Musicals
Grace and the Ghost
Book By
Gwenyth Strope
Music and Lyrics By
Anna DeNoia & Joshua Villa
Open, Stay
Music and Lyrics By
Anna Denoia
Arranged and Orchestrated By
Joshua Villa
Artwork By Gwenyth Strope
Grace and the Ghost
In this intense and touching one-act musical, Grace finds herself trapped in a blackout, making friends with the shadow on her wall. When the shadow physicalizes in the darkness, the two women are forced to face why they are unable to move forward. Through giggles, clumsy dances, and life-altering decisions, Grace and the Ghost, illuminates the process of healing through darkness and pain, in order to take the brave step into the light.
Joshua Villa worked closely side by side with playwright, Gwenyth Strope and Lyricist, Anna Denoia to compose the score to this touching one act musical. The music focuses on the intimacy and friendship of the two characters while embracing the beauty of life's smallest moments.
This work premiered at Pipe Dreams Studio Theatre in Decatur, IL on October 28th, 2021 for a 3 weekend run. This work also had a second run at Aurora University in Aurora, IL on January 17th, 2022. A full length version of the show can be found below.
Aurora University, 2022
Millikin University, 2021
Open, Stay
Open, Stay is a collection of moments from ten different love stories— beginnings, endings and in-betweens, as well as the moments that come long after we say goodbye. It is an exploration of how we love and how we lose one another, all connected to the need that brings us together— the need for each other.
December of 2020 Anna reached out to fellow JMU student Joshua Villa to fully arrange and orchestrate the music of Open, Stay. After receiving the JMU College of Visual and Performing Arts undergraduate research grant the following spring, the pair worked with Chris Doermann at Virginia Arts Recording Studio in Charlottesville, VA to create the complete 13 track studio cast recording which is available for streaming NOW on all platforms!
CAST: Sam Sinnott, Joshua Villa, Corrine Krasner, Gemma Dobbs, Noah Hamadé, Lydia Fields, Olivia Palmer, Shannon McCarthy, Diana Suk, Anna DeNoia
BAND: Hannah Leckner, David Simons, Isaac Thomas, Kyle Mendez, Jonah Barnett, Cole Scheffer, Aaron Green, Thomas Hassett
Open, Stay 2022 Workshop
Two years after the first workshop process was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, Open, Stay was staged for the first time at James Madison University. Breaking from the cabaret format all previous iterations of the show had taken, this production devised connections between the separate stories, supported by some additional dialogue.
A full video of this production can be viewed on YouTube!
Directed by Alison Spangenberg and Anna DeNoia
Music Direction by Joshua Villa
CAST: Sam Sinnott, Ben Mills, Hannah Nicholson, Anjali Sharma, Jack Darymple, Bailey Ryon, Shannon McCarthy, Lindsay Marcus, Misha Rodriguez, Oshie Mellon