Songs in the Dark uses music, pantomime, recitation, and tableaux vivants to tell the story of fictional ancient Greek poetess Bilitis, whose life is a saga of love and sexual discovery punctuated by heartbreak and tragedy. Poet Pierre Louÿs published his Bilitis poems in order to foster public engagement with sensitive issues including rape, lesbian love, prostitution, and societal attitudes toward beauty and age. Although the poems were banned when they were revealed as a hoax, they continued to inspire visual art and music including compositions by Claude Debussy. In 2010, faculty and students of Southwestern University (Georgetown, Texas) re-enacted a 1901 Parisian salon based on the story of Bilitis, bringing together brought the complete corpus of Debussys Bilitis-inspired music together original pieces inspired by the story of Bilitis, illustrating both the historical phenomenon of the story and its enduring potential for social commentary and artistic inspiration.