Come From Away is a Canadian musical created and written by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. It is sort of a devised piece based on the events of the terrorist attack in 9/11. It is set in the town of Gander in Newfoundland province of Canada. It tells the story of how these local Newfoundlanders welcomed and helped the stranded passengers of 38 planes that emergency landed in Gander International Airport right after the 9/11 attacks with such wonderful and touching music and songs.
The piece took off on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2011 when Sankoff and Hein visited Gander to interview the locals and the passengers who came back to visit. The piece is then workshopped based on these interviews and most of the characters and the stories are based on real people and real scenarios from these recordings. The themes of this musical tackle uncertainty, fear, hatred, racism, but most importantly human compassion and kindness during one of the darkest times in history.
When the Newfoundlanders found about the news of the terrorist attacks and that approximately 7000 passengers are diverted to land in the small town of Gander, they immediately started volunteering to care, feed, clothe, house and comfort these stranded passengers with no afterthought. They were so very welcoming to these strangers even though they asked for nothing in return. They have so much compassion and understanding that they understood how confused and terrified the passengers must have been to help them the way they did. This empathy is what drives the emotions of the musical and what makes it so special. Empathy is a universal language and this musical is intended for all audiences and this story of human kindness should be told and be seen by as many people as possible.
Most of the time when learning about 9/11, I hear talks of fear, death and mourning. I hear talks of grief and survival, but never the story of Gander. It was so refreshing to see some light in one of the worst moments of history. I cannot iterate how shocking it was for me that I was so ignorant of such a pivotal moment. This needs to be shared and Come From Away is the best vehicle for musical enthusiasts like me to tell this story. Even though it has been really popular on Broadway recently, I feel like bringing it up to local and regional theaters would give it exposure to many people who are not that familiar with Broadway nor could afford to see such a high-end show. College level and regional semi-professional theaters could put this show on to tell this amazing story and touch people’s hearts. The staging of the show itself revolves around mostly the cast choreographing with chairs, tables, props and costume pieces and it could be done in a minimalistic set unlike many other musicals on Broadway with a lot of visual spectacles. It is ideal for the college and regional theaters with not a big budget. The main issue would be casting as this show demands all cast members to be on stage almost the entirety of the two hour show and portray different characters and sometimes even different nationalities. While attempting to cast authentically as possible, many main theater companies did the best they could to multicast the minor yet very important muslim character Ali. If I want my cast to be as authentic as possible, I would expand the cast instead of double, triple, or multi-casting the actors. This would induce more traffic on stage and the choreography and staging would have to be tweaked a bit. The music will sound different, but they will be the same in the sense that the story and lyrics will not change, just that it will be much easier to tell which characters are singing which parts.
It is true this is already an old story, but it is still fresh for me as it has only been a handful of months since I have learned of it at the time of writing this piece. I could only imagine how many others are not aware about this wonderful story of the Newfoundlanders. Thus it is why it should be brought to areas where Broadway and the Touring Companies do not reach. Even if the story is not news to you nor no longer has a high impact on your emotions, the music always will. The music in this musical is so joyous, tense, celebratory, sad, and bright. The lyrics beautifully drive the actions in a fast pace and the music includes very folklike aspects that show the personalities of the Newfoundlanders, especially during the introduction and celebration pieces.
One of the ideas I would personally add to the show is to have a projector scrim come down on downstage after the end of the show bow to show a few minutes of a slideshow of the real people of Gander and the passengers, with their permission. It would show flashes of them during the week of the 9/11 attacks, the tenth anniversary, the interviews, and any time the passengers came back to visit Gander with underlying music from the musical playlist. I feel that it would heighten the effect of how real and amazing these people were.
Since human kindness is the root of Come From Away, I would put this show on for free or at very affordable prices with free nights. For this to happen, my plan is to start a GoFundMe or Kickstarter campaign as one of the first steps of the production. This could serve as an advertisement as well. Random strangers from all over the world or locals in the area who come across the page could read the story of Gander and hear some of the pieces of music from Come From Away on the campaign pages and donate as much money as they want to put the show on in their local theater. The people will be the producers. The donors are guaranteed to get free tickets to come see the show. As this relies so much on human kindness, the quality of the show will reflect on that, but as long as the rights, wages, and labor is paid, the show will go on.