BORDERLINE
Music and Lyrics by Benjamin Velez
Book by Aryanna Garber
Borderline follows Anna Liddell, a young woman who’s never quite fit into the world around her. After losing her job and getting evicted, Anna hits rock bottom—arrested for vandalizing a bar and forced to move back in with her estranged father, John. As part of her sentence, she’s ordered into therapy with a court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Brenner—a woman Anna neither knows nor trusts.
Used to keeping people at arm’s length and finding solace in self-destruction, Anna isn’t prepared for Dr. Brenner’s blunt, no-bullshit approach. She’s even less prepared to meet Jesse, a neurotic but kind-hearted asthmatic who somehow sees past her defenses. For a moment, it feels like things might be turning around. But Anna’s old habits die hard, and her impulse to sabotage anything good threatens to unravel it all. After a brutal fight with her father, Anna turns to Dr. Brenner for support—only to receive a diagnosis that changes everything: Borderline Personality Disorder. For the first time, Anna is faced with a name for the chaos she’s always carried inside. It’s a relief, a curse, and a question: what now? Can Anna rebuild her life with this new understanding of herself? Can she trust others when she can barely trust her own emotions? And can she let love in when her instinct is to push everyone away?
Borderline is an honest exploration of illness, family dysfunction, and fragile hope. It’s a story about breaking down and rebuilding, about finding meaning in the mess—and about realizing that even when you’re at your most broken, you’re not alone.
Borderline is the 2018 Weston Playhouse New Musical Award Winner and had the honor of being the first musical in the 2019 O’Neill National Musical Theater conference.
FEATURED SONGS
"Borderline" (Anna)
Anna has just been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and is working to make sense of what that means.
"I'm Gonna Die Alone" (Anna)
Plagued by crippling anxiety and known for blowing every dating opportunity that comes her way, Anna laments her likely fate and admits her desire for real intimacy.
"Crazy Wonderful" (John)
John, Anna’s father, makes every attempt he can to avoid discussing his late wife. But when he befriends Anna’s case worker Dana, John opens up about his wife for the first time.
"Wanna Go Out" (Jesse and Anna)
Jesse, a guy Anna has befriended in the waiting room of her therapist’s office, is trying to ask her out on a date. Anna, who’s never had the upper hand when it comes to dating, is committed to playing hard to get.
"Land of Lost and Found" (Dr. Brenner)
Anna’s therapist, Dr. Brenner, feels helpless to help Anna as she decides to go off her meds and falls down a terrifying spiral of withdrawal.
