TOLEDO, Ohio — If you had to leave your friends, family and life as you knew it, what would you pack? That's what Issue Box Theatre's "The Willard Suitcases" asks in a deeply poignant and intricately unique musical that has only ever been staged once before.
While fictional, the musical itself is based on real-life events. In 1995, the Willard Psychiatric Center in upstate New York closed its doors after over a century of operation. During its decommissioning, employees found over 400 suitcases belonging to patients who lived at the center over the years.
Photographer Jon Crispin captured images of these suitcases and their contents, inspiring from them a musical imagining the lives of those who lived at Willard decades ago. Julianne Wick Davis created the music and lyrics to the show, which was first performed at the American Shakespeare Center in 2019. On June 8, it will make its premier in Toledo.
The titular suitcases are both literally and figuratively the crux of the musical.
"If you were going to an asylum, what would you pack?" Director Rosie Best said, referencing the musical's opening number of the same name. "If we're going on vacation, we take things to make us comfortable, but what would it then be like if you had those things that cause comfort to you taken away? That's got to be dehumanizing apart from anything else."
The Willard Suitcases aligns with Issue Box's mission, which organizers said is to create a space for human dignity using the performing and theatrical arts.
"We're trying to make sure that even though these suitcases were discarded and these people long forgotten, we're trying to bring them back to life," cast member Kory Meinhart said.
In addition to giving voice through performance, Issue Box continually aims to make its work accessible to all - this is why all four performances of The Willard Suitcases will be available free of charge.
You can catch The Willard Suitcases at the following dates, times and locations:
- June 8 at 6:30 p.m., Toledo Main Library, McMaster Auditorium
- June 15 at 7 p.m., St. Paul's United Methodist Church
- June 28 at 6 p.m., Thomas M. Wernet Center
- July 14 at 7:30 p.m., Sylvania Northview High School
Click here to reserve your free tickets to the performance.
Additionally, Crispin's photography collection will be on display at the Toledo Main Library beginning June 8. A grand opening and reception with Crispin will be held from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. in the Gallery.
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