From Leaves composer and arranger, Candace Bilyk:

When Laura and Bryan first asked me to write music for Leaves, I was unsure. The kind of music that they wanted was outside of my usual style and very different from my last project with Savage Umbrella (The Awakening). While not pop music, the aesthetic they wanted leaned much closer to the pop side than to “art” music, or whatever people call it now. Additionally, the timeline would be much shorter.

The script was created by a team of writers, so I suggested having multiple composers as well, thinking it would fit the spirit of the show, help with the time crunch, and hopefully keep my abstract tendencies in check. At the same time, Ben Mattson was asking to do some music for the project, so he and I set out to work together. Some of the cast members also pitched in and wrote two of the songs.

Still, writing for Leaves was a challenge. How do you create a unique feeling melody with ubiquitous chords? How do you break out of the box when your goal is also to get inside of one? How do you keep the audience from being distracted from the fact that the characters are singing now instead of speaking, and keep it natural and smooth when the form of the music is so obvious? Most people think pop music is easy, but the truth is making something poppy, subtle, and creative is really hard.

Usually when I write I start out with ideas for themes and melodies and fill in the chords that work with those ideas. To get more of straightforward feeling in the music I put a focus on chord progressions and then melody, adjusting the melody to work with where I wanted the chords to go instead of the other way around. Other figures in the accompaniment were either adapted from the melody lines or bits from music written by the other contributors to make the score feel more cohesive.

The path that Leaves takes the audience down is one towards hope. While I may have started with reservations, I find myself following right along. While there have been personal successes, I think it has more to do with being surrounded by the characters and their play for the last two months, finding myself in them and letting them find themselves in me. That is the magic ofLeaves—other people may tell you it’s about America, but you are America, and it’s about you.

There are so many reasons to come to this show. Come to hear the music performed by expressive and talented singers, music that somehow fits together despite being written by four very different people. Come to see strong, rounded characters pitted against each other that have nothing to do with the stock parts you may be accustomed to. Come to be challenged or come to feel self-affirmed. Come to say you saw Savage Umbrella when they were small but already a powerful creator of new and meaningful theater. Come to contribute to a communal hope. But most of all, come as you are and find some part of yourself within.

…and here are some juicy excerpts:

“Though I’m used to seeing shows in small venues, every so often I see a show that’s so accomplished and absorbing that it’s a little astonishing when a scene ends and there’s only a small spattering of applause, rather than the thunder you hear at the Guthrie or the Orpheum. The entrancing Awakening being presented by Savage Umbrella and 3AM Productions at Gremlin Theatre is just such a show. It’s tart and beautiful and funny and free—the perfect show for this capricious, long-awaited spring.”

“It’s a premiere production of a script by Laura Leffler-McCabe, who also directed, with music composed by Candy Bilyk and performed by a graceful trio of instrumentalists with singing by the cast…and it’s captured brilliantly by the performances, the music, and Justin Hooper’s inventive set design.”

“Bilyk’s music for The Awakening is dark, complex, and thorny. It’s often pretty to listen to, but it’s never easy listening: as was the case in the music composers like Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss were writing in Kate Chopin’s time, Bilyk’s melodies are elliptical and challenge the ear’s expectations about tonal structures and chord progressions. It’s hauntingly apt for this story of a woman who longs to break free of social strictures.”

“The production is deeply stocked with memorable performances—among them Alexis Clarksean as a lonely woman who speaks in riddles but knows that the right person would catch her drift, Lacey Piotter as a friend who has her own ideas about what’s good for Edna, and John Zeiler as Edna’s father in a turn that would steal a lesser show—but (Sarah) Teich is the show’s linchpin, and she holds fast. The script does not paint Edna as a particularly likable character: she neglects her children, she’s rude to her friends, and she entertains suitors despite the fact that her husband, for all their differences, sincerely adores and remains devoted to her. Still, Teich wins our empathy with a brave and nuanced performance; we see her character’s complexity, and we feel her pain.”

“The Awakening is an amazing show: it had me on the edge of my seat, and on multiple occasions wanting to jump out of it with cheers. “Critics are so cynical,” someone said to me after reading my negative review of The Wizard of Oz. I mean, how can you not love The Wizard of Oz? It’s because when you’re a critic, you see a lot of shows—which means, luckily, that every once in a while you get to see a show like The Awakening, and you see just how rewarding theater can be.”

Largest you say?  Oh, yes.  We have 13 adults actors, our largest cast yet.  We cast the show at the first of September and workshopped for four, count ‘em, four months.   We’re incorporating video into the production for the first time ever.  It’s our first time working with child actors;  we have one stage and five more on video.  There are over 50 scenes, making this our first show with an intermission.  We’ve had original music before, of course, but we’ll now have our largest pit ever with piano, clarinet and violin.  There are over 50 costumes – with a costume team of only two, who are working their fingers to the bone.  Behind the table we have 14 – fourteen! – people giving their time and talents to make this show happen.  No, not just happen, but blossom, explode, succeed, soar.

But as breath-taking as that all large-ness is, at its heart, this project is simple.  We’re telling a classic story in a new way.  Once again, we’re re-imagining a timeless story and making radical choices in both form and content.  For our friends, our peers, our audience.  For you.

At first glance, THE AWAKENING is a simple story.  A woman realizes that her life isn’t as fulfilling as it might be, and she sets about to be happier.  It’s a scenario that has happened before, and it’ll happen again.  But take heed.  The depth and the complexity of the material Kate Chopin (author of the novel our work is based upon) has given to us all is spell-binding yet subtle.  Just tonight in rehearsal, working one of the intimate scenes between Edna (Sarah Teich) and Robert (Carl Atiya Swanson), my mind was blown by a brand new take on words we’ve been reading for months and months and the implications on the characters we’ve been creating for months and months.  Bravo to Sarah and Carl, of course and always.  But the real champion here is Chopin.  It’s a testament to the intricate tumultuousness of the story she’s given us.  Simple it may seem, but do not underestimate.

I probably should’ve come up with a conclusion or at least a winding down.  But I want to leave this here – unfinished.  Because Edna’s tale  is incomplete.  Because the story isn’t finished until you fill in the blanks.  So get yourself to the Gremlin in April and help us finish this thing.

-Laura

Thanks to Jeremy (our talented, awesome, and extremely handsome new website builder) we have a NEW website for the NEW millenium.  While we’re still working out the kinks, trying to get all of our old info in the right places, adding as many pictures and videos and links as we can find, I think things are off to a pretty sweet start.

Did you notice, also, that we’re a .org?  Doesn’t that seem strangely … official?  DIG.

Anyway.

GREETINGS FROM SOUTH KOREA!  Our founding members are currently spread across the whole wide world.  We’re still in the process of figuring out what that means for us.  The current thought is that we begin to make work under our Umbrella that can play to the home of our hearts and our founding (MN), as well as making work for the homes of our bodies and the homes of our families.  That is to say, since we began in order to explore the ideas of each individual within our group, we hope to continue to do that ALL OVER THE PLACE.  Watch out, world. 

I finally saw a piece of theater here in SK that made me excited, made me move, made me want to make something.  It was a relief to see that it’s possible, that it exists.  It has not been easy for me to discover the hidden street or cafe or alley where the performance experiments are happening, but I think I have a lead.  I’ll tell tale of the performance I saw at a later date.  I’ve also been finding all other sorts of artists I’m hopeful I can play with at some point.

I can’t believe I’m so far away when all of the good Awakening stuff is happening in the Cities!  I’ll be keeping my ears open and my eyes peeled for news on this beautiful new website, just like you.

Okay, time to go watch some vintage films at a cozy little bar with some very swell folks.  Warm wishes.  I’ll write again soon.

-blake