'Time's Square 2090' at Langley High School

Langley High School senior Wesley Brandt will enjoy a rare moment for a 17-year-old.

At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, his school will raise the curtain on "Time's Square 2090," a full-length musical drama written, scored and directed by Brandt.

According to school officials, the production is the first student-written musical to be staged in the county for the Critics and Awards Program (Cappies) for high school theater.

Brandt has been studying music since fifth grade and composing since he began learning to play the piano in seventh grade. He had scored the music to two plays at Langley when he began toying with the idea of writing a musical this year.

"This past summer is when I actually started writing the script," Brandt said. "I'd been putting together various ideas. I'd always known that I wanted it to be something politically charged, that I wanted it to be a musical."

"Time's Square 2090" is set 81 years in the future in New York's Times Square, where people live under a bloated and oppressive government.

"The executive branch is huge," Brandt said. The musical "follows a few different families and how they are dealing with this crisis. A pop star tries to influence politics. You see the various fallout from that."

The music reflects Brandt's broad tastes and includes alternative rock, hip-hop and techno songs, as well as selections from some of the young composer's major influences, the Denver-based rap-rock group Flobots and 1970s British prog-rockers Genesis.

Brandt said he was inspired to create the play by his strong interest in politics and his passion for music.

"At first, I actually had it be about a veteran who came back from Iraq," Brandt said. But he said he found that a contemporary, realistic setting was making the play's themes too transparent.

"All the issues were very modern and stuff. I guess I wanted to set it in the future so I could distance that from people," he said.

Phyliss Jaffe, Brandt's teacher and chairman of Langley's theater arts program, encouraged him to complete the musical after he presented her with the play's first act in July.

"I thought it was good. Definitely beyond what you would expect," Jaffe said.

And having the playwright direct the musical has been an advantage for the performers, Jaffe said.

"Students have said that it's great to not have to do something where somebody else has defined it. It's their opportunity to develop the character," she said.

Brandt said he plans to study music and politics in college but hasn't decided where he might go.

Directing his play and keeping up with his other responsibilities has been a challenge, he said.

"It's close to impossible," Brandt said. "I've haven't started with any of my college applications yet. But I've been trying to keep a good school average."