In this time of isolation, I stumbled across a beautiful story in the NYT about a European couple, separated by a national border, who visit each other every day at that border — staying dutifully six feet apart. I wrote this 15-minute musical, inspired by the couple, to be performed on Zoom: the actors are in their own frames (their own spaces), using their own piano tracks to sing — and no one sings at the same time, reducing the problems created by simultaneous audio on Zoom.

Synopsis: A German man and Danish woman, both in their 70s and known to us only as He and She, meet at the German-Danish border. They have met here every day for weeks to share a late lunch and wine. But the border between them is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, so they sit six feet apart, on opposite sides of the invisible line separating their countries. In these moments together, they find what connection they can. They share stories from their past, of the other lines and boundaries that have kept them from people in their lives. As their evening together ends, they look forward to tomorrow’s encounter, both knowing that the invisible border remains, and the future is uncertain.

Original article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/world/europe/coronavirus-denmark-germany-border.html?referringSource=articleShare