A meeting of the creative minds will christen the brand new Voxel stage this week as playwright Lola B. Pierson and local avante-garde rockers Horse Lords premiere their joint venture, The First Thing That Happens, on Feb. 13.

The new experimental opera, from local theater company The Acme Corporation, is an exploration of the human experience that finds a series of actors struggling to make their ideas come across and come to life. It’s a meditation on “the construction of the piece itself and about what we as humans and artists give up to communicate with other people,” says Pierson, who wrote and directed the piece.

The idea was born from an earlier collaboration with Horse Lords’ Andrew Bernstein, who worked with Pierson on Azimuth for Baltimore Rock Opera Society in 2015.

“We both had a really good experience working together,” Pierson says. “I’m a pretty big fan of their work, and Acme does a fair amount of work with music. So I approached Horse Lords about a year ago about maybe doing another thing together, and they for some reason said yes.”

The partnership highlights the avant-garde sensibilities of both groups, and the creative process has allowed them to experiment with what exactly “opera” means.

“I’m not sure if classic opera people would call it that, but we’re calling it that,” Pierson says. She and Horse Lords have been working together since last summer in a back-and-forth process, adding and changing elements in a sort of ongoing conversation as they crafted the piece.

“They’re very flexible and adaptable people, and they’re a highly collaborative band,” Pierson says. “Day to day they embodied a thing that I think theater is all about, which is reacting to the thing that’s actually happening in the room. They said something in one of our first meetings where they were like, ‘We kind of think of our work as tricking people into dancing to avant-garde music. And I was like, ‘Oh, I think of my work as tricking people into feeling to avant-garde theater.’ We’re good teammates.”

The results of this team effort will be performed in seven acts on the newly minted Voxel stage from Feb. 13-March 1. It’s the first performance at the Old Goucher performance space (and former home of The Autograph), which is owned by local software company Figure 53. While its daytime mission is to be an education and exploratory resource for the community, by night it’s on offer as a DIY theater space for rotating resident artists. Pierson, who works part time with Figure 53, was selected to be the first artist to use the new black box theater to stage The First Thing That Happens.

The venue offers a flexible new space for performers, who can reconfigure the 70-100 seats as needed and have access to in-house professional lighting and audio equipment.

“Right now it looks like a big empty box that’s available to do whatever you want, which to me as an artist is the most exciting thing in the world,” Pierson says. “I think it really has the potential to be an incredible asset to the Baltimore performance community as a whole. The support and the artists’ community we have here feels unique, and it feels like there’s this really special moment going on.”

Wicked, the musical tale from Oz that L. Frank Baum didn’t tell, returns to the Hippodrome this week, and with it a colorful, magical cast of characters. At its center are two good friends—two best friends—the verdant Elphaba, destined to become the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, the popular girl with a bubblegum personality who would eventually float down in her bubble to guide Dorothy to the Emerald City.

Before that bubble descends on Eutaw Street for the show’s month-long run, we caught up with Glinda actress Allison Bailey to chat about why people still want to travel to Oz and what it’s like to have a dream come true.

You’ve been on tour with Wicked for quite a while now. How has it been?
I have! I understudied [as Glinda] for over three years, and I was only home for like six weeks and then got the call that I was coming back to lead the tour. So I’ve been leading the tour for about five months now. We’re definitely in the middle of our run, and we’re so excited.

What are you looking forward to as you bring the show to Baltimore?
I’m really excited to see the little local things that make Baltimore tick. I’m hoping to visit the aquarium and the little coffee shops, and I have heard the crabs are very good. I’m very excited about that. I’m just so excited just to come to Baltimore. It’s a dream, and I’ve never been, so I’m just looking forward to being able to be there for a month.

Having understudied as her for so long and now leading the tour as Glinda, can you tell us a little about what it’s like to get to share this character with so many different audiences?
I mean, honestly, it’s a dream. The role is so iconic. I’ve dreamed about playing this role since the musical came out when I was 12 years old and I saw it at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City. It’s nothing short of a dream, just because I think this is a character that so many little girls look up to. It’s an honor to be able to play that every night.

Glinda really goes through such a journey in the two and a half hours that we see her. She goes from being such a shallow, surface-level college girl, and then we see the hard lessons that are learned throughout. And I think she has such a strong character arch that makes it so interesting to play every night eight times a week. It’s funny, because we see the Wicked Witch, and we see that she’s perceived differently than how we really see her in the movie. And so they almost discount Glinda because it seems like she has such a happy facade. But when we see her throughout the show, she really goes through so many different changes.

Do you have a favorite number in the show?
I love “Popular.” I love my pink fluffy dress, and it’s the first time that you see the friendship between the two girls and really see them bond. You hear an audience reaction every single night, and it changes from night to night. It just makes it so much fun.

Why do you think this show persists and continues to be so popular?
I think it has so many messages that resonate with the age group from 8 to 80. I think people find themselves in the characters and identify with them on stage. We see bullying and not judging a book by its cover, and I think everybody can find themselves in one part of the story.

There’s so much heart to it. There’s so much spectacle with magic and flying and the bubble, but there’s so much heart at its core. I really can’t wait to bring that joy to every single person who comes to see the show.

There’s a particular brand of close-up magic happening on stage at Everyman Theatre’s new production of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, the story of famed detective Hercule Poirot and the mysterious death of one of the train’s wealthy passengers en route from Istanbul, on stage now through January 5.

It’s not uncommon in a show with as many twists and turns as this one to have a few sleight of hand tricks here or there, but the design team at Everyman has created something of a puzzle box out of the stage itself. What look to be solid walls are suddenly transparent with a change of the lights. Scenery flashes by on false windows, and sliding pieces of a club car, or compartment, or hallway in the Art Deco train move smoothly on their own tracks to reveal more and more surprises.

The stage, like Christie’s iconic whodunit, is layered with secrets. Though the puzzle itself is the work of Everyman’s resident set designer, Daniel Ettinger, it’s those in the backstage shop who are tasked with putting it all together.

Just a little more than 24 hours before opening night, the theater was buzzing as the final few feet of a half mile-worth of brass trim adorning the historic train were laid. We dodged gold paint in the halls and stumbled upon more than one unfortunate train passenger (what’s a murder mystery without a corpse?) on our way to the back, where Scene Shop Foreman Trevor Wilhelms and his team have been essentially hiding a train on an upstairs ledge for the past few weeks.

“There’s a total, including a chandelier, of about 20 large moving pieces of scenery. It’s wild,” Wilhelms says. “Our projection designer, in collaboration with our set designer, has just built incredible things. There are moments where you’ll really feel yourself moving along with the set. That kind of interplay between some more digital based work and practical effects and gags is what really sells so much of this show and just takes it into a whole different world.”

Like the crime in question, it all happens right under the audience’s nose. The first few rows are practically on the train themselves, with just feet separating them from the first glimpse at the Orient Express’ opulent compartments. It’s a tight space, but the challenge helps lend itself to the thrills that come with being trapped on that fateful train in the snow.

“So much of the aesthetic quality of not just thrillers, but the Art Deco sort of era, is angles and sharp lines and everything else, so we’re obviously taking advantage of every square inch to get as many dramatic shots as possible,” Wilhelms says. “We use a lot of our digital work to create a lot more depth than it feels like when you’re standing here. When you’re out and you’re looking through a window at mountain, snowy hills and everything a ways away, it really does just stretch.”

It’s all part of creating an atmosphere to match a story most people first read in high school, while still offering a few twists along the way.

The experience extends out of the theater, as well. Director of Patron Experience Corey Frier-Ritsch is responsible for the rotating cast of specialty drinks at Vinny’s Bar in the lobby. This show’s cocktail list, his tenth, is inspired by Christie’s famous characters and the time and places from which they’re pulled.

“I love the history, and I I look at some of the dramaturgy and sit in for first read and try to look for key points or things that could possibly be the names,” he says. “My liquor distributors also get really involved in it…they get really inspired.”

Prohibition-era flavors such as gin and elderflower are highlighted in the “Poire de Poirot,” and a spicy, creamy, Turkish coffee-inspired creation aptly named the “Istanbul Not Constantinople” feels right for the holidays while avoiding a straight-up eggnog sweetness. A twist on an Aviation inspired by the opening curtain’s travel stickers, the “Hotel Excelsior” features the requisite crème de violette but swaps Ketel One for gin and and a blueberry garnish. And in a nod to the bourbon-sipping American actress on the train, “Death at Mrs. Hubbard’s Door” blends Redemption with vermouth, Hum liqueur, hibiscus, and pomegranate for a drink that packs a punch.

“I’ve only been here for a year, but last year’s holiday show, [The Importance of Being] Earnest, was the biggest hit for the bar, as well,” says Frier-Ritsch. “And I predict the same thing happening if it’s anything like the last two previews that we’ve had. I’m pretty excited about the families coming in, just all of the energy around the holiday show. This show is visually stunning…It’s unbelievable. It’s beautiful. It’s sexy. I’m excited to see it all together.”

Thousands of middle and high school groups apply to perform at The Educational Theatre Association’s International Thespian Festival each year, but only a handful are chosen. This year, Owings Mills’ Jemicy School is one of those groups. The troupe’s hard work and passion earned them the opportunity to perform their student-run musical, Peter and the Starcatcher, at the festival this June in Lincoln, Nebraska, where they will also attend a week-long educational theater workshop.

The theatre program at Jemicy School, which teaches students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences, has inspired students to immerse themselves in the arts, whether it be in tech crew or on stage. “We go to great lengths to showcase our students, their talents, and what’s possible for any student who is willing to commit themselves to personal or artistic excellence,” says Sean Elias, theatre director at Jemicy. “At the time I was brought on, the theatre department hadn’t existed before, so an abundance of creative opportunity existed here . . . the opportunity to craft and build a curriculum, alongside an extracurricular theatrical season, in tandem with instilling new cultural practices were things I never thought I’d have the chance to do.”

Since Elias’ arrival, the program has thrived and inspired students to pursue theatre both at Jemicy and beyond. But running the department is not without its challenges. Elias says that many of his students entered the program with negative academic and social experiences at previous schools. Working on productions in class and on stage has proven to be a useful learning tool. Peter and the Starcatcher, for example, is part of the school’s season of fairy tale adaptations, which Elias says have enabled the students to engage with literature and celebrate “both their artistic creativity and accomplishments and their unique personal journeys towards adulthood.”

“To see these kids transform into newfound expressive and passionate versions of themselves, doing some of their best work in class and on stage, and then celebrated for these achievements has been one of the most profoundly meaningful experiences of my life,” Elias says.

Junior Gracie Stilling was bullied in middle school before joining the theater program during her freshman year at Jemicy. In it, she found a more welcoming place to learn and grow. “In middle school I was never accepted,” she says. “Then I came into high school and found theater, which is now my foster family that I never had as a kid but always wanted.”

Despite the long hours, theater has helped Jemicy students in other areas of their lives outside an academic environment. “It’s made me more confident in my own skin, it’s helped me find friends, learn a lot about myself, and about others,” says junior Andrew Spriggs, who plays Black Stache in Peter. “It’s taught me a lot about humility and what it takes to be a true, authentic, real person, to live in your own skin and be proud of yourself.”

And the accolades don’t hurt, either. When Peter and the Starcatcher was recognized by the Educational Theatre Association, the cast and crew were awestruck. “I was on vacation when I found out,” says senior Chloë Wendler, who plays Molly in the production. “I read through my text messages, and they all said ‘Congratulations! I can’t believe we’re going to Nebraska!’ I was just in shock, I still can’t believe it’s true even now.” Sophomore Ethan Lifson-Book, who stars as Peter, says “It’s incredible knowing that you tried for months and studied your lines for hours. Hearing those words is a feeling you can’t describe.”

In 2017, Jemicy was invited to attend the International Thespian Festival through the Send a Troupe to Festival grant. In 2019, they are returning based on the strength of their performance, making them the first Maryland school in nearly two decades to perform on the main stage at the event.

The group’s first appearance at the festival emboldened the students to take Jemicy’s theatre program to the next level. “The first year, I remember Jemicy going to nationals we were 11 or 12 kids, just this tiny little Maryland troupe that nobody knew about,” says Spriggs. “We were just there to have a good time and to learn, and what a lot of us took away from it was that high school theatre was no joke. There is this professional standard that these schools hold themselves to.”

All the performers and tech crew members who auditioned or interviewed at the 2017 and 2018 festivals received multiple college callbacks. And, while not all the performers are headed off to college just yet, many of them share an earnestness for a future in theater.

“As a school of need, rather than of choice, It was a deeply meaningful moment in our school’s history to be given the chance to attend the [festival],” says Elias. “To be invited to return, based not just on need or opportunity, but now on merit and accomplishment is yet again another historic milestone in both the school’s history and that of these kids.”