IN INCUBATION UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
SAGUARO CITY MUSIC THEATRE
IN 1977, NASA LAUNCHED A PAIR OF UNMANNED VOYAGER SPACECRAFT ON A SCIENTIFIC "GRAND TOUR" OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. EACH CRAFT WAS OUTFITTED WITH A "GOLDEN RECORD" OF MUSIC, GREETINGS, AND IMAGES OF LIFE ON EARTH TO CARRY BEYOND THE PLANETS INTO INTERSTELLAR SPACE.
THIS IS THE STORY OF TWO VOYAGERS WHO MADE A RECORD AND TOOK IT ON TOUR.
CONCEPT, MUSIC & LYRICS BY
CAMERON HOOD
BOOK BY
CAMERON HOOD, JOHN D. LARSON
DREW HUMPHREY
ADDITIONAL MUSIC & LYRICS BY
RYAN ALFRED, RYAN DAVID GREEN
JOHN D. LARSON
SAGUARO CITY MUSIC THEATRE is proud to partner with songwriter Cameron Hood (Ryanhood) in developing his new work, Voyagers: A Space Rock Opera.
In the aftermath of his father’s death, an ambitious songwriter named ONE vows to transcend the meaningless rat race by recording a gold record and undertaking a grand tour inspired by NASA’s Voyager Space Missions. Along with a gifted but overly accommodating singer named TWO, the pair launch their career and their relationship into dizzying new heights. But when TWO’s gentle counsel to relax and enjoy the ride clashes with ONE’s unrelenting drive to succeed where his father failed, their trajectories suddenly and dramatically diverge. As ONE and TWO hurtle separately into the unknown, each must confront the traumatic programming that propels them, or risk repeating their parents’ catastrophic mistakes.
Voyagers: A Space Rock Opera is a new, multimedia musical that frames human ambition & grief within stunning archival audio & video from NASA’s actual Voyager space missions. Carving a brand new theatrical space between Pink Floyd’s concept album The Wall and Broadway’s Once: The Musical, Voyagers invites audiences to experience the mind-bending science of humankind’s greatest voyage beyond, through the lens of our universal & intimate ache to belong.
CAMERON HOOD is an award-winning songwriter, performer, and librettist from Tucson, AZ, who is passionate about exploring the arts’ ability to transform trauma. As one-half of the indie-folk duo Ryanhood, Hood has released 7 albums of original music, performed over 1000 shows in 3 countries and 47 US states, and been named, along with Ryan David Green, “Best Group/Duo” in the 2014 International Acoustic Music Awards. In 2017, Hood co-created a modern ballet about gangster John Dillinger with Ashley Bowman of Artifact Dance Project, called Surrounding Dillinger, which the Arizona Daily Star called, “Simply astounding.” In 2019, Hood spoke and performed with Green in a TEDx Talk called, “How Bad Things Can Make Us Good People.”​
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THE FOLLOWING ARE SELECTIONS FROM VOYAGERS, WITH ACCOMPANYING LIBRETTO
THE NIGHT SKY
ONE
Too many cars out
Crowding the road
Too many idiots pushing to go
Carving our own headstones
We groan beneath
The crushing weight
The crushing weight of life
​
Too many fathers
Die too soon
Too many mothers
Hide in their rooms
Too many make the same mistakes
Their parents do
​
But, looking up
Does it reframe you?
Where you fit
And who you pray to?
Does it make you
Want to close your eyes
And go blind?
​
There were too many mouths
That you could never feed
Too many wounds
That just kept on bleeding
Too many dreams that fell beneath
The crushing weight
The crushing weight of life
​
But, looking up
Does it reframe you?
Where you fit
And who you pray to?
Does it make you
Want to close your eyes
And cry?​​​
​
ONE AND ENSEMBLE
Ah, ahhh, ahhh, to the night sky
Ah, ahhh, ahhh, to the night sky
Ah, ahhh, uhhh, uhhh
Ah, ahhh, uhhh, mmm
​
How do you reach out
Touch it, taste it?
How do you rise
Above the race?
And how do you get
Some sense of space
ONE
In billions and billions?
​
ONE AND ENSEMBLE
How do you reach out
Touch it, taste it?
And fly to the place
Where there's no pain?
And how do you climb
Above the weight
Of billions and billions
And billions and billions...?
​
ONE
Maybe I could be the first
To write it all inside a verse
I dreamed I'd leave
This heavy Earth behind
And fly
​
ONE AND ENSEMBLE
Ah, ahhh, ahhh, to the night sky
Ah, ahhh, ahhh, to the night sky
Ah, ahhh, uhhh, uhhh
Ah, ahhh, uhhh, mmm​
MATTER
​ONE
Weightless here
Far beyond the atmospheres
Away from home
Away from harm
My favorite star
Is far too far to make it
In my life at the speed of light
Never time to find what matters
What matters?
Living life at the speed of light
Never time to find what matters
In all this spinning
ENSEMBLE
Ahhhhhhhhh
Ahhhhhhhhh
ONE
Are we alive
With everything all the time?
We have everything
Every kind of thing
But not the time we need
Billions of us spinning
Living life at the speed of light
Never time to find what matters
What matters?
Let my life turn and reach light
Out beyond this sea of mass
And matter
And matter
​
On this spiral arm
Away from home
Away from harm
We spiral on
The brightest stars
Around a black hole heart
Around the center of a circle
That we never reach
Point me out beyond this
And release me
Yeah!
​
Ahhhh
Ahhhh
TWO
Ahhhh
Ahhhh
ONE AND TWO
Ahhhh
Ahhhh
Ahhhh
​
ARCHIVAL AUDIO (SUZANNE DODD)
“It was just such an electric atmosphere here at JPL. 'Let’s take a piece of us here on Earth and send it out into interstellar space.' Voyager was launched at this very unique opportunity to get to all the outer planets of our solar system. And so, 'How can we build this spacecraft to make that decades-long journey? And what can we put on it to represent us — to represent the Earth?'”​​
ECLIPTIC BLUES
ONE
Beneath the sky
Far from town
The evening lights
Are coming out
We’re almost there
Just a little more—
TWO
—Can you tell me what
What we’re looking for?
ONE
My father was
The local star
If not for us
He would’ve topped the charts
But he never did
And now he’s dead
I come out here
Look overhead
And I think that I was born
For something more than ordinary
I’ve been writing something
I’ve been hiding something
Quite exciting
Something gold
Now turn your head
To the side
And trace between
The brightest lights
On a line
The planets run
Chasing time
Around the sun
I close my eyes
And fly beyond
I don’t know why
I’m telling you this—
TWO
—Please, go on!
ONE
Well, I think that I was born
For something more than ordinary
I’ve been writing something
I’ve been hiding something
Quite exciting
Something gold
Another sun just set
My father died with dreams unmet
So in the time that I have left
I'm gonna go gold
TWO
We could change our lives
People do it all the time
If you wanna change your life
Then change your eyes
ONE AND TWO
We could change our lives
People do it all the time
TWO
If you wanna change your life
Then change your eyes
THE SAME THREE STREETS
ONE
Oh, hallelujah
There is so much to see
A couple hundred billion stars
In our own galaxy
And more unknown than known
Swimming under this sea
But I drive the same three streets
I drive the same three streets
Every week
TWO
Oh, hallelujah
There is so much to see
In the waves and all the wonder
Of a humble heartbeat
And more unknown than known
Dreaming deep within me
But, yeah, I drive the same three streets
ONE
Why drive the same three streets
Every week?
When it’s so wide
It’s so wide open!
So wide open!
So wide open!
For you and me
​
Oh, hallelujah
There is so little time
Let’s make a record of it all
And I could sing at your side
We’ll find a way to leave
The weight of life behind
Instead of driving ‘round
The same three streets
Crying ‘bout the same three streets
Every week
TWO
Oh, hallelujah
Dream of leaving the ground
But my family needs me
And I can’t let them down
ONE
I’ve seen gravity pull everybody
Back to this town
You have to let it be the thing
That pushes you out, there
ONE AND TWO
Beyond the belt
Among the cloud…
​​
ONE, TWO, AND ENSEMBLE
Where it’s so wide open!
So wide open!
So wide open!
So wide open!
So wide open!
So wide open!
So wide open!​
For you and me
CAPE CANAVERAL DAY
ARCHIVAL AUDIO (HUGH HARRIS)
“This is Voyager launch control, approximately 3 minutes remain in that built-in hold. Surface winds are 5 knots out of the southwest. The maximum winds at altitude are 45 knots out of the northeast, at 92,000 feet. The temperature at launch time should be about 80 degrees. All continues to go well heading for liftoff of Voyager 1 from Complex 41 at 8:56 AM.”
ONE
The air was warm
The day was golden
For being born again
TWO
By mid-morning
Shaking off the ice
From the womb of night
And an unlived life
ONE AND TWO
The crowd came down to Kennedy
To see it all up close
Turn on, turn on!
Counting down to see the smoke
And feel the life below
Turn on, turn on!
ONE
I believe I was conceived and born
In Pasadena where the air is warm
ONE AND TWO
But our lives will change
On Cape Canaveral Day
TWO
Let’s get born
And get unfolded
Stretch our arms, find our star
And begin
ONE AND TWO
And by the evening
I’ll be on my way
ONE
And now it’s time to play
I’ll count us in
1, 2, 3, 4…
ONE AND TWO
Welcome down to Kennedy
To see it all up close
Turn on, turn on!
Counting down to see the smoke
And feel the life below
Turn on, turn on!
I believe I was conceived and born
In Pasadena where the air is warm
But our lives will change
On Cape Canaveral Day
ONE
I believe I was conceived and born
In California, in the swarm
ONE AND TWO
But life will change
On Cape Canaveral Day
​
ARCHIVAL AUDIO (HUGH HARRIS)
“—Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. We have ignition and we have a liftoff.”
GOODNIGHT MOONLIGHT
ONE
So long, little Mercury
You may be missing me
But I won’t be
Goodnight, to the evening light
Venus shining bright
From the horizon
And Mars, Mars, Mars
I’m only missing you
By a month or two
Goodnight moonlight
I love you, but I’m leaving you tonight
Farewell, to the ocean blue
I know I’m seeing you
For the last time
And goodbye, Ma
I won’t forget to write
But I’ve crossed the Karman Line
And it’s my time
Goodnight moonlight
You’ll try to call me home
But I won’t go
Goodnight moonlight
I love you, but I’m leaving you tonight
SIDEWAYS SKY
ONE
So long, to my little heart
Go on and chase those stars
It's time to fly
It's "do or die"
So you tell yourself it's ok
You tell yourself it's ok
​
When she arrived
At the sideways sky
Her world was over on its side
Now it's time to fold
And go back home
But she said that she was ok
She said that she was ok
​
And I hear her in my mind
Saying, "Everything is fine"
Saying, "Everything's alright
If you see it in the light
If you see it in the right light"
Right, right!
TWO AND ENSEMBLE
Breathe, just breathe girl!
ONE AND TWO
She flies the sideways sky
She flies the sideways sky
She flies the sideways sky
But she won't get far without me
She won't get far without me
And I hear her in my mind
Saying, "Everything is fine"
Saying, "Everything's alright
If you see it in the light
If you see it in the right light"
Right, right!
​
ENSEMBLE
Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
ONE
I'm gonna double the pace
And charge half the price
I'll do twice the press
In only half the time
I'm gonna beat the sun
And reach the lights of heaven
​
I'm gonna double the shows
And go to number one
I'm gonna make you notice
When the numbers come
That I'm someone
Who can write a golden record
​
I'm gonna beat the sun
I'm gonna beat the sun
I'm gonna beat the sun
I'm gonna beat the sun
I'm gonna reach the line
I'm gonna reach the line
I'm gonna reach the line
I'm gonna reach the line
I'm gonna beat the sun
I'm gonna beat the sun
I'm gonna beat the sun
I'm gonna beat the sun
I'm gonna reach the line
I'm gonna reach the line
I'm gonna reach the line
It's my time!
SEEKING PRODUCTION PARTNERS
Our vision is to see musical theatre lovers explore both the edges of the known universe and their inmost selves through a dramatic experience of the "Overview Effect" — the feeling of humility and oneness astronauts experience when they see our tiny Earth from space.
​
Our mission is to bring Voyagers: A Space Rock Opera to Broadway by 2027, the 50th anniversary of the launch of the twin Voyager spacecraft. Saguaro City Music Theatre is looking for First Class producing partners to bring Cameron's vision to life on Broadway by Fall of 2027. #broadwayby2027
OUR PROGRESS SO FAR
SEPTEMBER 2025
Full-Length "Proof of Concept" Film Completed
MAY 2025
Workshop #5 (James Kelley Carroll & Samantha Beemer)
MAY 2025
Article in Tucson Weekly featuring composer Cameron Hood and director Drew Humphrey
AUGUST 2024
Workshop #4 (James Kelley Carroll & Samantha Beemer)
MAY 2024
World Premiere of "Cape Canaveral Day / Goodnight Moonlight" with the Tucson Pops Orchestra (James Kelley Carroll, Samantha Beemer & Cameron Hood)
APRIL 2024
Workshop #3 (James Kelley Carroll & Samantha Beemer)
JUNE 2023
Workshop #2 (James Kelley Carroll & Samantha Beemer)
JUNE 2023
Awarded: Project Mesquite New Works Grant
by Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona
OCTOBER–NOVEMBER 2022
Workshop #1(Xander Mason & Celeste Lewis)
AUGUST 2022
Fundraising Lyric Videos Created (Cameron Hood & Lisa Gollenberg)
MARCH 2022
Awarded: Research & Development Grant
by Arizona Commission on the Arts
NOVEMBER 2019
First Public Announcement about Voyagers
GET EMAIL UPDATES
Receive invitations to future workshops and get immediate access to exclusive audio and video.
MAKE A DONATION​
You have the power to help create this incredible new work! Saguaro City Music Theatre is a 501(c)3 organization, so all donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Get credit card points, get a tax break, and help launch this musical from Tucson to the stars.
SAGUARO CITY MUSIC THEATRE