Friendship is at the core of Ghost Quartet, and not just our production. The show was created by four friends—Dave Malloy, Gelsey Bell, Brent Arnold, and Brittain Ashford—who were playing cards and drinking whiskey when they decided it would be fun to make some art together. The show itself is centered around relationships, and though not all of them are positive, the ways in which the characters relate to each other—and the ways in which they are ultimately all the same—is what ties the many overlapping stories together. Our rendition of Ghost Quartet certainly centered friendship, not only in the content of the show but the experience of our rehearsals, in which we spent countless hours learning and drilling the music, but also bursting spontaneously into “wild improvisations” and bursts of laughter. I’ve never known a group to so strongly embody “work hard, play hard,” and it was an absolute joy to spend seven weeks with this music and my dear “four friends.”

Directed by Sam Howell Petersen

Music Directed by Andrew Lee

Cast: Sam Howell Petersen, Maya Helena Green, Peter Li, Liam Smith, Andrew Lee

Written by Dave Malloy

Stanford Theater Laboratory

Review

Photo Credit: Frank Chen