Credit: Kevin Gao
Charleston composer Savannah Cash will make her Piccolo Spoleto debut with her musical theatre production, Fantasmagoriana: An Immersive Musical Theatre Experience. Set in the summer of 1816 at Villa Diodati, viewers will immerse themselves in the worlds of British poets Lord Byron and Mary Shelley during a tumultuous and spooky summer that led to Shelley’s creation of Frankenstein.
Born and raised in Charleston, Cash, 29, began composing when she was young. “My mom put me in violin at 2 ½ years old,” she tells Holy City Sinner.
She studied violin throughout her childhood and learned to read sheet music. “I was familiar with the language of music and wanted to create as much as possible.”
After being in a production of Sweeney Todd in high school, Cash had a “very clear awakening” that she wanted to study music composition in college alongside her math major. After graduating, she was “really burned out and took a break” from composing.
Credit: Kevin Gao
In 2015, her dad pitched the idea for Fantasmagoriana to her. “It was the 200th anniversary of when Mary Shelley had written Frankenstein. I was 19, and Shelley was also 19 (when she wrote it). So I started researching,” Cash says.
Life would present her with two unfortunate events that propelled her to start writing the project. “Three years ago, my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and I was hit by a car in the same month. I understood mortality,” she says.
Heavily concussed, she spent a lot of time alone—besides trips to her therapist and physical therapist—which allowed her creative space to compose. Fantasmagoriana was brought to life, and she produced her first showing in October 2024.
“Fantasmagoriana has been a labor of love for a decade, and I’m really happy to share it with everyone at Piccolo Spoleto,” says Cash, who will be performing in the show for the first time alongside four other actors. The intimate show features Elizabeth Hoyland as Mary Shelley, Joshua Broome as Lord Byron, Matthew Foster as John Polidori, Connor Daugherty as Percy Shelley, and Cash herself as Claire Clairmont, as well as Shenwei Geng on the piano.
“The audience gets pulled into the stories we read and write throughout. It’s a lot of fun,” adds Cash, who also made the production’s costumes, wigs, and set. “I’m a one-woman creative team.”
Performances begin Tuesday, June 3-Saturday, June 7 at The Charleston Museum. Tickets are $49-$109 and can be purchased here.
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Credit: Kevin Gao
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