Its origin starts in 2020 when Rosalie Bochansky, technical director of visual and performing arts at Quinnipiac, and her team produced a new musical adaptation of Stephen King’s novel "Rage" with Elizabeth Dinkova, who wrote and directed it.

The cast included actor-musician Michael Pemberton, who had written a rock opera of "The Master and Margarita." Dinkova later offered to adapt his rock opera into a stage musical.

The play's inspiration comes from "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov, a novel set in 1930s Moscow.

"Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show" was showcased this past fall at the Theatre Arts Center at Quinnipiac, and is currently being revised to be shown in Washington D.C at the Spooky Action Theater from March 20  to April 14.

“We know what a meaningful experience it is for our students to be able to make theater, and as a program, we’re privileged to be able to provide the opportunity to work with visionary artists on projects about which they’re passionate,” said Bochansky. "So it’s really gratifying to know that, in addition to enriching our students’ lives, we’ve been able to make a meaningful contribution to American Theater as a whole.”

“Universities have always been crucibles of experimentation and discovery, and we’re tickled to be able to see one of our creations enter another stage of evolution,” Bochansky said.

Even though most of the music was written 10 years ago, it took a huge effort to adapt it for theater, Bochansky said.

“We had to imagine what shape the production would take, decide which musicians to hire, how to re-orchestrate the music and create a score, and write the script," she said. "And all of that is just to get to the start of the rehearsal process."

The careful choices on characters and plotlines was challenging and timely, Bochansky explained.

The team had to balance two production styles, separate actors and musicians for Quinnipiac and actor-musicians for D.C., also only having a year to prepare forced the directors to make a lot of revisions within rehearsals.

“The students were so critical for this. They were both enthusiastic and serious, which allowed the work to grow in a really healthy way. They were also game about making changes right up until the last minute,” said Bochansky.

Looking toward the future, Bochansky looks forward to the success of "Professor Woland's Black Magic Rock Show" and to the development of the play.

“The theater program is in its own state of transformation, but we plan to keep making quality work, and to make what we do accessible to more students across campus,” she said.