SPLIT

BOOK BY & CONCEIVED BY MICHELE LOWE

MUSIC, LYRICS, & CO-ORCHESTRATIONS BY ZOE SARNAK

DIRECTED BY JACK CUMMINGS III

SPLIT

A New Musical by Michele Lowe & Zoe Sarnak

Commissioned by Transport Group in 2018, Split tells the powerful story of Lillian, a former research scientist at Los Alamos during WWII, and her daughter Amy, as they embark on a road trip to the Grand Canyon in the summer of 1953. This mother and daughter are bound by family ties and a love of science, but Lillian’s secret goal is to set Amy’s life on a different course. By the end of their journey, it will be amy who changes her mother’s life forever.

THE JOURNEY SO FAR

NOVEMBER 2019
1-WEEK READING

NOVEMBER 2020
MUSIC RETREAT

JANUARY 2021
DEMO RECORDINGS

NOVEMBER 2021
SCRIPT RETREAT

JULY 2022
3-week WORKSHOP

MARCH 2023
1-WEEK READING

SEPTEMBER 2024
DEVELOPMENTAL PRODUCTION with
the new london barn playhouse

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Michele Lowe is an award-winning playwright, librettist, and lyricist. She received the Francesca Primus Prize for Inana, which was also a finalist for the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her plays include The Smell of the Kill, her Broadway debut; String of Pearls; Backsliding in the Promised Land; and Mezzulah, 1946. She wrote the musical A Thousand Words Come to Mind with composer Scott Davenport Richards; the pair are also developing The Break for Signature Theatre. Lowe is a member of the Dramatists Guild and ASCAP and serves on the board of Usdan Center.

Zoe Sarnak is a Drama Desk–nominated and Larson Award–winning composer, lyricist, writer, and orchestrator, as well as a finalist for the Ebb and Kleban Awards. Upcoming and recent works include: GALILEO (with Danny Strong and Michael Weiner) opening on Broadway in 2026; NY Times Critic’s Pick THE LONELY FEW (with Rachel Bonds) at MCC and Geffen Playhouse; EMPIRE RECORDS (with Carol Heikkinen) at McCarter Theatre; PARTICLE FEVER (with David Henry Hwang and Bear McCreary) premiering at La Jolla Playhouse in February 2027; A BEAUTIFUL MIND (with Sarah Treem); SHOOK (with Mike Lew) co-commissioned by the Goodman and Northern Stage; THE INVISIBLE LINE (with Christopher Oscar Peña and Mark St. Germain); and others soon to be announced. Her work has been developed and produced at Second Stage, The Public, Roundabout Theatre Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Geffen Playhouse, and MCC, among others. Her music has been featured by NY Times Live and the Guggenheim.

Split is made possible by the Joanna & Steven Sanders New Works Program.