[Capdist-Announce] Feature Article: "From Daydream to Dock: The Long Voyage of SOUTH"

[Timothy Dunn]

>From Daydream to Dock: The Long Voyage of SOUTH

How Carmen Borgia’s Musical Set Sail — and Finally Found Its Stage

After years of slow-burning development, false starts, and unexpected
detours, SOUTH: A Nautical Musical will finally make its stage premiere at
Bridge Street Theatre this July. For composer and creator Carmen Borgia,
the show’s arrival isn’t just a production milestone — it’s the
long-awaited docking of a vessel he’s been quietly building for decades.

“It started as a musical set on a wooden ship,” Borgia says, “but I didn’t
know where it was going.”

He laughs, but the truth behind the joke is more lyrical than punchline.
SOUTH began in fragments — half-finished songs, conceptual sketches, a
storyline that felt mythic but elusive. For a while, the project drifted.
It wasn’t until Borgia met his biological mother, years into the process,
that the story clicked into place. That emotional encounter, and everything
it stirred, gave the musical its heart.

“That was the moment I understood the ending,” he says.

------------------------------

A Show in Pieces

Borgia’s path to SOUTH was anything but linear. In 2009, he was
commissioned to present a showcase of the work at Dixon Place in New York
City. The music existed. So did the bones of the story. But the vision was
still foggy, half-sketched in dream logic and maritime metaphors.

Rather than force it, Borgia let the show keep ripening — writing more
songs, tinkering with structure, recording demo after demo. Years passed.
Then came an experiment: what if this musical was a podcast?

The format turned out to be the perfect drydock. It allowed him to workshop
the piece through sound — intimate, crafted, contained. Listeners could
hear the world of SOUTH emerge slowly from the waves. Borgia released SOUTH:
The Podcast Musical in 2020, scored and produced entirely by him.

“A podcast gave me the chance to make something whole,” he says. “It wasn’t
live theatre, but it was alive.”

Still, the story felt unfinished — or rather, not fully born. The musical
wanted a stage. It wanted bodies. Movement. Sweat. Breath. And, maybe most
of all, it wanted company.

And in a world where new musicals often chase trends or spectacle, SOUTH
stands apart — a hand-built, deeply personal story about survival,
belonging, and the strange beauty of persistence.

------------------------------

Vibe Over Document

As a composer, Borgia’s approach is anything but traditional. He’s not
chasing perfect melodies or splashy finales. His goal is simpler — and
stranger.

“I aim for memorable songs in a dramatic story viewed through a humorous
lens,” he says. “It’s more of a vibe than a document.”

That vibe is unmistakable in SOUTH. The score blends theatrical structure
with folk simplicity, Caribbean-inspired rhythms, and narrative songs that
unfold like tide charts. Some are funny. Some are melancholy. Many do both.

The music, like the show itself, doesn’t always follow the rules. There are
patter songs, sea shanties, bittersweet ballads, and moments that lean into
full absurdity. And yet, the piece holds together — a kind of stormy
emotional map stitched with melody.

“Some of these songs still make me laugh out loud,” says director Timothy
Dakin-Dunn. “Some moments still make me tear up. And some do both in the
same dang song — which is rude, honestly, but impressive.”

------------------------------

A Team and a Theatre

After the podcast’s release, Borgia kept the piece alive — revising,
cutting, expanding — never quite letting go. Then, in one of those
mysterious theatrical convergences, SOUTH found a home at Bridge Street
Theatre in Catskill, NY.

“Tim is the perfect director for this show,” Borgia says. “And John [Sowle]
set the whole thing up. It’s worked out perfectly.”

The match was a gift — not just in resources and space, but in spirit.
Bridge Street Theatre, known for its adventurous programming and commitment
to original work, gave SOUTH the stage it always needed.

“We’re squeezing a whole ship onto our little Bridge Street stage,” Borgia
laughs. “And it’s going to work.”

------------------------------

Landfall

Now, as rehearsals begin, the podcast is becoming a play. The cast, drawn
from across the Hudson Valley and beyond, is breathing new life into the
script. A band is learning the score. A literal ship is rising from the
floorboards.

For Borgia, the moment feels both surreal and satisfying.

“It’s strange,” he says. “I wrote these songs alone. Years ago. And now
there are people standing in front of me singing them, moving to them,
building on them. It’s alive in a completely new way.”

He pauses, then adds: “It’s what I always hoped for. I just didn’t know how
long it would take to get here.”

------------------------------

SOUTH: A Nautical Musical
🗓️ July 24–August 3, 2025
📍 Bridge Street Theatre, Catskill, NY
🎟️ Thursdays–Saturdays at 7:30pm | Sundays at 2:00pm
🎟️ $37 General | $20 Students
🎟️ Tickets and info → BridgeStreetTheatre.org
<https://bridgestreettheatre.org/>


Thank you!

Timothy Dakin-Dunn
Assistant Artistic Director, Bridge Street Theatre <https://bridgest.org/>
Director, South: A Nautical Musical <https://bridgest.org/south/>
Man who owns a url, timothydunncreative.com
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