No man is an island

 I just couldn’t stay away huh? To be honest, when I wrote my last emotional post, I was planning to close this blog, or at the very least leave it empty for a few months, so that my return could feel earned. Unfortunately, it apepars that all the things I said about this blog being my escape from the stress of school life were in fact, the truth. Shocking, I know, but apparently I’m not a conniving mastermind lying about the emotional impact my CAS project had on me, instead I am a nerd who derives great joy in yapping about her life on a blog nobody is reading.

In fact, as I spend my days poring over textbooks, and spend my nights stressing over meeting my conditionals, I began feeling quite homesick for this blog, which is why I'm back to tell you about a musical that has been on my mind recently, Come From Away. 

Keen eyed readers will notice that I took a line from this very show in my last post as an emotional ending, and it was also my yearbook quote. However, as I wanted the emotional impact to be felt, I didn't get the chance to explain what the show was, or what the context of that line was.  

Come From Away is a show about the immediate aftermath of 9/11. And yes, I am aware that this is my second post about musical lore relating to 9/11. Despite what you might think, the show is not set in New York, or even in the US. It's set in a small town in Newfoundland called Gander. This town becomes relevant to the tragedy when 38 planes, carrying approximately 7,000 passengers, were ordered to land unexpectedly at Gander International Airport, after the 9/11 tragedy cause the US airspace to shut immediately. The musical, with book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, is a true story, where characters resemble actual figures stuck in this tiny town. 

The narrative hops between the stress of the townsfolk, desperately trying to arrange for the sudden number of guests, and the people on the planes, who are confused and terrified. Fun history lesson, Gander used to have a lot of people stop by, as old planes that couldn't carry as much fuel were forced to stop over and refuel. However, once jet planes advanced, Gander's huge airport became quite useless. Until of course, the towns population basically doubles in size on the fateful day of September 11th 2001. 

As I'm sure you can already imagine, the show is quite emotional. With moving moments of people trying to locate their loved ones, to relationships building and breaking under the emotional stress of a complete lack of information on whatever is going on, Come From Away manages to create full emotional arcs with very few actors. That's right folks, this entire show is carried out with a cast of 12, where every single actor, regardless of the size of their role, have to play multiple different characters. This multicasting doesn't take away from the show, instead it adds to it, building on to that feeling of being in a small town filled with familiar faces, where everyone knows everyone. 

Ultimately, although the backdrop of tragedy is inseparable from the story, the story is not a tragic one. Yes, there are sad moments and loss of life, but the story also reminds us of hope, and how a small town was able to lend a hand in a desperate time of need. It's a reminder that no matter who or where we are, when in crisis, humanity can take over. Dealing with difficult themes like sexism, and the rampant islamophobia and racism that were no doubt worsened by 9/11, Come From Away crafts a narrative that reminds us that we are all human. 

That is why I chose it as my yearbook quote, not to sound inspirational or to hyphenate my 12 tragic years with an equally tragic event, but to say that my school has given me something wonderful, a community. A community where, even if we didn't always get along, we fundamentally understood each other and rooted for each other no matter what. That is the lesson I chose to take away from this show, but the wonderful thing is that you can take away any lesson you want now, given the musical was recorded in it's entirety and placed on Apple TV (YES I KNOW I KNOW NOT THAT DREADED STREAMING SERVICE).