Common Grounds

Click on any of the images to view larger version.

Common Grounds, book by Sammy Buck, music by Doug Katsoros, is a dance musical with no lyrics. Much of the action occurs in a trendy coffee shop which, like the show, is called Common Grounds. Some of the patrons are seen in their lives elsewhere, as "the office" or "a hotel room." The performers convey their characters entirely in dance and mime, with spoken voices heard only occasionally and apparently recorded onto the sound system. Common Grounds was commissioned by the New York Music Theatre Festival for their 2006 season, and won Honorable Mention that year for Excellence for Direction & Choreography, and Most Promising New Musical.

"This was a thoroughly joyous high energy performance, which significantly takes the candle of invention in stage dance from Twyla Tharp to the next level...The choreography, although shared by five creators, nevertheless has a perfect continuity and consistency for Katsoros's evocative and appealing music...The dancing, which is the core of the piece, is elegant, arresting, and surprising throughout...we are in a world that even while it may look like New York in 2006, probably is better known to the likes of Samuel Beckett and James Joyce, masters of the modern psyche and probable inadvertent spiritual fathers to this wondrous dance musical." — Curtain Up