Phase III - First Quarter
“The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.”
— King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3
It’s kind of fun, albiet annoying as fuck, seeing where the wind takes us.
Shadowplay began as a theatre company — a place where I could dig into the dark corners of human experience and ask the questions we’re taught to ignore. I’ve always believed that theatre is one of the last sacred spaces where we’re allowed to feel things fully, to be raw and messy and haunted and real.
But somewhere along the way, I stopped being able to contain those truths inside a stage.
I couldn’t wait for the lights to go up. I couldn’t wait for the space or the perfectly timed opening nights. The world was breaking in real time, and I felt like I was screaming inside my own skull while everyone else just... kept scrolling. So I did the only thing I knew how to do — I made something. That’s where veritas.exe was born.
The Origin Code
This album didn’t come from a plan, it came from pressure — personal, political, spiritual, emotional. I was grieving things I couldn’t name and dealing with shit I couldn’t even begin to articulate. Every time I tried to outline a business plan and nail down the first season, the voice in my head would scream louder: "The world is lying to you. Say something."
So I did.
I stitched it together with AI tools and almost zero sleep. Some nights I was sobbing between takes. Other nights I was laughing like a madwoman. The sound changed with each emotion — industrial, tribal, cinematic, raw. There’s no single genre because grief and fury don’t obey genre. Every track became a layer — a descent, a revelation, a warning — and honestly, it scared me, because the truth inside it is the kind that costs you something.
The Arc I Didn’t Plan
At first, I thought I was just making songs — throwing emotion into a machine and letting it spit something back. But somewhere along the way, I realized I wasn’t just venting. I was channeling.
The lyrics started coming faster than I could write them. They didn’t feel like they were just mine — they felt like echoes, like I was pulling from something deeper, older, universal. And when I stepped back and looked at what I had, I saw something I didn’t expect… there was a story. A full arc. A descent and a reckoning. A transformation.
Without meaning to, I had created a concept album.
And now I can see it clearly — veritas.exe wants to be something more. It’s begging to be staged, embodied, shouted, sung — not just heard in headphones but lived in space. Someday, I’d love to see this as a rock opera — visual, visceral, and alive. I see movement, shadow, projection, masks, flame, silence, and static. A full-blown ritual. A digital requiem. A witness testimony set to rhythm.
Because this isn’t just my story. It’s all of ours.
Whether you feel it in the burnout, the numbness, the rage, the grief, the waking up — on some level, we are all living inside this machine. And this album might not be the answer, but it’s at least a map. Or maybe a flare in the dark.
So are you still Shadowplay Theatre or what?
Shadowplay Theatre still exists — but we’ve grown into something deeper. Shadowplay Productions is now a home for any medium that demands to be heard. Storytelling is not restricted to theatre — especially not the kind we want to do — and deep down, I always knew we were going to become something more than just a theatre company. Sometimes the best things happen when you don’t plan them. We are the storytellers. We bear witness. We hold the mirror.
We’re still called Shadowplay Theatre Company because, after all, “All the world is a stage — and the men and women in it are merely players.”
veritas.exe is the first release under this banner because music moves faster than theatre — because there are people out there barely holding it together — because we are drowning in distraction, and someone has to interrupt the feed.
I don’t care if this album gets played in clubs or ends up being passed quietly between survivors of the system like a digital secret. What matters is that it exists — and that it finds the people it’s meant for.
Because this isn’t just music.
For the Ones Who Made It This Far
If you’re still reading, thank you. I don’t take it lightly.
We live in a world where attention is currency and truth gets filtered through algorithms, so if you’ve made it to the bottom of this blog, ...I know you're someone who's still in the audience when others have already left…..hanging out, waiting for the howdy line haha — you’re someone who understands the value of bearing witness. Someone who doesn’t flinch from the dark, not because it’s fun, but because it’s necessary.
Here is your invitation to listen, feel, and share it with someone who needs it. Shadowplay isn’t done. This was just the initial signal.
The stage is still waiting. The stories are still coming. But now… they come with a soundtrack.
#veritasexe #ShadowplayProductions #TruthInTheStatic #TheWitnessesSpeak #BeautyInTheDarkness #Testify
