2-20-2026 5:25am

In The Green | Ophelia's Jump | Mar 6 - 29

Eric Bergstrom Editor

In The Green tells the origin story of one of Medieval history's most powerful and creative women: Hildegard von Bingen.

Before she became a healer, a composer, an exorcist, and finally a saint, she was a young girl locked in a cell with her mentor, Jutta. This new musical by Grace McLean is the tale of two women and the journey that leads one to embrace death, and the other to celebrate the beauty and blemishes of a fully lived life.

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Hildegard Von Bingen– (c. 1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. She has been considered by a number of scholars to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.

In the Green is a fictionalized origin story about Hildegard. At the musical’s opening, Hildegard is delivered to the convent at age 8 because she has stopped speaking after the death of her sister. There we find out that Hildegard has become broken. She is played by three women– Hildegard Mouth, Hildegard Eye, and Hildegard Hand. Jutta, the “anchoress” in charge of the convent, teaches Hildegard that to become whole again she must watch, wait, and dig while giving up all other connections to the world. Jutta herself has embraced living as if she were dead. Through the passage of time Jutta gives Hildegard advice such as to stop eating so that her periods will cease, to not sleep so she can continue to be ever watchful, and to continue to dig a hole which Hildegard discovers is to be her own grave.

Though Hildegard strives to comply, she cannot help but question Jutta’s teachings. Through questioning Hildegard finds herself in an underground place where she meets Shadow whom she discovers is a part of Jutta that she has broken off and buried away. Shadow helps Hildegard remember and tell the story surrounding her sister’s death, helping her reunite the parts of herself she had blamed for what happened. Hildegard brings Shadow up to Jutta and tries to get her to accept her and tell her story, Jutta remembers and tells what happened to her but then rejects the shadowed part of herself and chooses death.

Hildegard has learned that the dark parts of herself must be recognized to be able to see sunlight again. At the end of the musical, Hildegard has taken over for Jutta and when a young girl, Sigwize, is brought to her for training. As the show ends, it is unclear whether Hildegard will choose Jutta’s way or a different path with Sigwize.

In the Green draws from St. Hildegard’s music and writings bringing them into the 21st century with extensive vocal looping, complex rhythms, and beautiful harmonies.

The story is conveyed through imaginative movement, puppetry, animated projections, and beautiful, complex, and highly creative music sung both acapella and with a live cohort of musicians.