Dani Girl: A musical for the soul

MANILA, Philippines – The newest performing arts collective in Manila, The Sandbox Collective, presents Dani Girl – a musical about the battle against cancer. Through the eyes of child, the musical asks important questions about God, family and the brutalities of disease. 

G Töngi reports.

There’s a new musical in town, one that’s told from a young girl’s perspective that questions, why cancer?
Nine-year old, Dani Girl is battling leukemia. But instead of giving up, she goes on a fantastical journey to find her hair!
Dani Girl is an off Broadway musical with book and lyrics by Christopher Dimond and music by Michael Kooman.
Director Toff De Venecia tells us about the The Sandbox collective, the newest theater company in town and why it’s doing Dani Girl.

TOFF DE VENECIA, DIRECTOR: Well the thrust of the sandbox collective is to procure and develop new groundbreaking and cutting edge theatrical work. What does that mean? It’s doing materials that producers would be afraid of, or reimagining existing material and using different modes of production to just give the audiences a new kind of theatrical experience. So that’s the sandbox collective. I notice now that there’s a lot of catering to audiences that’s been going on, and if you cater or spoon-feed, then what exactly are you adding to the conversation? If you replicate then how are you progressing not just as a community but also as a nation. So it’s these things we took into consideration. And the music’s beautiful.

Theater Actor Reb Atadero who plays fourteen characters in the musical says the story strikes a chord in modern society. To him, Dani Girl is very personal.

REB ATADERO, THEATER ACTOR: You know this hits very close to home because I lost my grandmother to cancer, uh that was 13 years ago.  That Dani being naive is actually what drives it, even, you know, further home. You know that when a child is experiencing this, how does she deal with it? You know instead of thinking, “Oh my God I’m gonna die. Oh my God.” No. She’s looking for her hair. Because to a child, the first impulse is always, “Oh no I’m not gonna get to play anymore”, instead of you know, to an adult it’s “Oh I’m gonna die.” it’s very very different.

The musical explores universally salient themes such as life in the face of death and the power of a child’s imagination.
It’s Dani Girl’s positive perspective that will leave audiences with an uplifting experience at the theater.
Dani Girl- A musical good for the soul!
G Töngi, Rappler Manila. – Rappler.com