FOUNDATIONS

At the edge of Times Square stands the Liberty theatre. On the eve of the its demolition, elderly former performer Laura Malloy slips inside the abandoned building. As she wanders its ruins, the theatre awakens around her: ghost lights flicker on, music echoes through empty halls, and the Liberty itself manifests as a seductive, living presence determined to tell its story.

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Inspired by the real-life Liberty Theatre on 42nd street, FOUNDATIONS tells the story of a changing city through the eyes of the building itself. Spanning the 20th century, we learn about Liberty's history throughout the decades: as a vaudeville house, a Broadway theatre, a porno and cruising spot, and an unhoused encampment. The perspectives woven through Foundations—from Laura, an Irish immigrant chasing stability in a city eager to erase her, to Leonard, a Jewish artist navigating the shadow of World War II, to Reggie, a closeted queer student seeking connection, and later the residents of an unhoused encampment sheltering within Liberty’s walls—reveal how forgotten spaces become sanctuaries for those history too often overlooks. Across decades of reinvention, Liberty endures as a witness to the lives New York repeatedly pushes to its margins, highlighting the importance of preserving communities, identities, and histories that systems of “progress” so often erase.

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The score of FOUNDATIONS draws on a wide range of genres, pulling on the eras in which it is set while also finding a language which is more elevated, surprising, and magical.