ABOUT THIS PROJECT
SHE REACHED FOR HEAVEN
Co-Book by Hunter Bird & Oliver Houser
Music and Lyrics by Oliver Houser
She Reached for Heaven is an original musical inspired by a TED talk that posits the opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety, it’s connection.
On the outside, high school senior Jes Holt is doing everything she’s supposed to. On the inside, she’s never felt more alone and longs for something she can’t name. Set against the backdrop of the greatest drug crisis in our country’s history, She Reached for Heaven is a coming-of-age story about the devastations of addiction, and one woman’s journey to choose life rather than escape it.
Development History
She Reached for Heaven has received workshops at Nashville Rep and in the 2023 Human Rights New Works Festival at Red Mountain Theater. The show was developed through residencies at the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (2019) and the Warren Miller Center for the Performing Arts in Big Sky, MT (2019). The piece was included in New York Theatre Barn’s April 2021 New Works Series concert. An original song from the piece, “Catch Me,” won the 2021 Kurt Weill Foundation Lotte Lenya Songbook Competition Award.
Press
The Musicals of Tomorrow, Broadway Postcast Network
Nashville Rep Ingram New Works Presentation in Summer 2023
CO-FOUNDERS and SHE REACHED FOR HEAVEN to Headline New York Theatre Barn New Work Series Livestream (BroadwayWorld)
New Songs for the Stage - Warren Miller Performing Arts Center (2019)