Free Admission | Registration Required

Door Opens at 3:15 P.M. | Show Begins at 3:30 P.M. (runtime: approx. 90 minutes)

Register

The Museum of Chinese in America is excited to present a staged reading of a new musical, Tomorrow, by the Sea, by Yunhye Park (book, lyrics), Alexander Ronneburg (music, book, lyrics), and Erika Ito (music). This poignant work revisits the tragic 2011 earthquake in Japan and explores the process of healing through cultural practices during Obon, a festival that honors the spirits of ancestors.

Worshiping ancestors and venerating the deceased are longstanding traditions in Chinese culture. Festivals such as the Qingming Festival and Ghost Festival (commonly known as Zhongyuan Festival) include rituals of veneration. This cultural practice is shared by many other Asian cultures. In Japan, the Festival of Obon, derived from Buddhism, is a custom for honoring the spirits of one’s ancestors and traditionally takes place in mid-August. It has been celebrated in Japan and by the Japanese diaspora for over 500 years.

Tomorrow, by the Sea is set during the festival of Obon, seven years after the devastating 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The musical follows train officers who care for the suspended train stations following the nuclear disaster. The officer Semi, who lost his girlfriend in the tragedy, is still processing his loss. During the preparations for Obon, a mysterious guest arrives at the station, unexpectedly entering his life.

ABOUT Creative Team

Yunhye Park (book, lyrics)

Yunhye Park is a playwright/lyricist/dramaturg who was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea and resides in New York City. Her original musical Tomorrow, by the Sea received the 2024 Kennedy Center Musical Theatre Award, second place for the 2024 Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award, 2024 Pipeline Arts Organization Award, the 2024 Chay Yew Seed Grants for Immigrant Artists, was a finalist for the 2023 Live & in Color Musical Theatre Development Program, and semi-finalist for 2023/24 AMTP. She also won the Arts Council Korea Script Contest for Submissions in 2019 and 2024, received the 21st New Play Festival Prize, and Glocal Musical Live Fellowship in Korea.

She has written numerous works for the stage, including Woyzeck in the Dark, Blue-gray Night, and La Resistenza. Her works have been developed at Arts Council Korea, Korea Creative Content Agency, CJ Cultural Foundation, and Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture. She holds a BA in Theatre Studies and a MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from Korea National University of Arts and an MFA in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program from NYU Tisch. www.yunhyepark.com

Alexander Ronneburg (music, book, lyrics)

Alexander Ronneburg is a composer/lyricist/bookwriter, music director, and singer. His original musical Tomorrow, by the Sea won the Kennedy Center Musical Theatre Award, was a finalist for Live & in Color in 2023, and semifinalist for the 2024 Pipeline Awards and the 2023/2024 American Music Theatre Project. His original podcast musical SS Splendor won the 2020 Alsop Entrepreneurship Award. He has worked on musicals including Hamilton (Philip Tour), Come From Away, and How to Dance in Ohio. His original songs have been performed at The African Grove Theatre, The Cutting Room, The Bangkok Theatre Festival, National Sawdust, Jalopy Theatre, The Glassbox Theater at Mannes, and Dinkelspiel Auditorium at Stanford University. Alexander graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Music in 2017, from The New School with an M.A. in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship in 2020, and from NYU with an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing in 2024. www.alexanderronneburg.com

Erika Ito (music)

Erika Ito is a Japanese composer, orchestrator, and lyricist. When she was a child, she watched the Disney film Beauty and the Beast and was deeply amazed by the music of Alan Menken. She self-taught herself to play piano, and started composing songs. Erika studied film scoring at Berklee College of Music in Boston and received a bachelor’s degree and the Michael Kamen Award for her film-scoring works. After graduation, she worked as a composer, orchestrator, and pianist for various musical theater and film productions in New York. Erika relocated to the Netherlands and attended a master’s degree program in composition at Amsterdam Conservatory. She also traveled around the world on cruise ships where she served as an interpreter and music director. Her career expands from video games, films, TV shows, and commercials to musical theater. Her credits include the PS4 video game “Let It Die” which surpassed 7 million downloads worldwide, and the 15-minute musical “Mother Russia” which premiered in Hollywood in 2022. Find out more at www.erikaito.com