CUTTIN'
HEADS
THE CROSSROADS INFERNO - A NEW MUSICAL
ABOUT
​
A barbershop at the edge of the crossroads. A guitar that still hums with hellfire. A boy chasing sound, a man haunted by it.
​
Cuttin' Heads: The Crossroads Inferno is a new original musical that fuses the mythic crossroads legend of Delta bluesman Robert Johnson with the timeless architecture of Dante’s Inferno. Set in a Southern Black barbershop, part sanctuary, part storytelling chamber; the musical follows Robert Johnson as he embarks on a journey through a surreal underworld to reclaim his sound, his soul, and his legacy.
​
As Robert navigates the nine circles of a musical hellscape, he’s guided by Miss Bess, a no-nonsense blues queen rooted in the spirit of Bessie Smith. In the living world, a young boy named Plug watches and listens, slowly absorbing the rhythm of rebellion, artistry, and transformation that flows through the clippers, chords, and chaos of the barbershop.​​​​​
COLLABORATION
This collaboration began through familiarity first. I (Jennine Doc Krueger) was previously an English Professor at Huston-Tillotson University an HBCU in Austin. I taught a course on Poetry and Performance in Spring 2022, and Samuel Aaron Peters was a student of mine. I believe he needed one more elective to graduate as a Music major and he figured why not.
After Sam graduated, we followed each other through social media to keep in touch on creative ventures. I was in the process of already writing and researching Cuttin' Heads when I came across a post of his and reached out to him in April of 2025 about his interest in composing a musical. His post was about being fed up as a musician and wanting to be in a place to thrive. He played a song about meeting the devil to make a deal. Immediately I knew his bluegrass style and soulful sound would be perfect for this project
A preview Told in Rhythm and Flame
At its core, Cuttin' Heads is a journey of voice: who gets to shape it, who tries to silence it, and how it echoes through generations. From whispered prayers to shouted gospel, from bottleneck slide to electric distortion, the music of this show carries the tension of tradition and change.
​
Blues, gospel, rock, and spoken word collide with Southern folklore,
Black barbershop culture, and the spiritual weight of legacy. All lyrics are original. Some of the following tracks are concepts only envisioned through AI as we continue development,
CHARACTERS
 |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
JENNINE
"DOC" KRUEGER
BOOK & LYRICS
Jennine “DOC” Krueger is a mother, writer, artivist, public speaker, and educator in Austin, Texas. She has competed in world, national, and local slam poetry competitions. She holds four national titles and has now coached several national teams for Austin Poetry Slam and Austin Neo Soul. Her poetry and dramatic works have been published in Santa Fe Literary Review, and the Sierra Nevada Review as a winner in the Brian Turner Literary Arts Prize, and her dramatic work has won best of fest five times in Austin’s Frontera Festival. She was also recently named a Pushcart Prize nominee for her poetry published in Good River Review titled, Brown Girl at a Writing Retreat: A Case Study.
She has earned an M.Ed. from Concordia University and an MFA in poetry from Spalding University, and she is also an Emerging Teaching Artist Fellow through Mindpop and the City of Austin. She has over 20 years of teaching experience at both secondary and undergraduate levels as well as 20 plus years of public and motivational speaking around identity, positive thinking and mental health.
Her scholarship has led her to discuss culture and comics at the National Pop Culture Conference, Wizard World’s Comic Con, virtually in the 2020 SXSWEdu conference on Teaching for Social Justice with Comics, and The Cosplay Poetry Slam at SanJapan 2021 in San Antonio Texas. Her writing has a vast range across politics, race and identity as well as across genres with children’s literature and a hip-hop musical retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (currently in development through Theatre Now New York’s National Musical Lab).
Her research interests are in spoken word performance, medieval literature translations into hip-hop, social and restorative justice, and marginalized heroes in comic books and graphic novels. She is represented by Tobias Literary Management and is currently shopping an anime screenplay pilot Ars Poetica (Best TV Script at Tokyo Screenplay Awards w/Brett Niethamer) that will focus on poetry and mental health. She is also developing several other new musicals: one about Doris Miller, a Black WWII hero, and another retelling the Salem Witch trials with an emphasis on the narrative from Tituba.
SAMUEL AARON PETERS
COMPOSER
Samuel Aaron Peters is a spellbinding pianist, composer, and songwriter whose sound is steeped in the rich loam of blues, folk, ragtime, and the tangled, soulful roots of American music. A true sonic storyteller, Samuel weaves melodies that feel both haunted and holy, drawing on traditions passed down like whispered secrets across generations.
​
Currently based in Washington, D.C., Samuel studied piano performance at Huston-Tillotson University; Austin’s oldest institution of higher learning and a proud Historically Black College and University (HBCU). There, in a city where the spirit of music clings to the air, he honed his craft among echoes of gospel choirs, juke joints, and jazz improvisation.
​
His hands have graced the keys in some of the country’s most storied venues, from the gritty sanctuaries of Antone’s and the Victory Grill in the heart of Austin, to the glowing stages of Skylark Lounge and the prestigious Lincoln Center in New York.
​
Whether performing solo, leading a band, or guiding ensembles as a music director, Samuel’s work pulses with narrative and nuance. He’s currently scoring an independent film noir comedy series and composing original music for Echoes on the Prairie—another new musical written by Ann Eskridge. Both Cuttin' Heads and Echoes on the Prairie are Peters' first full compositions for the stage.
​
Raised in a family where music was as essential as breath; and shaped by a nomadic life under the shadow of Army bases, Samuel brings a deeply personal, transitory sensibility to every project he touches. His compositions are as much migrations as they are songs, moving through memory, mystery, and the marrow of American sound.
