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For a quarter-century, while the rest of New York slept or looked away, Maggie Dubris was behind the wheel of a 911 ambulance, navigating the neon-lit chaos of Times Square and the turbulent streets of Hell’s Kitchen. Working out of St. Clare’s Hospital—an institution that was chronically underfunded, wildly unconventional, and fiercely dedicated to the city’s poorest residents—Dubris witnessed the frontline realities of the crack epidemic, the devastating epicenter of the AIDS crisis, and the tragedy of September 11th.

Now, Dubris has channeled those 25 years of high-stakes emergency medicine, urban grit, and human connection into the libretto and lyrics for BROKE, a new musical presented by Animal Stone Productions. Running as a workshop presentation at Theatre 4 on Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street) from September 14–20, the show adapts Dubris’s acclaimed book BrokeDown Palace into a sweeping, century-long theatrical odyssey.

Translating 911 Emergency Calls into Lyric and Verse

While popular media often leans into the trope of the hardened, cynical first responder, Dubris’s experience behind the siren was defined by empathy, community, and discovery.

“Often the job of being on an ambulance is represented as harsh, and the tale of the burnt out medic has been told often. This was not my experience,” Dubris notes. “As a woman I had to negotiate a lot of harassment, but I think I was allowed to open my heart in a way that my male colleagues weren’t. My memories of those years are of being plunged into pivotal, intense moments in a landscape that was both colorful and strange. Poetry, lyric, and music can capture this in a way that a narrative story can’t.”

For Dubris, the goal was never just to portray trauma, but to capture the full spectrum of frontline life: the gallows humor, the thrill of adventure, the camaraderie, and the privilege of entering subcultures and spaces few outsiders ever saw.

A Hundred-Year Sisterhood Across Time

BROKE connects two women across a century, examining how their shared instinct for survival and compassion shaped the neighborhood:

• Katie Henry (Mother Alice): Arriving from Ireland in 1896, she established St. Clare’s in 1934 during the Great Depression. With virtually no budget, her order canned their own food, slept in tin shacks on the roof, strong-armed creditors into donating services, and outsmarted city building inspectors to keep the doors open.
• Nikki Owen (Dubris’s Theatrical Counterpart): Arriving in 1983, Nikki finds an un-corporate, rules-free haven where crews buy their own supplies and uniforms are nonexistent—yet where love and care for the forgotten are absolute. Notably, in an era dominated by men, St. Clare’s ambulance department was half women.

Through Katie and Nikki, BROKE illustrates how Mother Alice’s rebellious, compassionate blueprint in 1934 directly laid the groundwork for the frontline medics who held the city together during the crises of the 1980s and 1990s.

Preservation and Illumination: Honoring What Remains

Today, St. Clare’s Hospital has been demolished, replaced by luxury condominiums. For Dubris, BROKE serves as both an act of historical preservation and a meditation on legacy:

“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been thinking a lot about what impact my life has had. All the intense experiences, the calls, the countless patients… What happens to all of it? My life isn’t going to be in history books. Will my actions, as dramatic as they seemed at the time, echo forward in any way? The more I looked into Mother Alice, the more I started to believe they do… Her actions did echo forward. Even though I never met her, I knew her soul through the hospital she created.”

Creative Collaborators

To bring this world to life, Dubris is joined by an award-winning creative team:

• Andy Teirstein (Composer): A Leonard Bernstein student and recipient of NEA, ASCAP, and NYFA honors, Teirstein weaves traditional Irish fiddle tunes, bodhrán beats, and Ghanaian and Cuban polyrhythms into a modern, asymmetric urban soundscape.
• Seán Curran (Director & Choreographer): A Bessie Award winner, Guggenheim Fellow, and original NYC cast member of STOMP!, Curran fuses Irish step traditions with physical theater to recreate the kinetic pulse of the hospital and streets.

Workshop Details

Detail	Information
Title	BROKE (Workshop Presentation)
Presented By	Animal Stone Productions
Performance Dates	September 17–20 Tickets available September 1 Contact info@jaymichaelsarts.com for details
Location	Theatre 4 at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, New York, NY)
Book & Lyrics	Maggie Dubris
Music	Andy Teirstein
Direction & Choreography	Seán Curran