The First Year (words by Chandra McClelland) is a full-length stage musical set at fictional Aubrey College in 1969. Jordan Thompson, an eighteen-year-old trans woman, switches places with her sister to attend a women’s college outside of Boston. As the year progresses, she struggles to keep her secret and integrate into a new community as a first step towards living openly as a woman. The college is also wrestling with its identity, as the new Dean of Students launches a co-ed campaign to bring “traditional” Aubrey current with the times.
Partially developed at Catwalk Art Residency in September 2018. The show received an Equity reading on June 1st, 2019, with excerpts presented at Wellesley College in October 2019.