Song: Out of Breath by Noah Mac

Submitted by a friend, Prava Punnamraju

Costume Designs by Victoria Pousada Kreindler

Cabaret is excited to present: [scream] the gallery project.

The Image:

For this month we are asking you to respond to the following image: [The Scream] is the popular name given to a composition created by Norwegian Expressionist artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The original German title given by Munch to his work was Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature), and the Norwegian title is Skrik (Shriek). The agonized face in the painting has become one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolizing the anxiety of the human condition. 

Hall of Mirrors

You look into the face of each silvery panel.

You smile at what you put there into the frame. 

You show them your faults and concerns.

You look to them them to fix yourself. 

You give them silly, scary, and flirty faces.

You lose yourself in them.

I'm mounted at the end of the hall, and my frame, you gilded with gold leaf. 

You whisper to me that I am your most prized possession.

But when you see me, you take a quick glance, and walk right by me.

An unchanged, neutral expression rests on your face.

You are accustomed to me.

You are comfortable with me. 

Because I'm not a mirror. 

I am a rich painting of bright colors and rough strokes.

I bear no other resemblance but my own. 

You praise this very fact, but while your time in your own reflections and musings.

But I still crave your gaze. 

- Aditya Ambole

The Crickets, the Owls, and Me

My mom always told me, "Never go to bed angry."
That task is easier said than done, I think

Because the only time the world opens its arms to catch my stress
Is when the night sky is as wide as a canyon
Littered with stars, tainted wishes of what could have been.

Because my anger dreads the burn of daylight,
The sun's rays a means of painful exposure.

Because anger is a pill I must swallow,
Waiting patiently and eagerly under my tongue to dissolve into my psyche
For no one else but the crickets, the owls and me.

- Carson Cummins

Neal's Second Panic Attack 

A monologue from a larger body of work

by Sander Mark 

The words “bright side”, flip a switch inside Neal’s head, he begins to have a panic attack. Suddenly time stops and the stage goes dark except for a single light on Neal. He monologues in his head but the audience sees it. 

NEAL

(Getting worked up)

Yeah, I’m sure of it too, because clearly being in agony for so long has brought me here for a reason. Like I’m not supposed to live like this, no one is. I’m always looking on the bright side that life won’t literally shit all over me and make me miserable. It’s clearly going to happen, one of these days. I won’t get so fucking worked up over complete and utter nonsense. But no… that doesn’t happen because some part of my brain decides hey let’s figure out when we can fuck over Neal and of course that’s the time that my brain goes haywire. It’s a rollercoaster, and I’m the only fucking rider. And of course, the thing is in hell. It’s great each and every day, a rollercoaster through hell. Who wouldn’t want to ride it? Yep, I’m just living life to the fullest, every panic attack, and terrifying thought at a time. I just wish something would work. I’m sick of this stupid cycle; every other minutes its fear and panic. I wish I could just live my life in peace!

The lights come back. Neal starts hyperventilating, his coworkers appear nervous for him