‘The Village Bicycle’ is a full-length musical about sex work, bicycles and liberation in the American west of the 1890s.
It’s book and lyrics are written by Anne Marina Fidler, with music and lyrics by Jerrick Cavagnaro
Anne first conceived the idea for The Village Bicycle in 2013 while working as the creative director for Bike Smut, a touring film festival showcasing short erotic bicycle movies. From the start, she knew it had to be a musical—a big, classic-style production, but with unconventional themes. Anne was inspired by the bicycle’s role in the first wave of feminism and how they continue to be important tools of liberation to this day. She also wanted to create a story where sex work was neither demonized nor glorified, challenging societal shame and stigma around sexuality that perpetuates unsafe conditions for sex workers, instead drawing on her own experiences of camaraderie in these spaces. Through her in-depth research of the Bay Area in the late 1800s, she was further inspired by the ingenuity of sex workers at the time and the existence of a real life all-girl bicycle gang called The Falcons.
Anne started writing the story and looking for a composer. She completed the script and did a table reading without music in 2019. After some failed collaborations, she was finally introduced to Jerrick through a mutual friend of a friend. With Anne in Berlin and Jerrick in Boston, they began collaborating remotely, exchanging ideas and drafts online. By October 2023, five songs were complete, and they held a second table reading in Berlin, with Jerrick playing the music over Zoom. Since then, they’ve drafted additional songs and continue refining the work whenever their schedules allow.
Currently, we are planning to do a staged reading in Berlin in autumn of 2025. Stay tuned!!
︎ ︎