And then there's Dana Cain, who's turned all that material she started creating at seventeen into a stage production called The Android's New Soul: A Sci-Fi Musical. It debuts — finally! — at the Bug Theater on September 6.
The rock-opera is an unlikely love story that brings together a woman scientist and a sexy android in a nuclear-aftermath California that fraught with radiation risk, mutants running wild, and more post-apocalyptic romance than a teenage girl can dream of. Because this show — which Cain admits has been expanded and modernized a bit — is still the thing she envisioned back in 1974.
Poster art for The Android's New Soul by nationally-known local artist Scorpio Steele.
Courtesy Dana Cain
Cain is known in Colorado for the award-winning events she puts on, including the Toy & Doll Supershow; festivals for cat, dog and unicorn lovers; and gastronomical events like her Loveland Chocolate & Cheese Fest in September and Aurora's Choctoberfest in October. Over the years, her events have earned sixteen Best of Denver awards, among other accolades.
But music and writing have always been close to her heart. "Everything was music when I was young," recalls Cain. "I was obsessed with it in high school." She wrote a music column called "Rock Garden" for her high school newspaper, and went on to serve as music editor for the Driftwood student newspaper at the University of New Orleans. "I wanted to be the next Lester Bangs," she say.
"A lot of the stuff I loved were rock operas," she adds. "I listened to a lot of Jesus Christ Superstar. Tommy, of course. And Bowie, lots of Bowie. He didn't do a rock opera, but he wanted Diamond Dogs to be one, based on [the Orwell novel] 1984. And then right after that, I saw both Rocky Horror Picture Show and Phantom of the Paradise, and I was convinced that rock operas were going to be the thing from then on."
All that musical inspiration came to dovetail with Cain's other passion at the time. "I was such a sci-fi girl," she laughs. She admits to early crushes on Elroy Jetson (The Jetsons), and Will Robinson (Lost in Space). "And then when Star Trek came along, I had a huge crush on Captain Kirk, of course," she says. "But there was so much that happened before Star Wars. Planet of the Apes, Space: 1999, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Logan's Run. The three godfathers of sci-fi back then were really Gene Roddenberry, Irwin Allen and Rod Serling. Those were the greats. My television gods."
That fandom, combined with Cain's love of music, was what brought about her creative endeavors that would eventually become The Android's New Soul. "Back then, my plan was that I'd make my way to L.A., meet Elton John, marry Elton John, grow up and write rock operas with Elton John," Cain says. "And somewhere in the middle there, I was going to write for Creem magazine."
No, those plans didn't work out, for various reasons. One was that Cain found herself at home in the fan-convention world while in college. "My editor said there was this new thing called a Star Trek convention, and that I should go cover it," she says. "Once I got there, I'd found my people. I started volunteering, went to a few cons, got involved. It was amazing."
Over time, Cain parlayed that deep-seated interest into running her own shows. "And now," she notes, "it's unicorns, cats, and chocolates that are funding my science-fiction rock opera!"
This isn't the first time she's made part of this particular dream come true: Cain released an album of songs back in 2018, when she vowed that turning the songs into a stage show was "the next step."
And here it is: Dana Cain's next step, fifty years in the making.
The Android's New Soul runs from Friday, September 6, through Sunday, September 15, at the Bug Theater, 3645 Navajo Street. For more information and to purchase tickets ($20 to $30), go to Dana Cain's website or the Bug Theater.
