Prism

Prism is about the hidden spectrum inside a single thing. Hold one beam of white light up to the right angle and it shatters into every color at once, and that's the whole idea of this show: one melody, refracted again and again, revealing a different shade of itself each time. It's a production about how much color lives inside something that first looked plain, and how a single idea can bloom into a spectrum.

On the field, the metaphor is built into the props: prism forms that catch and bend the light, and as each color is "refracted" out, another version of the show's central tune emerges, recolored, recast, seen from a new angle. The through-line is Chicago's Colour My World, and the fun of the show is watching one familiar melody turn into a dozen different colors of itself. Underneath, the harmonies carry echoes of music you'll recognize without quite naming, more light bent through the same glass. It's a warm, visually striking, endlessly colorful production that scales cleanly to a band of any size.

The music:

• Colour My World (Chicago)
• Prelude in C (Bach)
• Original writing by Ryan

Permissions to arrange are required for the Chicago selection. Bach's Prelude in C is in the public domain.