Congratulations to  Columbia College Chicago alumni T.J. Pieffer ’18 and Brad Kemp ’12, whose science-fiction musical comedy Abduction has been selected for a 2020 production by MTAP–Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburgh. This will be the first staging of the show, which has previously been performed in concert readings. The production will launch MTAP’s Incubator Workshop program, which puts new musicals on their feet. MTAP seeks to foster collaboration between musical theatre artists and create opportunities for the development, presentation, and production of new musical theatre.

T.J. Pieffer

Brad Kemp

Pieffer, who wrote the show’s book and cowrote the lyrics, is a graduate of the Columbia College Chicago Cinema and Television Arts Department’s BA Program in Television with a Concentration in Writing and Producing and a Minor in Acting from the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department. Kemp, the show’s composer, is a graduate of the Columbia College Chicago Music Department‘s Bachelor of Music Composition program and also took courses in the Theatre Department’s Musical Theatre program. As previously reported in this blog, Abduction was performed in a concert reading at the 2019 New York Musical Festival last summer. Prior to that, the show received a developmental reading at Columbia College.

Abduction concerns Pippa Peterson, a super-competent and confident high school girl with a comically difficult relationship with her mother. Pippa’s world collapses when her father suddenly disappears in—yes, seriously—an alien abduction. Pippa’s challenge is to save her father and bring the entire town of Pluto, Indiana, to its senses, while discovering along the way both her true sexuality and how to connect with her difficult mother.