Press | Yuriko Shibata

SKIN

About

Skin is a contemporary musical for 6 actors set in Geraldton, a town on the coast of Western Australia.... an elemental, impressionistic, and painful examination of entanglement, and the damage that keeping secrets can do.

When Cath (she/her), her husband Ed (he/him) and their adult child Siobh (they/them) are cleaning out their old house, memories begin to wash over them like waves, threatening to expose the secrets Cath and Ed have held tight to their chests for years.

25 years ago Cath, Ed, and Heather were best friends... until Cath and Heather fell for each other... got so tangled up in one another, that they lost where one ends and the other begins.
It tore whole parts of Cath away when Heather left her.

But Cath kept all of this hidden from Siobh.

Siobh, who grew up queer. Siobh whose relationship with their mother’s always been so fraught.

Siobh, who discovers old photos, forcing Cath to confront the truth of their history, and face the ways it’s still hurting all three of them.

The musical flows back and forth between the present and the past, the tide slowly retreating, leaving everyone exposed.

Written at the New York University - Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program

Picture Credit: "Married to the sea" - Clare Elsaesser

Andrew Strano

Andrew (they/them) is a lyricist, playwright, director and performer.
Their debut show, "Nailed It!" won the Greenroom Award for Best Original Songs, and toured globally to 5-star reviews including a sold out run at the Edinburgh fringe.
Other work includes "Jack of Two Trades” (Jeanne Pratt Artist in Residence musical theatre commission), "Voyagers" (commissioned by the Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre, recipient of the City of Melbourne 2020 arts grant), “Skin” (featured on “The Latest Draft“ musical theatre podcast and “Tin Pan Alley 2”), “STARSONG” (Rattlestick playwright’s theatre, SoundBites shortlist) and the song “Space” which was featured in the Lincoln Centre’s “Broadway’s future Songbook”.

Andrew is a graduate of the VCAs M.A. (Writing for Performance) and the NYU Tisch graduate musical theatre writing MFA program, and was awarded the 2019 Victorian Fulbright Scholarship, the 2020 Schubert foundation scholarship, the 2021 Peerce Scholarship, a major Mike Walsh Fellowship, a PPCA performer’s trust foundation grant, an American Australian Association Arts Grant, and the George Fairfax Memorial Award.

Andrew studied theatrical improvisation with the iO theater Chicago in 2014, and has taught writing, singing, acting and improvisation all over the world.

Yuriko Shibata

Yuriko Shibata is a versatile music composer, arranger, pianist, and music director coming from Tokyo, Japan but residing and working in New York.

She produces various genres of music including classical, jazz, pop, Latin, R&B, film, electric, and theater. Aside from a Bachelor of Music in Music Composition for Film and TV from Tokyo College of Music, she has just obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theater Writing from The New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

She has vast experience in a wide range of media forms including film, theater, and commercials. One of her notable recent achievements was that she directed music for the film Jesus, which was announced to be the winner of the San Sebastián International Film Festival and also the International Film Festival and Awards of Macao. She has also had the pleasure of playing her song Mariposas at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in NYC, and it’s worth mentioning that her other song Gay Icon was featured in Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre Lincoln Center and Broadway's Future Songbook Series.

In October 2021, Yuriko had the chance to hold two concerts after receiving the City Artist Corps Grant funded by NYFA and DCLA. The first concert was a comedy cabaret show named “Yuri and Erica Laugh Again” whose tickets sold out at Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, and the other performance was “Skin Concert” with her collaborator Andrew Strano. She is currently working as an administrative assistant at the American Opera Project.