Project 21, a student composition group, is producing a new work written by a student.
The production, written by Simón Gómez, music theater/music composition sophomore, is called “Keep Me in Mind” and is about the relationship between a mother and a daughter. The mother suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease.
“The work is about the relationship between a mother and a daughter in two different timelines,” Gómez said. “The present timeline is–the mother gets Alzheimer’s, and the daughter has to go back and take care of her, and then intertwined with flashbacks to the past of how the relationship between the mother and the daughter used to be like.”
Gómez said he drew inspiration for the story from his own personal experiences.
“My grandmother had Alzheimer’s, and it was like a six-year battle with it, and I saw how my mom basically took care of my grandmother for years,” he said. “I came up with the idea earlier this year, last semester, because I wanted to write something. I was talking to my best friend, and my best friend said, ‘Think of a time of a time where you needed a work of art, what kind of work of art did you need.’”
Dr. Edward Knight, professor of music and composer in residence, said it is a pleasure working with Gómez on the production.
“He’s an incredibly talented individual,” Knight said. “He’s a writer of words as well as a composer, and he’s a performer, and he’s an actor, so just an extremely talented individual. And that’s the kind of student that is attracted to OCU, and I think Project 21 is lucky to have quite a few students like that, that come here for musical theater but are involved in a wide variety of things.”
The first read-through of the work will be at 9 p.m. Nov. 30 in the Large Rehearsal Hall in the Wanda L. Bass School of Music.
“I am very, very excited about it,” Gómez said. “I believe in this work so much, and the fact that I have the chance to do this at a wonderful school like this is just mind-blowing, so I’m very excited.”
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