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One, Episode 15: Dylan Schifrin
In episode #15 of the Yale Schwarzman Center web series, One, Music major Dylan Schifrin YC‘20 talks with interviewer Alex McGrath YC’21 about Schifrin’s senior project. His show, titled Y2K: A Survivalist Musical, imagines a colony of doomsday preppers who fled society at the time of the “Year 2000 Problem” (also known as Y2K) and have been living in isolation for 20 years — without ever hearing that the apocalypse did not actually occur. A comedy exploring themes of truth and uncertainty, Y2K: A Survivalist Musical was first conceptualized in Schifrin’s sophomore year and was slated to premiere in April 2020.
While the in-person premier was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Schifrin has been exploring an alternative future for the musical. This episode of One includes two excerpts from the musical, both performed remotely by its original cast of Yale undergraduates.
Y2K: A Survivalist Musical was made possible with support from Yale’s Creative and Performing Arts Award, Yale alumni David Koslow, and the Women at Yale Arts Grant as part of the “50WomenAtYale150” Celebration.
There is this newfound relevance to the show in that it deals with mass panic — and what to do when the future is uncertain and no one really knows how this terrifying event is going to unfold.
About 'One'
One, a web series produced by the Yale Schwarzman Center, highlights interdisciplinary approaches to the arts in relation to the Center’s values of collaboration, wellness and belonging.
The inaugural season illuminates the creative and academic merits of student works impacted by social distance and explores perspectives on community-building among dispersed groups. The series title, One, is a nod to the Schwarzman Center’s aspiration to advance a sense of “One Yale” and create an interconnected community that builds new traditions of student engagement around the campus and into the world.
