Richard: A few notes on Rooted and the creative process

Rooted is about being radical. I feel our little musical is a very critical inspection, or for Janice and I, a reflection on university life and privilege.  We developed the themes of the play together. Janice really took the ideas we had and created characters and situations. When Janice was mostly done the script I read through and made suggestions and we discussed which songs we had left to write, and how to explode the ideas we had into a fun, emotional and creative expression of things we have learned. 

To be rooted is to have roots in your community, values, and yet have an openness and anticipation of change. Communities change, values shift, if we pay attention and work for change together we can see changes that we like. If we don’t work for changes we will see them happen and not like them, feeling even less empowered to make change, and raise up children who feel the same way. 

Rooted is about becoming empowered. I feel that empowerment has no endpoint; it’s a constant journey of the relational and spiritual sort. As we become more involved in our communities the more aware we become, and if ignorance is bliss, awareness can certainly be a nightmare of discouragement.

I have had a struggle putting together music for this production. It’s been another rough fall for me. I’ve been transitioning into a new awareness myself, my own spiritual needs and relational desires. I’ve felt quite uprooted at times from my ideals. Pressures fall on me to find a ‘real’ job, buy a car, pay back student loans or go back to school. All I really want is to sing and play guitar. I want to be part of creating a local economy for the arts. Some people pay 80$ to see a travelling artist they’ve seen on TV but not 5$ to go see a local band, or 20$ to go see the KW Symphony. We can turn off the Tube and appreciate the sights and sounds of people around us expressing beautiful ideas and emotions through things they create in our own neighbourhood. 

Rooted has been a journey for everyone involved. I don’t think anyone in the cast, band, or production team hasn’t been stretched to the ends of their abilities and grown, and the show is yet to go on. I anticipate sharing our anxieties and growing the most with performing and seeing the eyes and minds of people open. The conversations that follow will be so meaningful to affecting social change and growing new relationships. Every hour of rehearsal and every stress or worry is worth people asking questions. So what exactly is Rooted about? 

- Richard

Cast Member Blog: "Robin" aka Nicole Ricard

SO my character is Robin, and I just have to say, ( and Janice and RIchard will attest to this) it was as if Janice took handfuls of my life and personality and put them into this character. Which is strange considering they knew nothing of me when I came to audition. As I got to know Robin I realized how we share the same sillyness with our closest friends, our shyness at certain times, our worry as to what we are going to do with our lives once school's over with, and our transition into becoming more of the artists that we are and always were. We even share a connection to BC, being that Robin's best friend spent a summer there and myself having a best friend of my own in BC. I just wanted others to appreciate how truly Twilight Zone this whole thing is and how much I'm loving it and the show as a whole ....

Poster!

Here's the official show poster! I'm excited, aren't you excited?

Props to Zoey Heath for the fabulous photo.

Teaser Video!

Check check check it out! Your first peek at the show!
This is part of the opening number, written by Janice Lee.

Cast Member Blog: Lauren Stallard, a.k.a. "Amelia"

Rooted seems like a natural progression in the story of my life.
I play Amelia, the strong activist who thinks academia is overrated. I am like my character in a lot of ways.

I don't disrespect University students. I know that University has its benefits. I also know that University is not a prerequisite for creating environmental and social change. I have never gone to University, but have found myself in front of a Women's Studies class speaking about menstrual health.

I am the co-founder of an organization called Sustainable Cycles. We seek to educate and empower people to make healthy choices for their bodies, culture and environment. Our main focus at present is menstruation, but that is growing and evolving as we do. Check out www.sustainablecycles.ca to learn more!

Aside from the work we do at Sustainable Cycles, I also do my best to get involved with other local information and action based movements. Protecting the Earth that provides us with the basic fundamentals for life - water, food, medicine and shelter - is an important issue to me. It frustrates me to no end that the older generations have been sacrificing our health and our futures for the sake of money and growth.

Food is a major issue in terms of energy consumptions and CO2 emissions. Eating local and organic food is important. The finite resources involved in pesticide production, application, and large scale farming is not only energy intensive - it is destructive. Pesticides kill the flora and fauna the soil needs to produce, not to mention the contamination of water supplies. Permaculture is a valuable gardening method that I urge people to research and try. (Check out: permacultureprinciples.com/index.php) The fundamentals of permaculture can also be applied to our own lives too!

There are a lot of ways that we can change our lives to use less energy, reducing the demand for fossil fuels. (www.communitysolution.org/food.html) The tar sands in Alberta have been dubbed the worlds biggest environmental disaster. A press release for a local demonstration targeting suncor on peaceculture.org states:

"(for) every barrel of oil that is produced from tar sands extraction, 3-5 barrels of water are required, up to 60% of which can never be returned to the ecosystem and remains held in massive containment ponds the size of large lakes held back by dams, some of which are large enough in size to rival the Three Gorges Dam in China. Collecting that water requires major diversions from and massive pollution to the Athabasca River and local ecosystems."

This is especially frustrating, considering the water crisis we are facing. More than 1/6 of the world's population doesn't have access to safe drinking water. Maude Barlow does work regarding water issues, and has spoken in KW numerous times. (see www.worldwatercouncil.org/index.php?id=25 & www.canadians.org/about/Maude_Barlow/Blue_Covenant/index.html)

I hope that I have provided you with some inspiration and motivation. Change starts within.

~~~

Rooted has been an inspiring and empowering force in my life.
I have written a rap! It goes like this:

Wake up wake up
Wake up wake up
Wake up wake up
Wake up wake up (soft and echo-ie)

Wake up from these lies,
You've lain asleep for to long.
The nothingness you seek,
It can't go on.
Mother Earth is strong.
When we're all gone,
She'll still live on.
But we can't go,
On and on and on and on and on:
Living life without loving,
Kissing without hugging,
Forgetting about the children,
If we do our progyny will be suffering.

Wake up wake up.....

If you think that shit isn't so bad,
You must be mad.
If you think that shit is so bad,
than be glad.
Glad for the power of realization and change.
The mysteries of the Universe may seem strange,
But you've got to believe it to see it,
You've got to breathe in to be here,
Or your thoughts just won't be clear,
And you won't be able to hear
The messages of the Earth:
The cycles of death and rebirth,
life, death, rebirth.

Wake up Wake up....


That's all for now folks! There will be more I'm sure.
Root on!
Lauren

Tickets available at Seven Shores

We're still working on an on-campus location, but we can tell you that tickets will be on sale at Seven Shores Urban Market in Uptown Waterloo as of Monday morning. Seven Shores is a fantastic cafe that specializes in local, organic vegetarian food. So you can head there to pick up your tickets -- and try the spring rolls, they're delicious!

-Laura

Tickets on sale November 15!

Tickets!

We have designed the tickets and they're heading to the printers tomorrow!

We've also got "teaser" posters (like the one on the right there) ready to go up over the next few days, so keep an eye out for those around town/campus.

"Early bird" tickets will be available from cast & production team members as of the 15th (next Sunday), for just $8.00 each. Prices will go up to $10.00 mid-december, depending on some funding we're still waiting to hear about. There are 320 tickets per show, which may seem like a lot, but they'll go fast, so get yours as soon as you can!

Make Some Change

If you give us $10.00 (or more!) and let us "keep the change", we will donate the extra $2.00 (or more!) to the Kitchener Waterloo Community Centre for Social Justice, a fantastic space located in downtown Kitchener that hosts community meals and events, workshops, AW@L meetings, and more! For more information on the KWCCSJ, check out peaceculture.org.

Finally, the Facebook Event is up and ready for you to RSVP, so go do that right now! (If you have Facebook; if you don't, good for you!)

How many playwrights does it take to change a lightbulb?...WE'RE NOT CHANGING ANYTHING!!! (I joke!)

We are now a month into rehearsals and we have made a lot of progress. The harmonies sound amazing, the dancing is ridiculously fun and the cast is really coming together. Rehearsals are teeming with positive energy (once we shake off the morning sleepiness!) and it's all coming up carrots.

Last week we had our first real jam sesh, figuring out the raps for the song SHAKE IT UP. We brought in the extended park ensemble to rehearsal for the first time and it was very exciting to have over 20 people singing together.

Today we did the choreography for LET'S ALL FLEE TO BC. The cast is drunk in this scene, and it's great fun. Just wait until you see what their props are. Haha.

Workshopping the show is a challenging and fun process, as we tweak harmonies and rewrite lines here and there to make the syllables fit. I try hard not to take it personally when someone in the cast says "Janice, there are too many words in this line." Ok, yes, you're right, cut those words. Sigh. Haha.

Coming up this month, more rehearsals, potential photoshoots, a teaser poster campaign ("I'm excited. Aren't you excited?"), teaser performances, and ticket sales! Whoa time moves fast! ("No time no time no time no time no time~!")

I also think I want to youtube a video of one of our dances, because we need to share this joy now. It helps that they are a very good looking bunch.

In the name of the Radish,

Janice.

p.s. Props to my roommate Ciaran for the excellent joke.

Here we go! For realsies.

Rehearsals have started, and it is making me super happy.
We had our first big Sunday rehearsal and we had fun doing too-cool-two-steps, charlestons and piqués across the floor, er, trying, with great enthusiasm!

Everyone in the cast will dance, and I think it's really important to get everyone at least trying the movements. Because if you don't piqué now, when will you if you don't take a ballet class?! The goal is that come showtime, every cast member is dancing all out, with conviction, with exuberance, and hopefully that energy will seep right into the audience. I really enjoy ridiculously cheesy musical theatre dancing. It makes me laugh. (There will also be some sincere lovely dancing too, don't worry.)

We worked on some vocals, and I was feeling out what our capabilities were for learning by ear. Pretty good I'd say. We filled the room with harmony and that filled my heart with joy. I want to focus on our natural musicality as singers, and get to a point where we are really listening to each other, hearing the harmonies, blending, singing as a group with emotion, feeling the music swell and flow.

Getting started on working with the cast is very fulfilling for me. It is a new creative project - seeing what our capabilities as performers are right now, and seeing how far we can push them, how much we can grow within this show. Exciting times.

- Janice

Casting is done!

After days of gruelling auditions and callbacks, and hours of heated deba-- okay, it wasn't that bad. But it was pretty hard at times because we had so many fantastically talented people come out to auditions! Congratulations everyone!

ROOTED: A NEW MUSICAL

ORIGINAL CAST

Leads:

Robin - Nicole Ricard

Eryn - Lindsay Edwards

Jamie - Stefanie Wasserman

Mira - Amy Hunter

Kendra - Erica Collinge

Amelia - Lauren Stallard

Casey - Kali Greve

Chorus:

- Teresa Lumini (featured)

- Stephanie Beaton (featured)

- Hanna McCabe Bennett

- Michelle Doyley

- Rowda Moallim
- Colin Brush
- Christopher Fong

We'll also have a fantastic group of people joining in on the Act II opener, which we're incredibly excited about.

Our first read-through (and cast dinner!) is on Thursday, so we'll have another updated after that!

Auditions!

Auditions for 'Rooted' will take place on September 24 (2:00-5:00) and 25 (3:00-6:00), 2009 at Wilfrid Laurier University. Mandatory callbacks will be on Saturday, September 26th from 4:00-8:00. The room numbers will be posted soon, and emailed to you after signing up. If you are absolutely unable to make these times, please email us to arrange a different time.

Read more about auditions and download the audition form at the 'Rooted' website, or if you've done that already, click this button to sign up for an audition:

Thoughts as we write

Richard and I are still writing the show, and it really is for me, writing my life into the show. It is not autobiographical, but so much of what I have learned in my life, especially in the last four years at university is written into the show.

An important theme is how in university we learn so much about the current state of the world, but how classes do not provide the tools necessary on how to make positive change. That, it seems, is learned outside of the classroom. Sometimes it is seems such an overwhelmingly daunting task to make this world a better place. I just wrote a song today for the show called "What we don't want" and one part says:

"Learning about all of this sometimes
Presses in on my heart and on my mind
How am I supposed to change this world take a leap
When our problems are rooted ingrained so deep"

The feeling of helplessness can become so strong that people become apathetic, and that, I think is the worst state in which to find yourself after going through university. The song continues,

"It's not easy it never was
But I try anyway because
What else could I possibly try to do
When we need each other to live you need me I need you"

If we care about the people in our lives, we should care about making this world a better place for them. And maybe that comes off really cheesy, but each of us can do our part in our own communities. We do the things we are good at to bring justice, joy, art, love and beauty to the world. We continue.

~J

Auditions

Auditions will take place in late September/early October 2009 at Wilfrid Laurier University.

You will have 5 minutes to perform a song acapella (no accompaniment, just your voice), and a monologue. You may bring your own monologue or use one that we will provide ahead of time.

You may also be asked to do a dance audition and answer some questions about your commitment and enthusiasm.

We are looking to cast 8-15 people.

More info to come in September!

Synopsis!

We have one! You can read it!

Rooted: A New Musical is a story about a community of friends. It takes place during a university school year, from the beginning-of-term excitement and anticipation, through being disillusioned and lost in the winter blues, to the renewal of love and dreams with the coming of spring. It is about what is learned everyday from connections between people, the joy in sharing art and music, the strength of love, the call for social justice, and appreciating and respecting the beauty which the earth provides. The story centres around Robin, a graduating student looking to become enabled as an artist and musician, and Robin's friends as they figure out what they want to do with their lives as they enter and leave university. Rooted: A New Musical forefronts the privilege in which university students live, and how they are inspired and empowered to act and reach their potential in doing good in this world.

Show dates!

We've booked our venue, and the show will be the second weekend in January - we haven't set exact show times, but it will probably run from the 7th to the 9th.

Janice and Richard are finishing up the script and music, and Laura is working on a website (see sidebar) and funding applications - if you've got any leads, let us know!

Auditions

"Rooted: A New Musical" will be produced sometime in the year of 2009-2010. We will be casting performers and looking for volunteers soon. Stay tuned for audition info!

The Rooted Team needs:
- actors (singing and dancing)
- drummers (djembe)
- volunteers