Overview
Synopsis
Ordinary Days is the captivating story of what happens when frazzled and uptight graduate student Deb loses the notebook that contains all of her notes for her thesis somewhere on the streets of New York. Little does she know that Warren, the struggling artist and professional cat sitter who finds and returns the notebook to her, will have such a profound effect on her life. And meanwhile, their actions affect Jason and Claire, a couple inching toward marriage who ultimately can’t seem to completely figure each other out because of an unspeakable tragedy from years ago. Adam Gwon’s witty and captivating four-person song cycle has played around the world professionally, in university settings, and at community theatres, and it is sure to leave audiences finding and appreciating the beauty in their everyday lives.
Show Information
Context
Composer Adam Gwon decided to write Ordinary Days when he received a musical theatre writing fellowship from musical theatre composing team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s Dramatist Guild, a program where young writers can work to create new pieces. Since Gwon had received the fellowship on his own, he lacked a collaborator, and he knew he had to write a show that was completely sung-through, since there was nobody to write a book. Gwon decided that he would be “stitching together a
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As the show begins, Warren, a struggling New York City artist, is revealed. He is fruitlessly attempting to hand out flyers with inspirational sayings on them, all written by a more successful artist who has been incarcerated for painting these sayings all across the city. Warren reveals that he has been hired to watch the jailed artist’s cat and laments that nobody ever takes his flyers. After giving up, a woman, frazzled graduate student Deb, does pick one up, and Warren’s faith in humanity
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Character Portrayals
See StageAgent members who have performed roles in Ordinary Days.
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Songs
- One by One by One – Warren, Company
- Don’t Wanna Be Here – Deb
- The Space Between – Jason
- Let Things Go – Claire
- Dear Professor Thompson (Part 1) – Deb
- Life Story – Warren
- Dear Professor Thompson (Part 2) – Deb
- I’m Trying – Claire, Jason
- Saturday at the Met – Company
- Favorite Places – Jason
- Sort-Of Fairy Tale – Warren, Deb
- Fine – Jason, Claire
- Big Picture – Company
- Hundred-Story City – Jason, Company
- Party Interlude – Claire
- Calm – Deb
- Life Story (Reprise) – Warren
- Gotta Get Out – Claire
- Rooftop Duet/Falling – Company
- I’ll Be Here – Claire
- Beautiful – Warren, Deb
A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.
Key Terms
A series of songs that are thematically or narratively connected, often forming the structure of a sung-through musical.
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