group in 2020. To the Zoom and Back was a finalist in the Think Fast Theater Festival 2021 and won the Audience Choiceaward. To the Zoom and Back was published in 2022 in Borderless Thalia: A Multilingual Comedic Collection, Solis Press, UK. To the Zoom and Back was in the 2nd Act Players Spring 2021 Script Competition and received a production. No Rest for a Soul was in the Equity Library Theater Festival Spring 2021, the Manhattan Repertory Theatre Stories Film Festival Spring 2021, and the Think Fast Theater Festival 2023. The Karma Bums had a reading from Play Reading with Friends in 2020 and a Zoom production in 2021 by Tomorrow’s Classics Theatre Company. Her radio play, My Struggle, had a reading at Clifton Public Library in New Jersey in 2021. A monologue from The Karma Bums is published in Smith & Kraus Best Women’s Monologue 2022, and a monologue from My Struggle is published in Best Men’s Monologue 2022. She has directed several of her plays, including Beethoven’s Promethean Concerto in C Minor WoO, Angel’s Mice and Men, To the Zoom and Back, No Rest for a Soul, Textual Abuse, and The Karma Bums. She had a dancing and acting role in Beethoven’s Promethean Concerto in C Minor WoO. She is a respected theatre critic for Patch.com, Smithtown Matters, The Messenger Papers, and Fire Island News. She is the author of Grant Me a Higher Love, Why Good People Can’t Leave Bad Relationships and Confessions of a Reluctant Long Island Psychic.
ALSO BY CINDI SANSONE-BRAFF
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