Students help develop new musical

SUNY Cortland students had a rare opportunity to help shape a new musical. "The Bone Harp," scripted by Chicago-based writer and lyricist Laura Stratford with music by Heidi Joosten, is loosely based on a macabre, centuries-old Scottish ballad involving a murder between sisters, a harp fashioned from the victim's bones and a ghostly reckoning. The students' readings of the show helped to fine-tune it for a future professional premiere.

CreateTheater's Professional College Musical Theatre Partnership has teamed up with SUNY Cortland's Performing Arts Department to present the two staged readings. The producer of "Bone Harp," Cate Cammarata, reached out to Cortland's Performing Arts Department with the idea. Cammarata had previously visited the campus to help SUNY Cortland develop and critique its new Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre major, which graduates its first full four-year BFA class this spring.