about
Breaking Open is a bold new musical that reimagines the lives of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene through a deeply human and contemporary lens.
Blending musical theatre, ritual, and immersive storytelling, and drawing on the musical traditions of folk rock and psychedelia, the show explores embodiment, devotion, grief, sexuality, power, and spiritual revelation through the interior lives of two women whose stories have been shaped for centuries by theology and archetype. Rather than offering answers, Breaking Open invites audiences into an experience of listening, intimacy, and transformation.
the creators
REBECCA FISHMAN
Rebecca is a songwriter, vocalist, actor, and emerging musical theater writer whose work explores transformation through grief, embodiment, intimacy, and spiritual inquiry. Her songs often arise from periods of personal rupture and seek to transmute lived experience into emotional clarity, connection, and meaning.
Breaking Open is her first musical and first full-length script, for which she serves as librettist, lyricist, and co-composer. She previously co-created and performed in Rumours, a narrative-driven concert work inspired by the story and music of Fleetwood Mac that was presented in a series of sold-out performances at Largo in Los Angeles.
Drawing from a background in performance, education, collaborative art-making, and independent music, her writing centers the interior lives of women and examines the ways suffering, devotion, desire, and revelation shape human identity. Her work is grounded in emotional honesty, lyrical vulnerability, and a deep trust in the transformative power of storytelling and song.
EVAN PREMO
Evan is a composer, double bassist, sound artist, and interdisciplinary theater maker whose work explores the intersection of consciousness, spirituality, healing, and artistic expression. As co-creator and co-composer of Breaking Open, he brings together musical theater, ritual, improvisation, chamber music, and immersive listening experiences that invite audiences into emotional and spiritual transformation.
Evan’s work often explores themes of ancestry, revelation, grief, devotion, and human connection through sound. Previous theater works include The Diaries of Adam and Eve (after Mark Twain) and Queen Marinette, an ongoing Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborative music theater project produced by Hogfish that explores ancestry, resistance, and cultural memory. His body of work also includes numerous song cycles and vocal chamber works blending storytelling, poetry, and contemporary composition.
His compositions have been commissioned and performed by ensembles including the Aizuri Quartet and the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra, and his performance work has been featured at Carnegie Hall and on NPR’s Performance Today. He is the Artistic Director of Northwoods Music Collaborative and founder of the genre-bending Beethoven and Banjos festival.