The 2016 New York Musical Festival, which runs July 11 through August 7, will bring audiences four full weeks of new musicals, concerts, readings, and panel discussions. We spoke with director, choreographer, and co-writer Andrew Palermo, whose musical Nickel Mines interprets a 2006 Amish schoolhouse shooting in Lancaster, Pennsylvania through movement, music, and text.

What was the first musical that made you want to make musicals?

West Side Story.

Describe the sound of your musical:

Folk meets soul.

Your show is especially poignant after the mass shooting in Orlando. Has that affected the show or led to rewrites?

As we know too well, the number of mass shootings since the West Nickel Mines tragedy is staggering. Orlando is the latest in our country’s epidemic and one that seems to be (hopefully) creating a bit of a tipping point. But it has not directly impacted the script or score.

Many people think musicals are light entertainment, what prompted you to make a show about such a dark subject matter?

Going back to my and Taye Diggs’ dance company dre.dance, I’ve been drawn to work that has social significance or implication in one way or another. It’s wonderful to create entertainment that is fun, light and generally ‘up’. But I’m personally invested when art can further a conversation that reaches past the edge of the stage (or installation/exhibit/page/song, etc).

In addition, from the darkness comes light. More than anything, Nickel Mines is a story about the power of forgiveness, and about how community, family, faith and fortitude can withstand even the darkest of tragedies.

What are your favorite musicals that touch on dark subjects?

Sweeney, West Side Story, Parade, to name a few…

Why is it important to bring your show to NYMF?

We’re honored to have been selected as a Next Link Project of NYMF. It speaks volumes that the organization is willing to take risks, to ask their audience to dig a little deeper than they might be comfortable, and to help us tell this story that remains stubbornly timely. As I mentioned before, America’s gun violence epidemic shows little to no signs of down-turning anytime soon. Examining just one of these tragedies, partially viewed through an ’other’ lens (the Amish community), and asking questions about how we personally and communally deal with loss, death, forgiveness and ultimately hope is a challenge that my collaborators and I are excited to take on.

What’s next for the show?

Right now we’re mainly focused on bringing the best version possible of Nickel Mines to the Duke on 42nd St for our NYMF run. We already have interest for next steps of this piece. But we’re anxious to consider all options as the work moves forward and audiences weigh in on Nickel Mines.