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Health & Fitness

Trumbull Teens Meet with Broadway Composer Stephen Schwartz

Broadway legend discusses 'Children of Eden' with the Trumbull Youth Association cast whose production opens next weekend at Trumbull HS.

Almost 100 young actors are involved in the Trumbull Youth Association's production of Children of Eden which opens next weekend at Trumbull High School. Based on the story of Genesis, the musical has a book by John Caird with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Wicked.) The TYA group is comprised of mostly Trumbull students that range in age from high school freshman to age 21, and many of them were involved in the controversy surrounding the Trumbull High School production of Rent last spring. The teens and the adults who work with them have been in rehearsal for this show since June 23.

On Wednesday the members of the Children of Eden cast took a break from rehearsals for a very special visit from the show's composer and Kelli Rabke, a Broadway actress who played Yonah in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Children of Eden. The teens sported black show t-shirts with the line "Every moment of our life is the beginning" on the back as they gathered in the school auditorium with some of the younger children needed for the cast. The set for Rent had been removed and now the stage was crowded with set construction materials. As they waited for the guests of honor, one student reminded everyone that there would be no pictures or cell phones allowed during the question and answer session.

When Mr. Schwartz finally arrived at the high school, the crowd fell silent, causing their director Brett Boles to remark that he had "never heard you guys so quiet." The composer blamed his tardiness on being a "traffic victim," but no one seemed to mind. The teens continued to listen attentively to the man that Mr. Boles introduced as the "greatest living composer" for nearly ninety minutes before moving to the school cafeteria for a remarkable ending to the visit.

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Before he began to answer the many very intelligent questions posed by the students, Mr. Schwartz gave a description of how Children of Eden evolved. Charles Lisanby was a friend that was involved with producing the Christmas and Easter show at Radio City Music Hall who was looking to come up with a summer pageant show. A religious-oriented high school theatre camp, Youth Sing Praise, performed at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville Illinois and required a biblical theme for their productions. So in 1985, the team came up with a one hour song cycle of eleven songs they called Family Tree which contained the basic outline of the show and was enormously well-received. The composer described the director's use of balloons in rainbow colors to frame the band shell at the end of the show as "so cool" and credits Mr. Lisanby for the suggestion of making "Noah" rhyme with "protozoa" in one of the songs.

The two men decided to collaborate with John Cair (Nicholas Nickleby) to write the book for the show that would be renamed Children of Eden. A song called "Good Help is Hard to Find" was cut and some were added. In 1991 there was a brief run of this early version in London that proved to be premature. The composer and bookwriter continued to rework the shown through several successful American regional productions in Roanoke, Virginia; Quincy, Massachusetts; Wichita, Kansas; Riverside, California; Lincoln, Nebraska and at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey (which included Ms. Rabke in the cast.) Children of Eden is now being performed in many regional theatres around the country and the world and in countless school productions.

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As Mr. Schwartz answered the questions of TYA students, he shared many fascinating facts about this show, as well as few tidbits about some of his other beloved shows.

The director of the first American production of Children of Eden gets the credit for the idea of double casting the primary roles from the first and second act of the show. The same actor plays the role of Adam/Noah, Eve/Mama Noah, Cain/Japheth, Abel/Ham, and Seth/Shem. Ideas are carried from the first act into the second act and the audience invests in both the character and the actor playing that character. Mr. Schwartz feels that this method of casting works so much better that he now insists that productions do so unless it is a school production that wants to include as many cast members as possible.

The role of the storytellers grew enormously during the development of the show and have become the driving force of the action and remain "musically pleasant." The latest version has much more song narration. In the London production, the chorus was interestingly called "angels." Another role that grew throughout the process was that of Father/God. Originally, he did not appear onstage and was an angry rumble of thunder, then an offstage voice and ultimately onstage in London in a lesser role than in the current productions. The unintended consequence of this addition was that it helped certain religious group to appreciate the show even more.

When asked if there was any bad press from conservative religious groups about Children of Eden, Mr. Schwartz was pleasantly surprised that the opposite happened. One woman told him after a performance that Children of Eden was the first one of his shows that she liked. She actually told him point blank that she didn't like Godspell. This "secular humanist show of all time" has gotten mostly positive response from religious groups because they are able to receive in a different way. The composer credits the fact that the character of Father/God is so real and loves his family so much with the show being able to transcend the big divide of the secular and the fundamentalists. It is more a show about families trying to break the cycle of dysfunction.

This composer has been involved in many projects with biblical themes, including Godspell and Prince of Egypt and strives to avoid coming off as preachy. Students wondered what Mr. Schwartz wanted audiences to take away from the show. "I don't do that" was his answer, but he also admitted that it is hard to pretend that there is not a message. He feels that the messages are in the last song and include the idea that we all have personal responsibility for our behavior and the planet because "dominoes fall." It is about second chances and learning from past mistakes, as well as being careful in how we deal with anger and frustration.

The snake in the show represents sophistication and a jaded point of view instead of evil to the mind of the composer. Mr. Schwartz found the snake in the show The Apple Tree to be "boring" and he wanted to make the one in this show better. His snake music contains jazzy chords and the lyrics lots of sibilant 'S's." In the original version of the show, seven guys played the role.

Favorite moments in this piece of work? The composer likes the way the murders happen startlingly. In the London version, the killing of Abel was kind of an accident and the authors were heavily criticized about it. Now the character truly loses it and lashes out saying "that should have been you" to his father.

The TYA cast includes many young children that play children and animals, as did the show when it was workshopped at the Guildhall School. The composer believes that the show is better when there are children involved, but knows that this is part of the reason why Children of Eden has never run on Broadway. The large cast required makes it "economically challenging" and a smaller chorus and no children would make for an inferior show.

When the students pressed him for which of his compositions is his favorite, Mr. Schwartz told them that he will never say, because it might not be the song that the person asking the question is singing in his show. He also related a story of another composer naming his favorite and from that point on Mr. Schwartz could never listen to that particular song in the same way because he felt too much distance from it.

He did admit that he enjoys how the song "Lost in the Wilderness" feels on his hands on the piano and shared that he usually writes his music at his piano. He finds that 75-80% of the time he is able to write better "on assignment" because he usually feels ready to do so. He often finds the title first, then the first and sometimes the last line of the song, and the rest just follows. When pressed about where his inspiration comes from, he answered that he had "no idea" and likened the process of getting ideas out of his unconscious to "seizing them as they come by."

While discussing the biblical context of Children of Eden, Mr. Schwartz shared that he likes to do a story where the audience brings the knowledge of a familiar story to the show. The spin on this familiar story becomes a part of the impact of the show; it "spins your head around" and elevates it to another level. And with that sentence the composer put into words why Godspell and Wicked remain two of my all-time favorite musicals. An interesting bit of trivia for my fellow Wicked (and wicked) fans: While trying to find a title for the final song for the blockbuster, Winnie Holzman was the one who said "and you know that they are changed for good" and the composer knew that he had his title.

At age 47, Kelli Rabke calls Children of Eden a defining moment in both her career and her life. Her role in the show remains one of her favorite roles "ever" and she even named her 100 pound rottweiler Yonah after the added character in the show. She also met her husband during the show that ran at the Paper Mill, a theater close to her home in New Jersey. The actress got her first break when she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz at the Paper Mill.

The veteran actress remembers singing Barbra Streisand songs into a candle microphone as a child, but credits her junior high and high school music and drama teachers for encouraging her to go into music. She studied classical music at Ithica in NY and finished her college years at Fordham in musical theater. After college, she did some commercials and appeared in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. She got her Equity card in Los Angeles in a production of A Little Night Music with Glynis Johns. Back in NY, she played the Narrator in the Broadway revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and the role of Eponine in Les Miserables. After a sold-out NYC cabaret debut at 54 Below this past spring, Ms. Rabke will return by popular demand on October 9 with “No Place Like Home” — a dynamic show that focuses on the songs and roles that have shaped her career thus far.

Children of Eden is a musical that is close to the heart of both its composer and the actress that played the role of Yonah. Mr. Schwartz believes it to be his best score and loves the show because it is all about many of the things that he cares about: family, personal responsibility, second chances where we can change direction...all in one show.

After Mr. Schwartz and Ms. Rabke were finished answering the questions of the students, everyone in the auditorium moved to "the commons" for a group photo. Annie Stachura, who will play Yonah in the production, performed the song "Stranger to the Rain" for it's composer and the actress who recorded it (no pressure, right?) For the record, this young lady did an amazing job and listened attentively to the specific feedback that both professionals offered to her. I can't wait to see her final performance this weekend. And the icing on the cake was when Ms. Rabke ended the event with her version of the number "Popular" from Wicked.

Children of Eden marks the 46th summer musical produced by TYA. Brett Boles returns to direct this year’s production. The TYA production staff also includes Musical Supervisor/Conductor Stephen Ferri, Musical Director Tom Cuffari, Choreographer Lisa Menilli and Scenic designer Martin Marchitto. The performers will be accompanied by a ten piece orchestra made up of Broadway musicians.

Children of Eden by TYA will run for two weekends: August 1, 2, 3 and August 8, 9, 10. Tickets are on sale now at Showtix4u.com. There will be a free show for senior citizens on July 31 at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium at Trumbull High School, 72 Strobel Road in Trumbull.

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