“What the Hell are you Doing in the Waiting Room for Heaven?”

“What the Hell are you Doing in the Waiting Room for Heaven??” is the story of Aubrey Giles, a performance coach who helps Heavenly Hopefuls get into the Celestial Choir.

Only she’s starting to wonder why she’s never made it past the auditions … and then one night she discovers what’s kept her forever in limbo.

“What the Hell…” premiered in 2008 at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, MA .

What the Press says:

“…everything from dreamy glissandos to gutbucket blues on her electric harp and singing up a storm … a little bit pearly gates, a little bit Barbarella.” (The Boston Globe)

“…one of the quirkiest, most delightful performance pieces this side of limbo … She has depth, inner-wisdom and the ability to share her own demons…” (The Boston Metro)

“She’s charismatic and fearless, with stage presence to spare; she’s got a powerful singing voice, and above all, she can play the harp like nobody’s business…The Grammy nominee has Joan Baez-style vocal chops. She can pretty much make anything she wants come out of that harp – blues, rock, folk, musical theater-style ditties – and she does.” (The Boston Herald)

Tonight starts like any other night for Aubrey Giles, assistant performance coach in the Waiting Room for Heaven.  Her job is to warm up the newly-passed Heavenly Hopefuls – the audience – for a short 10 minutes, give them a brief Celestial orientation and then turn them over to the higher-ups for a more in-depth coaching and spiritual education.

But tonight Aubrey receives an unexpected call from On High.  There’s been a technical problem.  Aubrey needs to take over the full orientation.  Winging it, she fills in the standard spiritual parables with stories from her own life – lessons about the joys and terrors of Nothingness – and teaches the heavenly hopefuls her own secret tips for acing a Celestial audition.

When Aubrey accidentally hits the “Submit Audition” button while teaching the audience a ridiculous song, she discovers she’s put the entire audience in peril of purgatory. As she struggles to save their place in the choir she begins to wonder why she’s spent her entire after-life coaching others to reach the pinnacle of angelic achievement, why has she never made it through the audition herself?

• SHOW TYPE: One-woman musical
• CAST: Henson-Conant performs this show solo with electric harp
• SET & STAGE: Single set; Black box or standard stage
• LENGTH: 1 Act – 90 minutes
• ENSEMBLE/INSTRUMENTATION: Solo Electric harp, looper, voice & electric keyboard
• SOUND & LIGHTS: Standard theater lighting; Standard sound reinforcement adequate for the theater; in-ear monitors or sidefill monitors
• NOTES:  Aubrey’s costume is also part of the set, so it should be possible to hang the long silk-habotai that makes up her wings from at least 15′ above the stage floor.

BOOKING INQUIRIES:  Email info"at"hipharp.com and include the preferred date, location, length of run, how you heard about Deborah Henson-Conant and any other pertinent information about your theater, audience or festival.