Bringing Rockbound to the mountain

BY JENNIFER HOEGG

jhoegg@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Drive along a quiet, gravel road on top of the North Mountain until you can glimpse the sea. There, among field and forest, a unique theatre experience waits.

On a platform at the edge of the woods near Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, a set is being constructed to evoke a very different part of rural Nova Scotia; the tiny island setting of Frank Parker Day’s gothic novel Rockbound.

Beginning July 12, Two Planks and a Passion Theatre Company will stage the world premiere of Allen Cole’s musical adaptation of the classic Nova Scotian book.

Rockbound carries the third season of the company’s Theatre Off the Grid series, following Ami McKay’s Jerome: the Historical Spectacle and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in 2008 and Rick Chafe’s The Odyssey in 2007.

Long sail to stage

Day’s story, first published in 1928, set in a fictionalized Mahone Bay, tells of young David Jung’s struggle to find his place amidst family strife and the unforgiving nature of a harsh island environment.

Interest in Rockbound rekindled when it won CBC Radio’s Canada Reads competition in 2005. Shortly after, Two Planks commissioned Cole to adapt the work for stage.

On the first day of outdoor rehearsals, director Ken Schwartz said three years of collaboration and workshops put the company in a strong position heading into the opening weekend. “People knew their music and whatnot before rehearsals began,” he said, adding that most of cast has a “fairly lengthy association” with the production.

That familiarity has allowed the 14 actors and musicians to work in an in-depth fashion much earlier in the process, he said, allowing more time to focus on the “quite complicated choreography.”

Standing on the outdoor set that represents an island dry dock - complete with boat and orchestra pit - Schwartz’s voice had to contend with handsaws and birdsong. Despite the noises of construction, his enthusiasm was contagious. “I’m excited! When you’ve been working on (a play) for three years, you can’t wait to share it. “Every stage is a discovery with a new work. When you start to bring it to life on stage, there can be surprises.” So far with Rockbound, the surprises have “all been positive ones.”

High drama in a musical form

Family feuds, ghosts and lovers; the show has “something really Shakespearian about it. The elements of tragedy and comedy” that make it an appropriate story for musical adaptation, Schwartz says. “There is something wonderful about a musical drama. The music cuts through and goes right to the heart (and) increases the range of expression” possible for the performers.

Playwright Cole composed the music and lyrics. “It is his singular creation,” Schwartz says.

Rockbound is not your typical musical, he said. “It is as much an accomplished play as it is a musical.” And the show’s choreography is “not typical song and dance routines,” he points out. “It is more stylized movement and experimenting with physical theatre.”

Local stories, simply told

Schwartz says Rockbound is “a part of our ongoing vision for the unique kind of theatre we aim to do.” The Off the Grid series takes place outdoors, without electricity, on the Ross Creek Centre‘s 186-acre grounds.

Last year’s debut of McKay’s Jerome, inspired by a true local story, was the first of the series’ “identifiably Nova Scotian” productions, Schwartz says.

The Odyssey and Our Town, were universal stories Two Planks tied consciously to a local milieu. The Odyssey set was aesthetically tied to an imagining of a 19th century Nova Scotian shipwreck and Our Town, set in New England, says “as much about our lives in Kings County” as about life anywhere, Schwartz asserts.

Rockbound is different. This time, the story has a Nova Scotia setting, but evokes universal feeling, Schwartz said. “It almost has a mythical nature to it. It could be any island community anywhere.”

Intense season

After staging two productions last year, Two Planks decided to concentrate efforts on one larger production over the entire summer this season. Rockbound will be performed more than 30 times at Ross Creek and, after the outdoor production closes, the Chester Playhouse.

When Day’s novel was first released, there were hurt feelings from residents of East Ironbound Island, Rockbound’s real life counterpart. Does Schwartz feel taking the show to Chester will reignite the controversy? “It’s a classic novel; a piece of fiction. There is no reason for anyone to feel slighted,” he says. But there is “always a risk when you’re holding a mirror up to something.”

New experience

Will there be surprises for audiences familiar with the Ross Creek productions? There is a whole new look, feel and sound with this season’s production, Schwartz notes. “We’re in an entirely new location (and) set design and production values are more elaborate than before.”

Music “has never been part of the production to this extent before,” he says. In addition to the performers’ voices, the score features drums, vibraphone, marimba, upright bass, glockenspiel, accordion and Irish harp. “The visual impact this production has” may surprise even seasoned Theatre Off the Grid audiences, Schwartz said. A significant element of the set is a 30-foot boat, once the captain’s launch on the Canadian aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure (decommissioned in 1970), donated to the company by Brian and Sue Garvey of Canning.

Ticket sales have been strong, Schwartz said. Given the outdoor setting, weather has an impact on the run, but the cast will perform an indoor concert version of the production should there be a cancellation.

Rockbound premieres at Ross Creek July 11 and runs Tuesday to Sunday until Aug. 9. For tickets and information, contact 542-3073, http://www.twoplanks.ca or boxoffice@twoplanks.ca.

For Chester Playhouse shows, Aug.13-16, see http://chesterplayhouse.ca/