Duncan Sheik to Write Original Score for Woodshed Collective’s The Tenant

Tony and Grammy Award winner Duncan Sheik is writing the original score for The Tenant, a site-specific work installed over five building stories in the historic West Park parish house on 86 Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The work will debut later this year, with specific dates to be announced.

Set in Paris and inspired by Roland Torpor’s book, which was adapted into a film by Roman Polanski, The Tenant features a script by Steven Levenson, Tommy Smith, Dylan Dawson, Sarah Burgess, Paul Cohen, and Bekah Brunstetter. In the play, Monsieur Trelkovsky rents a room recently vacated by a woman who fell from her window, and soon finds his world changing in bizarre ways. Haunted by images of the previous Tenant’s apparent suicide and terrorized by his new neighbors, Trelkovsky begins a slow descent into paranoia and delirium.

Sheik won a Tony Award for the score to Spring Awakening, and he also wrote the score for the musical Whisper House. He won the Grammy for the Spring Awakening cast album and was Grammy-nominated for his 1996 pop hit “Barely Breathing.” He is currently represented Off-Broadway by his musical collaboration with Suzanne Vega on Carson McCullers Talks About Love, at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.

Woodshed Collective will host a launch party for The Tenant at Brooklyn’s The Green Building (452 Union Street), on Thursday, May 19. The evening will include performances by Gordon Voidwell and DJing by Smirk, as well as a performance by surprise guests.

Tickets to the launch party are $10. To RSVP, e-mail. rsvp@woodshedcollective.com.