Songwriting

   Almost at the end of Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's play "Emilia," Emilia 3 sees her friend Eve be burnt at the stake for writing a poem about refusing to be silenced anymore. Emilia 3 grieves for her friend, saying "They took our Eve. We could not go to her like Procne went to her sister... We could not go." After this line, Malcolm writes in her stage directions "A song for EVE." Malcolm did not write any lyrics, nor indicate a song to be sung at this direction, and so I offered the director of Dallas College's production of "Emilia," Emily Gray, to write a song for this moment in the play. She agreed and I got to work.

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   I always felt that this moment needed a song without instruments, purely acapella, a song about grief and yet full of love for Eve and all the women who've been labeled as witches and burnt at the hands of hate. My inspiration for the lyrics of "One Day" first came from Eve's poem, in which she says "What you have taken is not yours And one day, loudly, I shall take it back." The words "one day" stuck with me, reverberating as echoes in my mind, and I knew this would become the central message of the song. The words "one day" signified hope to me, a hope that the future would bring volume to silenced voices, and world more kind for marginalized people. Eve, a washer woman who is all too familiar with abuse and silence, became a voice of hope, and Emilia, a woman of color, felt that hope within her.

   

   Emilia 3's line, "And we could not go to her like Procne went to her sister," references a moment in the play where Emilia 2 becomes a teacher for a young girl named Anne, where Anne reads the story of Procne and Philomela out loud. Unfamiliar with this Greek myth, I learned that Procne married Tereus, and having been away from home asked to see her sister Philomela. Tereus, finding Philomela beautiful, rapes Philomela and cuts her tongue out. Philomela weaves tapestry to let Procne know what happened, and Procne goes to Philomela, saves her, and they both take their revenge on Tereus. Before Tereus could hurt the sisters, they all turn into birds, and the sisters escape from Tereus. This inspired the theme of birds and robins in "One Day," symbolizing freedom from cruelty and hatred. Emilia's 3 line also inspired me to write the words "Will I ever go to you like how I could not go to you," to show that she could not become the Procne for Eve. The line, "For bonny sweet Robin is my joy," is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, when Ophelia, maddened by the grief of losing her father, sings this line before eventually drowning.

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   I had the idea of Emilia 3 to be the first and only Emilia singing, as her grief begins to consume her and she proclaims out loud "That day I could not go, will I go to you one day?" Emilia 1 and Emilia 2, part of this grief and story as much as Emilia 3 is, comfort this older Emilia telling her, "Yes, yes," there is hope for us one day. On the third "yes," Emilia 3 joins in as they all sing in harmony. A song of grief becomes a song of hope, that while today we mourn and pray for the pain to go away, the pain will go, and one day we will win, or as Eve said, "And one day, loudly, I shall take [my voice] back." After this song, Emilia 1 and 2 leave Emilia 3 to finish the story off, and after a final conversation with Shakespeare, Emilia 3 gives a monologue of anger, of hope, and calls the audience to take action for all the women whose voices have been silenced. "For every Eve."

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   After multiple drafts of possible melodies and lyrics to use for this crucial moment in the play, "One Day" was completed, and I presented the song to the director, Emily Gray. She approved of the song, and decided that she wanted this melody to be used throughout the play, Emilia's theme, a leitmotif. She instructed that she would like one of the student actors, Ryan Lee, to learn "One Day" on the violin, to play in some of the crucial moments in Emilia's story. I wrote out the violin version and had Ryan learn the song, in which he plays the music live throughout the production. Professor Gray also wanted the three Emilias to sing this song when Emilia's first child, Henry, is born. So, I wrote out a lullaby version and incorporated the themes of birds to give a child-like joy to the song. Thus, "One Day" became the main musical theme of Dallas College's production of "Emilia."

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   "Emilia" is Dallas College - Richland's submission to the 2025 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) for Region 6. We received multiple recognitions, including "Outsanding Musical Ensemble," and were chosen as 1 of 6 finalists to be invited to the Region 6 Festival to perform "Emilia" for KCACTF.

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Emilia 1 was played by Evelyn Yanes, Emilia 2 was played by Andrea Ortiz, and Emilia 3 was played by Anna Townsend.