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Draft:Jorge Rivera-Herrans

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  • Comment: The independent, reliable sources present do not provide direct coverage of the subject but instead primarily discuss something they worked on. I recommend looking at WP:GNG and WP:SIGCOV for information on methods to remedy this issue. Pbritti (talk) 21:35, 11 November 2023 (UTC)


Jorge Rivera-Herrans
Alma materUniversity of Notre-Dame
Notable work
  • Epic: The Musical
  • My Heart Says Go
PartnerTalya Sindel
Websitehttps://www.epicthemusical.com/

Jorge "Jay" Miguel Rivera-Herrans is a playwright, composer, lyricist, and actor. He was raised in Dorado, Puerto Rico, and is now known for writing and composing Epic: The Musical.[1]

His inspirations for composing music, mainly come from video games and animations, where he pulls musical elements commonly found in both in order to tell his stories.[1]

Education

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In college, he studied film, television, and theater at the University of Notre-Dame.[2] However, Rivera-Herrans was originally a pre-med student, even having accumulated over 200 hours of shadowing surgeons when he was in high school. It was only after he began realizing just how much he loves theater that he made the choice to swap majors.[3]

In 2018, Rivera-Herrans played the title character in a production of In the Heights at the South Bend Civic Theater.[4]

During his time as a university student, he wrote a semi-autobiographical musical, Stupid Humans, that he got to produce and star in in 2019 with the help of his professor Matt Hawkins.[5]

Career

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My Heart Says Go

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Rivera-Herrans received a faculty grant before graduating in 2020 to pursue production of his play he wrote during his time as a university student. The musical originally being called, Stupid Humans, Rivera-Herrans worked with his professor, Matt Hawkins, in order to rewrite and rename it to be the “My Heart Says Go” out today.[6] It got produced at the South Bend Civic Theater in April 2023.[4]

Loosely based on Rivera-Herrans' own experiences, the musical itself tells the story of a boy named Indigo, who drops out of medical school against his father's wishes in order to follow his dreams of becoming a musician.

Epic: The Musical

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Rivera-Herrans began writing Epic: The Musical at the end of his studies in 2020.[5]

Epic is based on the Odyssey. It centers on Odysseus, played by Rivera-Herrans, struggling for 10 years against monsters and gods to return home to his wife – Penelope – his son – Telemachus – and his kingdom of Ithaca after the Trojan War.

Fully sung, the musical has pop, electronic, rock, orchestral and world music influences.[7]

The concept album aims at telling Odysseus’ voyage through 40 songs, released in 9 albums – called “sagas” – containing four to five songs each.

The first, The Troy Saga, was released on December 25, 2022

The second, The Cyclops Saga, came out on January 27, 2023.[8]

The third, The Ocean Saga, released on Christmas Day, December 25, 2023.

The Circe Saga, the fourth saga to be released, came out on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2024.

The Underworld Saga, the last saga in Act I of Epic, was released on April 26, 2024.

Epic: The Musical went viral in January of 2021, when Rivera-Herrans shared his progress on the project and snippets of the songs on Discord and TikTok.[5]

Rivera-Herrans used TikTok to do open auditions for most of the characters, with much of the cast originating from those auditions.[8]

Discography

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All tracks are written by Jorge Rivera-Herrans

My Heart Says Go track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Prologue"3:31
2."What Does My Heart Say"4:31
3."Father vs. Son"3:31
4."Heat of the Moment"1:56
5."Find Your Voice"3:10
6."The Place Where Dreams Come True"1:41
7."In My Shoes"2:43
8."In My Shoes (Reprise)"1:18
9."No"3:25
10."Smile Away"3:17
11."Foot Down"4:39
12."Heat of the Moment (Reprise)"1:24
13."Find Your Voice (Reprise)"1:51
14."Rob’s Original"1:18
15."Goodnight Indigo"1:51
16."Freestyle on a Heartbeat"2:58
17."Epilogue: Won't Give Up"3:42
Total length:46:46

All tracks are written by Jorge Rivera-Herrans

Epic: The Musical track listing
No.TitleLength
1."The Horse and the Infant"3:53
2."Just a Man"2:30
3."Full Speed Ahead"3:01
4."Open Arms"3:20
5."Warrior of the Mind"3:28
6."Polyphemus"3:36
7."Survive"3:16
8."Remember Them"4:08
9."My Goodbye"3:20
10."Storm"2:43
11."Luck Runs Out"3:01
12."Keep Your Friends Close"4:07
13."Ruthlessness"4:23
14."Puppeteer"4:10
15."Wouldn't You Like"2:54
16."Done For"2:27
17."There Are Other Ways"3:27
18."The Underworld"4:17
19."No Longer You"2:47
20."Monster"3:38
Total length:68:26

References

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  1. ^ a b "Home". Jorge Rivera-Herrans. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  2. ^ "From the classroom to professional production: How a Notre Dame-developed musical took its next steps to the big stage". 15 March 2021.
  3. ^ "For Puerto Rico native Jay Rivera-Herrans, choosing a major he loved wasn't easy. He turned that struggle into an original musical". 19 February 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Notre Dame student-written musical 'My Heart Says Go' takes on new life at Civic". South Bend Tribune. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  5. ^ a b c Gates, Carrie (2023-04-13). "New musical 'My Heart Says Go' launches new model for accessibility in the arts". Notre Dame News. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  6. ^ Wampler, Brandi (2021-03-15). "From the classroom to professional production: How a Notre Dame-developed musical took its next steps to the big stage". Notre Dame Research. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  7. ^ Rabinowitz, Chloe. "EPIC: THE TROY SAGA Passes 3 Million Streams in First Week of Release". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  8. ^ a b Imami, Sabriya (2023-01-29). "Musical based on 'The Odyssey' is taking over TikTok". The Michigan Daily. Retrieved 2023-11-11.