Every family has rules that deal with how emotions are expressed, which may or may not be helpful especially when something radically changes the status quo or when grief enters the picture. If the family member who has died was cherished for how they communicated to another family member, the loss likely makes it more difficult for that individual to talk about grief and the shared loss. Similarly, the family member who has lost a partner struggles to communicate because they feel alone, if not also powerless. In every family, how we grieve and express ourselves not only in bereavement but also in moments of radical change in the status quo of the family environment are possible only when we realize the diversity of feelings and needs each of us carries in our family or community.
In the forthcoming Pioneer Theatre Company’s (PTC) world premiere musical Ten Brave Seconds, Mike, a high school student, has finally mustered the bravery for his big announcement that will change his relationships with his family as well as with his friends at school. The production with music and lyrics by Will Van Dyke and book and lyrics by Jeff Talbott will open Jan. 30 and the run continues through Feb. 14.
Ten Brave Seconds extends a catalog of new theatrical works that PTC has shepherded and produced. “As a theater company, we at PTC have a responsibility to champion new voices and develop original works that move the American theater forward,” Karen Azenberg, artistic director, said in a prepared statement. “By bringing new stories to the stage, we help expand the canon and ensure the art form remains vibrant, relevant, and responsive to the world around us.”
In Ten Brave Seconds, Mike’s most important day so far in his young life happens to coincide with April 28, 2015. That date is significant: the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark case which ultimately legalized same-sex marriage across the country. There is a pivotal emotional scene featuring Mike and Mr. G., his high school teacher, which echoes in the spirit of the ringing words that two month laters would appear in the closing sentences of that historic Court decision: “Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law.” Certainly, we are reminded anew just how complicated, traumatic, heartbreaking and emotionally taxing the story of equality and the dignity of love with all of its attendant rights stretched for two solid generations amidst cultural wars, aggressive debates and soul-testing protests. Today, the historical journey seems just as turbulent and traumatizing for many members of a community who have yet to secure the sense of dignity as promised in that landmark Court decision.
The creative principals of Ten Brave Seconds are PTC alumni. Van Dyke is a composer and musical director in high demand on and off Broadway. For PTC, he composed incidental scores for Noises Off, The Lehman Trilogy, Ass, i and The Messenger. For PTC, Talbott wrote The Messenger and i and acted in the company’s 2024 production of The Lehman Trilogy, which christened the Meldrum Theatre. Ten Brave Seconds is the sixth stage musical collaboration Talbott and Van Dyke have written, with the other shows being fuzzy, Imagine Harry, Wintersong, Seven Broken Hearts and The Circle and the Wheel.
In an interview with The Utah Review, Van Dyke said that when he and Talbott began writing the show in 2018, their fascination with this story became a journey of countless revisions that encompassed many ups and downs in order to hone the script’s emotional resonance as part of a story that pushed beyond the boundaries of the classic expectations in a coming-of-age storyline. Last September, in a PTC Insider Reading, an audience had a sneak peek at Ten Brave Seconds and first impressions were splendid and edifying for the show’s creators.
In the five days leading up to that reading, Van Dyke and Talbott had already dramatically revised many pages in the script along with several songs. Joining The Utah Review interview in December with his collaborator, Talbott mentioned that an equally dramatic number of changes were made following that September reading. It also cemented decisions about some of the most prominent roles for the show going forward. Ellie Heyman, who helmed the Insider Reading, is directing the world premiere. Reprising their roles from that reading are Tony Award Nominee John Cariani (Broadway’s Fiddler on the Roof; Caroline, or Change; The Band’s Visit) as Mr. G (the teacher) and Carson Stewart (Broadway’s The Notebook) as Mike. Both actors will make their PTC mainstage debuts with this production.
The elapse of seven years is not an anomaly when it comes to writing a show in the hopes that it will have a theatrical life after its world premiere. It takes more than a good idea for a story to see the light of publication or performance. “Kill your darlings” is a daunting phrase to serious writers and editors. Van Dyke and Talbott admitted they had to kill plenty of darlings along the way. However, they also knew the cost of being attached to or adamantly precious about a line of dialogue, a song lyric or even an entire song or scene is too risky to wage a battle over creative differences. Writing is painful, but unquestionably is so for the right reasons.
In that long stretch of revisions, Ten Brave Seconds cured and matured into something much more than a classic coming out and coming-of-age story. “We saw every small change as having strong repercussions,” Van Dyke said. Mike’s spoken words in those ten brave seconds during the show reverberate in epiphanies that emerge for every other character in the musical who experiences their own emotional coming-out moment, including his teacher. The backdrop of grief and trauma is as important as Mike’s pronouncement about his identity.
The mutual, symmetric dynamics of the Van Dyke-Talbott collaboration has blossomed into a story that has managed to become “50-50 about grief and coming out,” as Talbott described it, and “it is a huge surprise that it could contain both things.”
Their instincts have animated the emotional landscape Ten Brave Seconds traverses. It is usually wrong to say to someone, “I know exactly how you feel,” although as imperfectly aware as we might be in assuming the seemingly familiar circumstances, experiences and situations affecting someone’s emotional well-being, we are still capable of being empathetic. Listening effectively is a good start but in our ripening wisdom, we also realize that communication involves just as much constructing feelings, as it does reporting them. We always have more to know and that comes with enriching our personal interactions and the quality of our direct communication— and that includes plenty of lessons for Mike in the aftermath of those fateful ten brave seconds.
The lessons embodied in Ten Brave Seconds are reflected in the dynamics of the collaboration that the two creators forged. “Jeff [Talbott] and I have enjoyed working together on all of our projects,” Van Dyke explained. “I have learned about selflessness and the vulnerability which requires me to say a lot of things out loud without a filter but also to do so with kindness and an open heart.”
Azenberg said the climate for producing new work is always tricky, especially because the economics of costs and risks for a nonprofit is always at the forefront of gauging the prudence in pursuing untested creative ventures. The feedback gathered in the Play-by-Play Series has guided the company to decide if taking on a new show is worth the risks. Given the robust positive feedback from the September reading, Azenberg felt that while such a big undertaking is simultaneously scary and exciting, the company could not responsibly serve the field of contemporary theater if it ever decided to shy away from shepherding new work.
The last musical that PTC shepherded to its full premiere was Shucked in 2022, which went through a long transformation spanning the better part of a decade. At one point, it was conceived as a theatrical version of Hee Haw, a long-running televised variety show that was set in fictional Kornfield Kounty. But, the concept never coalesced into a cohesive musical, even when there were attempts to excise elements inspired by Hee Haw without losing the bulk of written material and songs that the creators already had composed. After 2016, the idea for a country Broadway musical was revived and the new book was packed with comedy.
After its blockbuster run at PTC, the musical eventually landed on Broadway and garnered a Tony Award for one of the actors (Alex Newell). With a feature film adaptation in the works, Shucked toured in London last year and is slated for an Australian tour this spring.
In addition to the experiences of working previously with Van Dyke and Talbott, Azenberg explained that she could relate directly to Ten Brave Seconds. In 2015, her children were the same age as the student characters in the musical. And like Mike’s father who lost the woman he loved, she related to those pangs of loss and grief when her husband died.
Prior to the opening, an EP, Astronaut 63, featuring five songs from the musical has been made available. The songs include the title track, along with Making Up the Rules, Ride to the River, Sally at the Water Park and Three-Thirty. Featured on the EP are Jordan Tyson, Nathan Levy, Jake Pedersen, Zachary Noah Piser, Stark Sands, Makai Hernandez and Joy Woods.
For tickets and more information, see the Pioneer Theatre Company website.