Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope

"Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" focuses on the African-American experience with songs on such topics as tenements, slumlords, ghetto life, student protests and feminism. It features a mix of music including gospel, jazz, funk, soul, calypso and soft rock. The musical is set in North Philadelphia, across the street from Freedom Theatre, where a demolished William Penn High School is being rebuilt as a racetrack for Temple University. The set will look like a construction site and is modeled after pictures that were taken each day during the demolition. Actors explore the subject matters as a form of street protest in front of the ruins. Each character - the preacher, waitress, artist, mother, student and the rest - will not be able to "cope" because their neighborhood is being swallowed up.