NO ONLY

Photo by Tania Aparicio.

SYNOPSIS

NO ONLY is a two-character musical about how perception and affection change environments. Dust—an explorer and romantic—finds herself trapped in the mournful collapse of the earth; and Wind descends to interrogate her entrapment. Their meeting and misunderstandings shift the trajectory of time, opening a new interrogation of what it means to be and not be in an unpredictable, cruel universe.

The duo's story is told through animate and inanimate transformations, time travel, synthesizers, projected animations, reactive lighting, and an acoustic guitar score—within a shipping container powered by a solar energy and battery storage system, on walks through dilapidated buildings and across fields, in small Brooklyn apartments, and in future locations unknown. NO ONLY is a story of immersion.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Produced by Worry Noise Dirt Heat

Written and composed by Lane Dombois

Directed by Nic Adams

Featuring Sophie Zmorrod and Fernando Gonzalez

Accompaniment by Lane Dombois

Animations by Leonie Bell

Illustrations by Brian Hendricks

Lighting by Christina Tang

Costumes by Sandra Bell and Inga Lee Black

Co-developed by Dombois, Adams, Zmorrod, and Gonzalez

Photos by Tania Aparicio

RUN TIME

90 minutes, no intermission.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

NO ONLY’s album release and design showcase ran in the summer of 2023 in a solar-powered shipping container on Governor’s Island provided by Shelley V. Worrell and caribBEING House. A music video for “Dying Stars” from NO ONLY appeared in the one year anniversary installment of Out of An Abundance of Caution on Twitch (2021). A public apartment concert was held in Brooklyn (2019).

THANKS TO

Shelley V. Worrell and caribBEING, Juan Pablo Siles and Zoë Van Cott with Governors Island, Levin Valayil, Jack Adams, Avery Leigh Draut, Laura Barati and Danny Urseti, Lauren Miller, Theresa Buchheister, and Jess Almasy, Brick Aux, David Herskovits, Target Margin Theater, Jess Applebaum, and Anjali Rose.

AWARDS

Brooklyn Arts Council’s Brooklyn Arts Fund grant (2023) and The Puffin Foundation grant (2023).

CAST RECORDING

Director Nic Adams began developing the show with composer/writer Lane Dombois in late 2018. After a reading in a Brooklyn living room in 2019 featuring the performances of Fernando Gonzalez and Sophie Zmorrod, the four of them began developing the show together. In the summer of 2021, Lane's apartment was converted into a two-vocal-booth recording studio, and most of the show was tracked. The cast recording was released September 8, 2023.

Score, Book and Lyric, and additional video available upon request.