Alice Lipowicz

We did it! We recorded the 90-minute staged reading at the Blue House Soundstage Production Studio in Kensington, MD on March 28. We will be releasing the highlights video very soon. We are very grateful to our talented cast of singers, actors and musicians who made this musical come alive, and also grateful to the local theater professionals who attended and who have expressed interest in the project.
CAST LIST (In alphabetical order):
MARK CARUSO (TRINA’S TAVERN MANAGER, OLDER MAN, ADDITIONAL ROLES) Mark is an experienced public speaker and an accomplished jazz guitar player who also has done some composing.
CHANDRA CHAR (ANNA): Chandra is a native Californian based in Washington, DC. She brings creativity and whimsy into all aspects of her life. Recently featured in a dramatic reading of Steel Magnolias, she joins the cast of These Drums Can See. A former professional dancer and jazz/blues singer, she is trained in short- and long-form improv and performs with an indie team.
IAN DYLAN (DRUMS): Ian regularly plays in several rock bands and at jazz jams in Washington, DC. His experiences of living with congenital blindness were an inspiration for the writing of These Drums Can See.
TAUNYA FERGUSON (RITA, DEVIN’S MOM, EDITOR, VAN DRIVER): As a singer and actor, Taunya has performing with many local theater companies, including Ally Theater, Theatre Lab and St. Mark's Players. She has trained at the Washington Improv Theater's Musical Improv Conservatory and performed for many years with the Door #3 musical theater improv team.
PATRICK HSIEH (MARIO): A singer and actor, Patrick recently performed in the Rockville Musical Theatre production of the musical Urinetown, which has been nominated for 14 WATCH community theater awards.
CARLIC HUYNH (DEVIN’S FATHER, TIM THE MANAGER): Carlic is a very popular actor, singer and improviser who has been featured in numerous productions by the Washington Improv Theater. He also performs on independent improv teams and does standup comedy.
Soli Jacobson (MAUDE): Soli is a singer and actor who studied vocal performance at Washington, DC’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts. She is training in opera singing at the University of Maryland.
ALICE LIPOWICZ (BOOK WRITER, LYRICIST, COMPOSER, NARRATOR): A former dancer, Alice was a professional journalist for many years while performing comedy improv and musical improv as a hobby. She also has trained as a vocalist and pianist. She started writing musicals 12 years ago and These Drums Can See is her fourth musical.
TYRUS (TY) MATABAN (DEVIN THE BLIND DRUMMER): A music director, pianist, actor and singer, Ty recently was the music director for a musical theater production of Legally Blonde.
PAUL ROSENBERG (PIANIST, COMPOSER): Paul is an innovative jazz piano player and composer who has performed in the DC area for many years and has been a leader in the Takoma Station Jazz Jam for more than 10 years. He wrote the music for many of the songs in These Drums Can See.

CALL FOR ACTOR FOR STAGED READING on March 28
DC and Maryland Metro Red Line area
All roles cast except for one non-singing Male Actor

The project is a staged reading of a new original musical, These Drums Can See: A Blind Drummer Trying to Find His Grooce. It is a 90-minute musical about a blind drummer, inspired by our friend Ian Dylan who is a congenitally blind drummer regularly seen at DC jazz jams. He has served as a longtime paid consultant on the project and also will be involved in the performance. I wrote the book, lyrics and several songs, and my collaborator Paul Rosenberg wrote most of the beautiful compositions. Paul is a jazz piano player and composer who plays with the La Dolce Meter jazz ensemble, the Se Casa band and at the Takoma Station Jazz Jam..

The story is about Devin facing additional challenges when his Mom, who has been his helpmate for years, has to leave town for a few months to assist her mother. Devin tries hard to advance his drumming career and finally gets a lucky break, but there are still some big obstacles to overcome.

The main character and several other roles have been cast.
A little about me: I was a full-time journalist for many years and started doing comedy improv for fun about 20 years ago. I branched into musical improv and fell in love with it but was frustrated with its impermanent nature, so I started writing musicals 10 years ago and now it's my full-time project. I have written four musicals so far: two full-length and two that are 60 minutes each. In 2017 I produced and performed in my original musical about my episode of vision loss due to a virus-- My Beautiful Darkened World--at Highwood Theater (now closed) in Silver Spring, MD. We had a full house for three shows.
If you or someone you know might be interested, please send me a Direct Message on Facebook. If you are a videographer, musical producer or want to get involved in some other way please also get in touch.

This is the article that filled the theater--nearly sold out--for three performances of my original musical, My Beautiful Darkened World, in Maryland in 2017. My technique for boosting publicity at that time was liberal use of Twitter (now called X). I also distributed postcards. I got lucky when a Washington Post reporter got interested in the show and wrote this article.

After shingles painfully infected her eye, she wrote a musical about it Recovering for months in a darkened room, she finds inspiration and humor in her illness.

UPDATE: Hi, everyone, and happy spring! Here's an update on my latest projects.
Here are more details about the recent play I wrote. It's a comedy about a city couple moving to the country and interacting with their rural neighbors. It's about 30 minutes long with four actors (two couples). It's called New Neighbors. I'm still working on the illustration for it.
With theater production expenses going up dramatically, especially for musicals, it seems like a good idea to continue trying out playwrighting or perhaps write shorter musical skits.
Also working on my piano playing and may pick up the bass again to better accompany myself on my songs.
If you have contacts at a community theater that might be interested in New Neighbors (or any of my musicals for that matter) please get in touch!