CONTACT
A Journey to the Heart of the Galaxy
Music by Peter Sipos
Lyrics by Amy Engelhardt
Book by Alan Bryce
An ambitious new musical inspired by Carl Sagan’s celebrated story of humanity’s first encounter with intelligence beyond Earth—and one woman’s journey between knowledge, faith and wonder.
World premiere: Centerstage Theatre, Federal Way, Washington — 2009
BEYOND THE STARS
Bringing Carl Sagan’s Universe to the Stage
World premiere: Centerstage Theatre, Federal Way, Washington — 2009
At the heart of Contact is scientist Ellie Arroway and her lifelong search for intelligence beyond Earth. From a childhood fascination with radio and the stars, Ellie grows into a brilliant astronomer whose perseverance is finally rewarded when an unmistakably artificial signal reaches Earth from the distant star Vega.
Hidden within the signal are instructions for an extraordinary machine. Nobody knows precisely what it will do—or whether humanity can trust the intelligence that sent it. When the machine is finally constructed, Ellie and her fellow travellers embark upon a journey beyond the limits of ordinary human experience.
Ellie’s encounter among the stars transforms her understanding of life, loss and humanity’s place in the universe. Yet when she returns, apparently without having gone anywhere at all, she finds herself unable to prove what she has experienced.
The musical drew upon the breadth of Carl Sagan’s original novel, exploring the relationship between science and faith, the human need for evidence—and those profound experiences that cannot easily be measured or explained.
A SIGNAL ACROSS THREE CITIES
The journey towards a musical version of Contact began in 2007, when director and producer Alan Bryce approached Peter Sipos with the idea of adapting Carl Sagan’s story for the stage.
Peter’s answer was immediate. The 1997 film starring Jodie Foster was already one of his favourites, and he felt a natural affinity with its combination of science fiction, human emotion and philosophical enquiry.
Lyricist Amy Engelhardt joined the project, beginning a creative partnership with Peter that would stretch across thousands of miles. Their first telephone conversation lasted almost two hours, moving from music and theatre to family, philosophy and the fundamental question facing them:
Could Contact genuinely work as a musical?
After exchanging examples of their work, Peter was particularly impressed by Amy’s instinctive understanding of how words and music must support one another. A musician herself, she could shape lyrics that felt completely at home within his melodies.
The collaboration was unusually international for its time. Alan worked in Seattle, Amy lived in Los Angeles and Peter composed in Montreal. Ideas, scripts and recordings travelled between them by telephone, email and Skype, supplemented by periods when Amy visited Peter’s Montreal studio so that they could work together in person.
The first number they created found humour in the long hours endured by scientists at the Very Large Array as they waited for a sign of intelligent life. From there, the score gradually expanded to encompass Ellie’s childhood, the discovery of the signal, humanity’s reaction and her extraordinary journey across the universe.
Peter devoted so much of 2008 to writing and recording the musical that he would later remember it simply as:
“The year of Contact.”
MEETING ANN DRUYAN
As the musical developed, Peter and Amy travelled to the home of Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan’s widow and long-time creative collaborator.
Druyan’s connection with Contact extended back to its earliest origins. She and Sagan had first developed the idea as a film treatment before Sagan transformed it into the novel published in 1985. She therefore understood both the story and the thinking behind it with unique authority.
Peter and Amy presented the developing musical to her, playing the complete recorded score while she followed the script.
Peter remembers that when they reached the title song in the second act, Druyan put down the script with tears in her eyes. She responded warmly to the way the writers had translated Sagan’s ideas into music and offered her help in ensuring that the production remained faithful to his scientific outlook and humanity.
“I really believe your Contact has a place on Broadway and all around the planet.”
— Ann Druyan
Her enthusiasm was an important affirmation for the creative team. This was not merely an attempt to place a familiar story on stage, but an opportunity to express through musical theatre the sense of curiosity, compassion and wonder at the centre of Carl Sagan’s work.
BRINGING THE UNIVERSE TO THE STAGE
Carl Sagan’s Contact received its world premiere at Centerstage Theatre in Federal Way, Washington, opening on 25 September 2009.
Creating locations that extended from radio observatories and government chambers to an immense machine and the depths of interstellar space presented a considerable challenge. Rather than attempting to construct every setting physically, the production used computer-generated rear projections to create a constantly changing visual world.
Star fields, planets and vast cosmic landscapes allowed the intimate theatre to suggest the enormous scale of Ellie’s journey. The technology provided a natural setting for a musical concerned with both the immensity of the universe and the deeply personal experience of one human being within it.
World-premiere production
Centerstage Theatre, Federal Way, Washington
25 September–18 October 2009
Music: Peter Sipos
Lyrics: Amy Engelhardt
Book and direction: Alan Bryce
Ellie Arroway: Caitlin Frances
Visual design and projections: Riley Dickens
OPENING NIGHT
On 25 September 2009, Peter and Amy sat together in the back row of Centerstage Theatre. Both carried notebooks, ready to record what worked—and what might still need to change—as the lights dimmed and the overture began.
The final route to opening night had not been easy, but the first performance exceeded their expectations. Before an audience that included journalists, local dignitaries and fellow theatre-makers, the music they had spent nearly two years writing and recording finally became a living theatrical production.
Among those present was Martin Charnin, Peter’s collaborator on Jeanne La Pucelle and Robin Hood. His presence connected this new musical with the creative journey Peter had already travelled in North American theatre.
For Peter, the evening held a particular personal significance. The young bass guitarist who had begun his musical life in Budapest had now watched a fourth original musical brought to the stage before an American audience.
WHEN THE SIGNAL FELL SILENT
The world premiere demonstrated both the promise of Contact and the scale of the challenge involved in adapting Carl Sagan’s story.
Following the Federal Way production, Peter Sipos and Amy Engelhardt hoped to continue developing the musical. Like most new works, it had evolved considerably during rehearsals and performances, and both writers recognised areas that could be strengthened before pursuing a possible future life in New York.
Those plans came to an unexpected end when permission for further development of the stage adaptation was withdrawn. After two years of composition, recording and production, the musical’s journey stopped almost as suddenly as it had begun.
The disappointment was profound, but the achievement remained. Peter and his collaborators had taken one of modern science fiction’s most ambitious stories and transformed it into an original work of musical theatre—one developed across three cities, encouraged by Ann Druyan and brought to life on an American stage.
For one brief season in 2009, Carl Sagan’s universe found a new voice in Peter Sipos’s music.
For a moment, the signal had been heard.