Get to know the writer and producer of “Anahid: An Armenian Musical”

“Anahid: An Armenian Musical" is a new musical written by Gabriel Elizabeth Kadian (book, music, lyrics) and Stephanie Wu (music), and produced by Travis Murad Leland. The musical is an adaptation of the novel “Anahid Played Soorp: The Finding of Aran Pirian” by Mark Kadian, Kadian’s dad, which is based on their family’s story of escaping the Armenian Genocide and relocating to the U.S. “Anahid” was selected as a finalist for the Live Arts 2024 Waterworks Festival and was included as a Featured Musical in MTEA (Musical Theatre Educators' Alliance)’s 2024 New Works Collaboration Catalog. In September, “Anahid” received a private industry presentation in New York City, where a cut-down concert version of the musical was performed for an audience. The Weekly caught up with Kadian and Leland after the industry presentation to discuss the origins of the “Anahid” story, their hopes for the musical and why they may be looking for an animator. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Rosie Nisanyan (R.N.): What is your favorite show on- or off-Broadway right now? Travis Murad Leland (T.M.L.): My favorite musical is “Chess,” which is on Broadway now. I had dinner last night with a friend who's in the show — I was telling her, “I've loved that show for 20-something years and was minorly-obsessed with it in college and high school,” so I’m excited to see it! Gabriel Kadian (G.K.): I haven't seen “The Queen of Versailles” yet, but I’m biased because Travis is in [the musical] on Broadway right now! And then, “Meet the Cartozians,” which I haven't seen yet, but have tickets to see in a couple of weeks. I was astounded when I saw that that was happening at Second Stage. And I believe you did an interview with the playwright, right? I'm very excited about that show and can't wait to see it! R.N.: Where did the story for "Anahid: An Armenian Musical" come from? G.K.: As a kid, I listened to all my relatives tell the story of my great-grandmother's exodus from the Ottoman Empire to New York and then to Detroit. I was a history nerd, so I was insatiable and always wanted to hear more; this story was so epic, cinematic and awe-inspiring. I couldn't believe that people could get through that and come out the other side still so optimistic and full of life. [That] is exactly how my great-grandmother was described to me — always a smile on her face, always excited for the day. The need to tell this story has always been in me, if only to friends and people who don't know about this history. Literally, the night before I moved to New York City, my dad gathered all my sisters together and gave us this novel about her life that he’d been writing in secret for the last 10 years. I saw his name on the cover, and I remember it wasn't registering that he was an author. I was very inspired and went off to New York, where I started taking all the requisite acting classes and playwriting courses. I've always been a reader and a writer. I started thinking, “I would be really passionate about doing an adaptation of this novel.” So basically, the story came from my great-grandmother and my dad, who crafted her story. “Anahid Played Soorp: The Finding of Aran Pirian” is his novel, a fictional story that is closely based on my great-grandmother Grace's story. R.N.: I can't believe he was writing it in secret! G.K.: Yeah, it was a big surprise. It's very much like him, though, under the radar. But he was always similarly passionate about telling that family story. So it came as a surprise, but not a surprise at the same time. It's so meaningful and I think about it all the time — the resilience and grit required to survive something like that. We're all very jointly inspired by Grace. R.N.: How did you two meet and start bringing this show to life? G.K.: I identified at some point that I had no producing knowledge. I needed someone who loved that part of the process and could be the engine behind making this happen. I had been working on the show for a decade and I was extremely eager to get it in front of an audience, but I didn't know how. And so, I started doing some blind reach-outs. I found Travis in a press release for another reading happening in the city, so I just emailed him about the show. Unbeknownst to me, Travis had been in a play related to Armenian history in LA, so we connected pretty instantly over the subject matter. I could tell that Travis was the right person because he was so passionate about producing. At the time, it wasn’t a skill set that I had or something I was super interested in, but over time of working together, it has become exciting and fun to me. Travis, what was your side of the story? T.M.L.: Yeah, it was a total blind reach out. I think you emailed me through my website like, “Hey, I've got this piece. It's about Armenian history. Would you like to meet and maybe talk about working together on it?” We had coffee and I heard a little bit about the show. I think you had sent it to me, so maybe I read it before we first met and I was already vibing with it. The piece Gabriel was talking about is a play called “Beast on the Moon,” which was first staged in the ‘90s and premiered off Broadway in the early 2000s. Richard Kalinoski is the playwright — he lives in Wisconsin. I did the production in LA, which was the second or third time it had been done there — it was really well received. Richard came to see it, and we became friends and have stayed in touch. I myself am not Armenian, but I was cast as one of the Armenian characters in that play. Gabriel and I hit it off, already knowing we had that in common. She was familiar with “Beast on the Moon,” and it just worked out very nicely. I do love producing, so I was happy to brainstorm with her what this industry presentation was gonna look like. We went back and forth on what we're working towards at this point and landed on that iteration. R.N.: How did the industry presentation go? What's the next step in the development process? T.M.L.: We were both pleasantly surprised by how well that presentation went. There were a lot of people there. We filmed it because one of the most important aspects of walking away from a one-night-only presentation was having a digital footprint for something like this. Because this, in the life of a musical, is usually one of the first steps — doing an industry presentation, doing a first draft of something and seeing what the initial reception is. What are people drawn to? What is strong, what is not playing? So, what you saw was the first iteration of a decade of work, the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. We have yet to do a post-mortem because I went straight into rehearsals for “The Queen of Versailles” and I've had no days off. We're planning to figure out the game plan in the next couple of weeks. There are really a lot of ways we could go with this. Gabriel and I have some similar ideas and are also playing with them. For example, we have this great footage of the hour-long presentation. Watching it intact is great; you can see the whole arc of these characters, you can hear all of the songs and you can get a feel for what a full hour-and-a-half to two-hour-long version of this would be. Then, there's also a version where we take the “greatest hits” of this hour, put it into a 10-minute pitch video and use that to generate whatever we need for our next step, which is always going to be money. It's always going to be co-producers, and anyone else we can get on board to help us elevate this thing. And then, there's a version of this project — and I still might have to convince Gabriel a little bit about this — where the final version is an animated film in the style of “Prince of Egypt.” You take a giant subject like the Armenian Genocide and boil it down to this intimate story about this family with the Genocide in the background, and make it digestible for people of all ages, so that kids can grow up watching and learning this. That's kind of my big goal for this. If anyone reading this is an animator, please reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you! In terms of it living on stage, that's a very viable route, as well. It could definitely be an off-Broadway, a regional theater sort of thing. Broadway is very tricky, especially now that I have done my first Broadway show; it's a commercial machine. And a story like this isn't necessarily commercial theater, unfortunately. But that doesn't mean it couldn't survive, right? It's just a crazy ecosystem on Broadway. G.K.: A big passion of ours is to make sure that this is a piece that could be educational too, because I grew up having conversations with friends about history and the Genocide. And so few knew because it wasn’t even taught in schools, in many cases. I think it would be really great if we could enrich people's understanding of this part of history in whatever form it takes in the future. R.N.: The animated route is fascinating, especially given that the two main characters are children. Is that something you had in mind before the presentation, or did it develop from feedback you received? T.M.L.: The way that Gabriel wrote this piece lends itself to being a visual medium, instead of on stage. You can certainly do a lot of projections and things on stage, but the scenes are very short. We go from one place to the next to the next; we're in the desert, we're in the camp, we're in the jail. It's very visual. When I read it, I saw it visually; I saw it as a film. Also, most of my production experience is in filmmaking. I've made more films than theater, so maybe that’s my bias a little bit, but also, musical films are a rarity. You have the blockbusters like “Wicked,” “Chicago” and “Hairspray,” but you don't have these lesser-known pieces as often as you would like. R.N.: At the industry presentation, there were some scenes depicting the deportations of Armenians, and unfortunately, we’re seeing a similar thing play out in the U.S. today. Did the current climate impact your writing at all? G.K.: It's interesting you say that. It's a universally applicable human story about the resilience, grit and wisdom that comes from surviving things that are seemingly impossible. It's a story that needs to be told always and needs to be told in any age because it is not specific to just one people or one time in history. The story of the Armenian people parallels the story of any person, in that we all deal with difficulties and tragedies of different kinds. And so our consumption of stories like this is necessary because it gives us hope that there is good on the other side of what seems impenetrably dark. Certainly, current events fuel my desire to help people remember the importance of kindness, humility, grace, loyalty and gentleness. But even if this story were told 100 years from now, it would still be relevant. R.N.: Who or what are some of your musical inspirations, either personally or specifically, for "Anahid?" G.K.: For “Anahid,” we actually talked about this quite a lot. We talked about the “Prince of Egypt” a lot. We talked about “The Secret Garden” and some of the musical parallels in that style. We talked about “Anastasia,” actually. When we were writing some of the songs, that was a huge thing in the back of my mind — the music box, the memory, all those musical themes tied to this mystery and the foreboding quality of the music was really inspiring to me. Personal musical inspiration…probably my collaborator, Stephanie Wu, because she is a musical genius. T.M.L.: I absolutely echo everything she said. Those are things that we talked about when you're producing a show. You're trying to figure out where it belongs in the world of theater and what other shows can you compare it to? Where does this fit in the zeitgeist? Those are shows that I kept coming back to. The music in “Anahid” is very similar to a lot of those, but also very much sort of its own thing, which is exciting. Those shows have definitely been huge inspirations in my career, in terms of crafting and helping put it together into “Anahid.” R.N.: Do you have a favorite song in the musical so far? One of my favorites was “I Know,” which Aran sings after his mom passes — it was so moving. G.K.: Thank you. I love that song. I loved writing that song, too. I also love “Leaving Sivas” because it’s actually my family story in a song. And I really enjoyed performing it with Sophie [Nesanelis]. It was really quite moving to be singing with a child who would have been my great-grandmother's age when she was walking through the desert. I love those two, but it was a joy to write all of them. T.M.L.: I also really like “I Know.” I really like “Left and Right,” which is Aran's first solo. It's very early in the show, but it does a great job of setting up how different these songs are from traditional musical theater. Aran’s first song is really just a moment, but the music suspends it. It becomes a two-minute moment of Aran trying to analyze what's going on with his mother, what is wrong between his mom and dad and that something is wrong there. All Aran is doing is looking at her, watching her — he's analyzing what she's doing in his mind and trying to figure out what it means. It’s so unique and so different. Usually, at that point in a musical, you get the “I want” song — which is like why I'm going on this journey and what I'm doing right — whereas this is so stripped away and just about tapping into the emotion of these characters right off the bat and hooking us into what is going on with these people. R.N.: What is your writing process like? Do you start with the story/plot and then lyrics and then melody? G.K.: I was writing the book of the musical in parallel to reading the actual novel. I read it several times. The way that piece is structured is that there are many moments when Aran is totally in his head; he's just taking in the world and analyzing it — we're witnessing his thought processes. At first, it really was just a play. And then, as I was reading those passages when we're in Aran’s head, I realized that it was a musical in some ways because the thought processes lent themselves to poetic lyrics. It felt like poetry to me because it wasn't in reality, yet he's trying to make sense of it. He's trying to find beauty in his reality, even though there isn't very much around him. That's how it happened: it was just a straight adaptation of the most important points in the actual novel, then it became something completely different as I envisioned how those thought processes could be articulated in a compelling way. I didn't want us to have too many monologues; I didn't want too many direct addresses to the audience. As a storyteller, it can feel stale, lacking a certain sophistication and pizzazz. That's a hot take, but there are more compelling ways to articulate inner thoughts than straight-up direct addresses that go on for two and a half minutes. R.N.: How has the Armenian community supported you in the development of “Anahid?” G.K.: First of all, Travis's friend, Richard Kalinoski, who wrote “Beast on the Moon,” was our first supporter. Richard was amazing; he totally understood what we were doing and sent us a donation. And then, in the summer, I outreached to many Armenians through various Armenian professional organizations. I was so moved. People were sending us checks in the mail, sight unseen. They had never met us, but they felt moved by the story. We had an incredible meeting with one of our main supporters. He blew us away with his generosity and he's an Armenian, as well. My family was also hugely supportive of the show. R.N.: Do you have any advice for aspiring creators or performers? T.M.L.: Just make the damn thing. Don't sit on it, just make it and throw it out there because you're only going to figure it out once it's done and in front of people. Get people to help and call on your community because you can't do it without support. G.K.: Find the thing that you can't stop thinking about or the problem you can't figure out how to solve and write. Find something you want to articulate or a puzzle you want to solve and write something about it; share it. It's all about creating a dialogue. What is the dialogue that you want to be a part of? This is the dialogue I want to be a part of. I want to talk about my family's history forever, because it's profound and beautiful. So, this is just mine; everybody has their own. Do the self-reflection to figure out what is meaningful to you. R.N.: Any upcoming performances, either you personally or “Anahid?” T.M.L.: I’m making my Broadway debut in “The Queen of Versailles.” I’m a swing, which means I cover a bunch of tracks and if anyone calls out, then I am in the show. If not, I am standing by in the wings or in the dressing room or in the audience, watching and taking copious amounts of notes. It's a very different story from “Anahid,” but it’s also a result of what that history is from, right? In many ways, this show is about colonization and imperialism. That's the kind of stuff that fueled a lot of what happened to the Armenians, and then the Jewish people during the Holocaust and the Palestinians today, so in a lot of ways, it's very tied into the history of all of us as people. G.K.: We're entering audition season, so we're looking forward to future performances. I'm also working on what might be a song cycle for a future concert, so I’m writing and self-reflecting right now and just looking forward to what's to come. You can follow “Anahid: An Armenian Musical” on Instagram @AnahidMusical and contact Gabriel and Travis via email at anahidmusicalnyc@gmail.com. Tickets are available for “The Queen of Versailles,” now on Broadway!

Get to know the writer and producer of “Anahid: An Armenian Musical”

This story is FREE for you...

Rosie (Toumanian) Nisanyan

This story is FREE for you...

Rosie (Toumanian) Nisanyan

Related Articles

An Armenian-vampire connection running through our veins

Interview: The Naghash Ensemble on its 11-city U.S. tour

Lusine Shaboyan paints what words fail to express

Remembering Aygestan: An Artsakh actress’s story of loss and longing