Tailgate musical keeps on truckin’
What: Smalltown: A Pickup Musical Where: Victoria High School field (entrance through Belfry Theatre lobby) When: 7 p.m., Aug. 13 to 25 Tickets: $18 advance, $23 door ($15 and $20 students/seniors). Advance tickets at ticketrocket.org
Theatre SKAM once staged a show, Louis and Dave, inside a 1978 Plymouth Volaré.
The audience watched from the back seat.
This time, the alternative theatre company has gone all out. Smalltown: A Pickup Musical will be mounted on the flat-deck of a 2006 Ford F-350. Well, some of it will be, anyway.
The musical by Amiel Gladstone and Lucas Myers will have its première Tuesday in the field beside Victoria High School. A pianist — and perhaps a fiddler — will perform from the back of the pickup.
Other musicians and actors will spill out onto a set designed around the truck. Expect plenty of singing and the sounds of drums, clarinets, saxophones, cellos, guitars and mandolins.
Theatre SKAM raised the $22,600 for the purchase of the Ford truck, acquired specifically for the show. It was fitted with the flat-deck in New Westminster, where the vehicle was purchased.
“We’re getting a custombuilt truck, which was the dream from the outset,” said Matthew Payne, Theatre SKAM’s artistic leader and the musical’s director.
The musical is designed to be a mobile creation easily transportable to parks and other B.C. locations in future seasons.
Some may remember an early incarnation of Smalltown: A Pickup Musical at the 2010 Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival.
That one was staged in a small field with a 1948 International pickup. Boasting a rollicking folk-popgospel score, the comedy-musical told the story of corporate big-shots who made small-towners an offer they found difficult to refuse.
Payne says much of the original book and score has been retained. Tweaks include changing the denouement to make it clearer. Myers, who lives in Nelson, wrote most of the songs and lyrics, with Vancouver-based Gladstone contributing mostly to the book.
Gladstone says the notion of a musical performed outdoors in a pickup stems from his childhood experiences seeing outdoor theatre, including shows by B.C.’s Caravan Farm Theatre and San Francisco Mime Troupe.
The latter’s irreverent mix of satire and live jazzrock made an impression.
“I was immediately taken by the theatre of it. I just loved that whole part of it. … Since then, I was always interested in doing shows in parks and on trucks,” Gladstone said.
Theatre SKAM is renowned for staging theatre in offbeat settings. For its annual Bike Ride, theatregoers ride bicycles along the Galloping Goose trail. Other shows were set in parking lots and alleys.
Three years may seem like a long wait between the first Smalltown musical and the official première.
Payne said cuts to provincial arts funding are partly to blame. As well, a serious illness (the husband of the company’s producer underwent an organ transplant) and the birth of Payne’s child slowed the process.
On top of everything, creating an original musical simply takes a long time, he said. A major task was arranging Myers’ original music for a larger ensemble. “[Musical director Brad L’Écuyer] was taking MP3s that Lucas had recorded in his kitchen in Nelson and then arranging it, in some cases, for five or six instruments,” Payne said.
The cast is Rachel Aberle, Wes Borg, Sarah Carlé, Jason Clift, Mark Hellman, Ryan Scramstad and Kirsten Van Ritzen.
While Smalltown aims to entertain, Myers says the show also takes a serious look at what happens when the corporate world tries to entice ordinary folk.
“What happens when money shows up and you’re handed everything you’ve dreamed of? What happens to people in that circumstance?” he said. Note: While folding chairs are provided, theatregoers are encouraged to bring blankets or warm clothes.