When a controversial cult known as the KIN moves into an old ranch in a small American town, tensions rise between the free-loving, drug-using newcomers and the conservative townspeople, who are hell-bent on driving them away. Noah, the ostracized son of the town’s beloved former mayor, believes if he expels the cultists, the community will finally forgive him for his role in his mother’s accidental death.
When Noah infiltrates the group, however, he encounters diverse, welcoming members who help him process his grief. Torn between town and cult, Noah must ultimately decide where his loyalties lie.
KIN: A New Musical is a reworked theatrical production by Ben Recchia, founder and creative producer of the new Burlington company Workaround Theatre. The musical is the fifth show directed by the 27-year-old Charlotte native and his first working with a semiprofessional cast and crew. It premieres on Friday, July 18, with 10 performances through Sunday, July 27, at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center‘s Black Box Theater.
“The show is about how we all have something in our past like Noah … some guilt or grief that we’re suppressing,” Recchia said. “But if you bring it to the surface and process it and move forward with it, that’s a better way of being in a community.”
If the show’s fictional plot sounds familiar, that’s because it’s loosely based on real-life events involving Rajneeshpuram, an intentional community of followers of the Indian spiritual leader Rajneesh. In the early 1980s, Rajneeshees began moving to Wasco County, Ore., where they faced off with locals. Several of the cult’s leaders were later convicted for their involvement in voter fraud, arson, bioterrorism and an assassination plot against a U.S. attorney, all of which were chronicled in the 2018 Netflix documentary series “Wild Wild Country.”
Though KIN includes ’80s-inspired music, it doesn’t get nearly as dark as the actual events, Recchia said: “Basically, that there was a cult where people wore red is where the similarities end.”
Recchia adapted the show from one by Emil Dale and Stefan Kelk, both of the UK. Versions of the musical were produced in London before Recchia chanced on it last year while looking for a new theatrical project. (When he’s not producing plays, Recchia is pursuing a doctorate in zoology at the University of Vermont.)
“I just happened to find their website online,” he said. “I was not googling shows about cults.”
Recchia sent the playwrights an email in April 2024, then met with them on a video call, where they agreed to give him full creative license. Last fall, Recchia reworked the script and score into a sung-through musical, which he shared with Dale. According to Recchia, the original cowriter told him he liked some changes and would have done others differently, “but I’m not going to tell you which ones are which.”
Recchia began rehearsals and set construction in early July with a cast and crew of 30 that includes his parents. Carl Recchia, a retired choral music teacher at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, serves as the show’s music director, while Mary Recchia, who worked in the fashion industry for many years, is the costumer.
Producing a show with his parents is “wonderful and hard, in all the ways you can imagine,” Recchia said. “Every dinnertime turns into a production meeting.”
After having directed shows such as The Little Mermaid and Peter Pan with youth theater groups, he’s excited to tackle adult themes with an adult cast. Though this is Recchia’s first new musical, he plans to produce more original shows through his theater company.
Since Recchia started reworking KIN‘s script last year, “The universal themes of acceptance and community have only become more and more important,” he said. “While the show is not particularly political, those themes about trying to bring people together are super present.
“And I love that this show doesn’t give us the perfect happy ending,” he added, “but it does wrap up in a way that feels cathartic.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Workaround Theatre Stages KIN: A New Musical, About a Cult and Culture Clash”
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2025.
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