S. Dylan Zwickel

Based on the beloved young adult novel by Jeanne DuPrau, The City of Ember tells the story of a city that is the only light in a world of darkness. For hundreds of years, a generator nestled in the tunnels deep below the city has kept the lights on and a labyrinth of storerooms has provided everything the citizens could need. But now, the generator is failing and the storerooms are running low, and everyone seems to be in denial about the city's imminent demise--everyone, that is, except for two teenagers, hot-headed Doon and dreamer Lina. But can they work together to find a solution and save their people before it’s too late? Part call to action and part cautionary tale, The City of Ember uses an idiosyncratic, mellotron-based chamber pop score to deliver a parable of greed, environmental disaster, good people doing nothing, and the bravery it takes to save a society on the brink of collapse.

Hannah-May is a pageant queen-turned-van life influencer who travels around a very-near-future South with her boyfriend Ethan, making videos capturing the region’s small town charm and natural beauty. Or at least, that’s what most people think. But her comments are peppered with pleas to come to certain towns followed by a ubiquitous mouse emoji, each representing a cry for help. For the endless sponcon videos of Hannah-May wearing luxury leggings on hikes in different mountain ranges are just a front for her true operation: delivering abortion pills in states that have cracked down on them, even by mail. When a teenage girl with lots of secrets stows away in the back of their van, Hannah-May and Ethan are forced to confront the limitations of their efforts to help people in need, as well as the extent of their commitment to believing women.

The year is 1941 and Isa, Rini, Silke, Helena, and Floor are five ordinary teenage girls living in a midsized Dutch town. They spend their days gossiping about their classmates, dreaming about their futures, and trying not to catch the eye of any of the Nazis that have taken up residence in their town. But when Rini, the romantic of the group, takes a walk in the woods with a Nazi who she’s hoping might be secretly a Resistance fighter and also her soulmate and sort-of-accidentally ends up killing him, the girls discover that they’re the last people anyone would ever suspect when harm befalls members of the invading army, and a new branch of the Resistance is born.

A single-play retelling of Sophocles’ Theban Trilogy focused on the younger generation: Antigone, Ismene, Polynices, Eteocles, and Haemon. Covering events spanning from the beginning of Oedipus Rex to the end of Antigone, The Making and Breaking of Glass follows the First Family of Greek Tragedy, still rulers of the ancient city of Thebes but styled after characters on a CW teen melodrama, as their carefree, privileged world is torn apart first by a plague and then by in-fighting and revolution.

Set in a violent and mystical metropolis, Broken City uses a percussive and eclectic score to tell the story of a young woman named Noa, who impersonates a legendary mud creature in an attempt to inspire her people to fight back against the oppression they've been facing. When things do not go as planned, she and her brother Daniel end up on opposite sides of a war and must choose between loyalty to their cause and loyalty to each other, until one is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice to fix their beloved city.

The Cardioluthier follows two couples as they struggle to understand the mechanics of the human heart... which, in their world, happens to look like a miniature violin. Dakota, a cardioluthier responsible for the creation of custom violin hearts, is perfectly content to remain removed from the people their work benefits until the mysterious Sam commissions a heart for their sister and forces Dakota to consider the implications of their inability to make an unbreakable heart. Thirty years later and miles away, another cardioluthier, Morgan, who fixes broken hearts for a living, is forced to confront their personal demons when their ex, Jamie, demands that they fix the heart they broke. As one couple falls in love, the other rediscovers why they couldn't, and all four gain new perspective on the joys and consequences of love.

Nestled high in the mountains somewhere far from the complications of the modern world, Halcyon Creek, USA, is a mining town unlike any other. Rather than mining gold or coal, it mines words— the kind of words that beget ideas. Aside from the few townspeople who make up the Committee responsible for distributing words to the outside world, no one ever leaves Halcyon Creek, and no one ever comes to it… that is, until a mysterious young man named Benjamin Elias suddenly appears. With the help of the Committee head’s daughter, Abigail, Ben discovers that Halcyon Creek may not be as utopian as it seems, and the powerful secret it hides could destroy more than just the town.