bittersummer - a new musical

What remains of Averno

ex-verno

averno entirely

WILLOW: A NEW MUSICAL DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. This is only a reupload of the soundtrack.
GO TO THIS WEBSITE TO LEARN ABOUT AVERNO AND THE ORIGINAL CREATORS:
https://exverno.carrd.co/

Adelaide is a Good Southern Lady. She got her first job when she was 15, bringing coffee to the men in Averno’s only bank. By the time she was 20, she was a teller. She married a good man, Daniel, and got a  townhouse and had 4 lovely children. She worked hard for her whole life- they even saved enough to take a vacation to Majorca in ‘73. Her children went to great schools (except Amy) and settled down and had kids of their own (except Amy). When her husband died last year, it wasn’t a surprise to anyone. He had lived well, and they had had a good life together.

As she walks home from church one Sunday morning, she watches the flowers blooming. She remarks to herself that they’re late this year (as Daniel isn’t around to remark to), and then realizes something- she’s walked on this same path every year for 70 years. She knows when the magnolias are late for the season. And she has no one to tell. Suddenly she is angry- or at least, riled. She doesn’t know what she wants for the rest of her life, but it isn’t to talk to thin air about late-blooming magnolias. She wants- well, something. Something new. So she steps off the path.

And that is how she finds herself bumping into Beatrice while accidentally trespassing on the Anderson farm in her sensible heels.

Adelaide's Path || Willow: A New Musical

WILLOW: A NEW MUSICAL DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. This is only a reupload of the soundtrack.
GO TO THIS WEBSITE TO LEARN ABOUT AVERNO AND THE ORIGINAL CREATORS:
https://exverno.carrd.co/

Cassia is one of the Wild Ones- the children who are stolen away out of abusive/ neglectful homes in Averno and brought to the forest where they are raised by the Shadow Mothers. The Wild Ones are the Lost Boys of the forest, living in clubhouses of rusted metal, drinking mugwort tea and hunting deer in the predawn light, wild. 

But every Wild One must make a choice when they become an adult- leave the forest or follow the path of (eventually) becoming a Shadow Mother. Cassia made her choice long ago- she stayed in the forest, raised the other children, stayed in the twilight zone of her late-teens for a hundred years. 
She should have become a Shadow Mother long ago, but she always told herself she could wait just one more summer. But tonight, she has made up her mind. It is time. She goes to the edge of the forest for one last glance at the stars- and runs into Grace. 

Perhaps, Cassia thinks, death could wait one more night.

A Meeting Under the Willow Tree || Willow: A New Musical

WILLOW: A NEW MUSICAL DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. This is only a reupload of the soundtrack.
GO TO THIS WEBSITE TO LEARN ABOUT AVERNO AND THE ORIGINAL CREATORS:
https://exverno.carrd.co/

On her way home from church, Adelaide cannot decide whether or not to stop by the willow. She has been invited into a secret clubhouse by a woman who wears men’s pants and sits in the dirt like a child. A woman who makes Adelaide feel- confused. To stop at the willow tree would be a decision, a declaration, an admittance. 

But then she realizes- maybe that’s a choice she’s willing to make. Hell, maybe that’s a choice she WANTS to make. You can’t ask the universe for adventure and then say no when it shows up. When she gets to the willow tree, she finds two new chairs waiting- one of them occupied by Beatrice.

Beatrice takes Adelaide around the farm, picking flowers, showing her the forests and the glades.

Dawn || Willow: A New Musical

WILLOW: A NEW MUSICAL DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. This is only a reupload of the soundtrack.
GO TO THIS WEBSITE TO LEARN ABOUT AVERNO AND THE ORIGINAL CREATORS:
https://exverno.carrd.co/

Grace asks Cassia to be her girlfriend.

Grace knows something is going on with Cassia. Whenever she tries to kiss her, it’s like there’s a wall. Like if she kisses back, secrets will slip out. 
But in the end, it’s hard to argue when you’re so damn in love. At the peak of summer, they go down to pick raspberries by the base of the willow tree, and Grace thinks life can’t get much better.

Adelaide arrives at the tree early and gets a call from her doctor. When Beatrice arrives, she asks what’s wrong. Adelaide can’t bring herself to say.

|||Adelaide tells Beatrice about the cancer.|||

Lovers' Quartet || Willow: A New Musical

WILLOW: A NEW MUSICAL DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. This is only a reupload of the soundtrack.
GO TO THIS WEBSITE TO LEARN ABOUT AVERNO AND THE ORIGINAL CREATORS:
https://exverno.carrd.co/

Meg first meets her imaginary friend while on a mission. It’s the beginning of spring, and, more importantly, the beginning of bullfrog season. Meg wanders onto the Anderson farm while following the winding creek that goes down the hill by her house. With her net and jar in hand, she is of single-minded focus, just a girl and her undying wish for a pet frog. But down beneath the willow tree, she finds more than tadpoles- a voice on the wind, a whisper through the trees, and Meg has made her first imaginary friend.

Meg comes to the tree almost every day. She talks to her imaginary friend about everything- the books she’s reading, what she wants to do when she grows up, her babysitter, her pet frog, what it means to grow up. She promises she will bring her little sister by to visit one day, when her parents finally let her.

Meg goes to the willow tree after fighting with her parents. They tell her that she needs to stop playing pretend, that she needs to grow up, that she’s too old to play pretend anymore.

siren song - bittersummer - averno

inezzzzz