The story of “The Willard Suitcases,” a 17-song musical, began with the discovery of more than 400 suitcases in a building on the grounds of the Willard Psychiatric Center in upstate New York after the facility closed in 1990. Each suitcase contained the unclaimed possessions of a patient who had been admitted to the facility between 1910 and 1960 and who had ultimately died there.
The suitcases were eventually acquired by the New York State Museum, and several of them were put on display. The exhibit caught the eye of photographer Jon Crispin, who took pictures of the suitcases and their contents. Crispin’s photos inspired composer/lyricist Julianne Wick Davis to create “The Willard Suitcases.”
The musical, which will open Aug. 25 at KOA Theater, chronicles the lives of the patients through song. Each song is Wick Davis’ interpretation of a life interrupted by commitment to the facility; the fictional characters are inspired by the suitcases. Some of the songs include the patients’ perceptions of historical events.
Veteran actor and director Doug Kreeger, who is directing the Hawaii premiere production, described the musical as “something special.”
“I was really blown away by how unique this piece is,” he said. “It’s a song cycle, which is pretty incredible because it allows you to get these snapshots of each of these human beings. It so brilliantly provides context, not just for their lives, but why they may have been committed in the first place.”
Kreeger said that many of the people who were committed to the Willard facility from 1869, when it opened, to 1990 were not “insane” as the term is defined today. They could have been suffering from depression, anxiety, seizures, epilepsy, PTSD or other problems that are treatable today, and which might even have been treatable in decades past. Some patients may have been committed for chronic homelessness, or simply because a family member wanted to get them out of the way.
The show opens with a poignant musical question: “What Would You Pack?” The contents of the suitcases reveal what the patients brought with them; Wick Davis’ songs imagine the “why.”
“If you were about to go to a deserted island, what would you pack? What would you put in that suitcase?” Kreeger asked. “It’s so heartbreaking to look at some of these contents because women brought their finest, like the woman who brought a coat with a mink collar. When would they have ever worn them, if they ever did? They probably never did. They might have been buried in it. Otherwise it ended up in the suitcase.”
Kreeger said that the stories resonate beyond the actors’ performances onstage.
“Every time I tell anybody about this show, any time I share the synopsis … across the board, every single person has been compelled by it and knows that there’s something special here,” he said.
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“The Willard Suitcases”
>> Where: KOA Theater, 780 S. Beretania St.
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 25; continues through Sept. 10. Sunday matinees begin at 4 p.m.
>> Cost: $35 general, $30 seniors and military, $20 students
>> Info: koatheater.com or 808-388-0319
FOR MORE
>> To read more about the patients at Willard Psychiatric Center, Kreeger recommends the book “The Lives They Left Behind,” by Darby Penney and Peter Stastny, which examines 10 suitcases.
>> View Crispin’s photographic gallery at 808ne.ws/willardsuitcases.
