In recent years, Eclipse Theatre Company has quickly earned a notable name for itself as a premiere producer of immersive, site-specific productions of musical theatre, such as Kiss of the Spider Woman at the former Don Jail (2019) and Sunday in the Park with George at The Old Jam Factory (2020). And while the live arts may have been largely shuttered for 18 months and counting, that closure has not dampened Eclipse Artistic Producer Chilina Kennedy’s creativity.
Those familiar with Kennedy have long known that she steals the eye from the moment she steps onto the stage. However, those who know her only from her performances – at the Shaw and Stratford Festivals, or in her 1200 performances on Broadway as Carole King in Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, or as Dina in the International Tour of The Band’s Visit, or just last month as Leighton in the Musical Stage Company’s new musical Blackout – will be delighted to learn that she is also a talented writer and composer at work on three developmental projects.
One is a reworking of Evangeline, a Canadian musical by Ted Dykstra and Bob Foster that is based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Evangeline: A Tale of Acadia. A workshop of Evangeline was co-presented in Prince Edward County in June by Eclipse and the Festival Players of Prince Edward County. The second is Call It Love, a new musical co-created with Eric Holmes. A live concert presentation of Call It Love is currently in performances at Stratford Perth Museum. And the third is Til Then, a song cycle written during the pandemic. Til Then is “our response to the events that have shaped this chapter in our history,” Kennedy offers. She and Artistic Director Seok are excited to feature such artistic heavyweights as Chantal Kreviazuk, David Hein and Susan Aglukark, as well as many others. “More details to come!” she promises.
In the meantime, she gladly shares more details about Call It Love. The inspiration came from Eclipse Theatre’s first Artistic Director Evan Tsitsias and first Executive Director Sara-Jeanne Hosie, who called Kennedy one day to tell her that they felt her original album “What You Find In A Bottle” would make a good song cycle. A game Kennedy strung together the songs with a loose narrative, and brought on NYC Director Mark Schneider to help her shape it. Schneider felt that his writer friend Eric Holmes might be interested in the project, so Kennedy sent the materials to Eric, who was enjoying a week off from his TV show The Good Fight. He reverted the next day with a first draft of what is now a book musical with a fully fleshed-out fictional storyline. Kennedy recalls being “blown away by how deeply we connected artistically. This was the beginning of our close collaboration”.
Call It Love follows Olivia, after she finds herself in hospital suffering from a loss of memory. As she undergoes a series of tests, she must confront each bad decision she has made in her life. Her quest for memory unearths a complex tapestry of modern love: it would seem that the more people you love, the more people you hurt. As Olivia dissects past relationships, she searches for the specific loss that prompted her to wipe the slate clean. The journey to self-love and forgiveness is shrouded in pain, but ultimately illuminates joy and love that were never lost. Kennedy and Holmes have conceived Call It Love as a fully staged musical, and they are still in the developmental stage of the process. Their goal is to do another workshop and an industry reading in New York City before jumping into a full production. “This concert presentation is our first time sharing both the book and music with the public,” says Kennedy. “It’s very helpful for us to hear feedback from the audience so we can continue the next stage of development.” The cast performing Call It Love in Stratford are Brandon Antonio, Dan Chameroy, Robert Markus, Jennifer Rider-Shaw and Yemie Sonuga, under the musical direction of Adam Sakiyama.
And if the prospect of this new musical-in-progress were not exciting enough, Kennedy is also, as noted, in the process of reworking Ted Dykstra and Bob Foster’s Evangeline. It premiered at the Charlottetown Festival in 2013 with Kennedy in the title role and on the original cast recording. Kennedy’s adaptation-in-progress of Evangeline, directed by the award-winning Jani Lauzon, was co-presented as a workshop by Eclipse Theatre and the Festival Players of Prince Edward County this June. Longfellow’s poem is set during the Acadian Expulsion (1755-1763) when the conquering British exiled the residents of Acadia in the Maritime provinces, in an effort to impose their culture. It centres on two lovers Evangeline and Gabriel (played in the workshop by Emily Lukasik and Brandon Antonio) who are separated on their wedding day and deported on two different ships.
Working on the adaptation brought about a partnership with Festival Players of Prince Edward County, whose artistic Director Graham Abbey is a longtime friend. Speaking over Zoom, their shared enthusiasm for the development of Evangeline is palpable. “I’ve always been inspired by the piece,” Kennedy enthuses. “I played Evangeline in the original production in Charlottetown, and ever since then, I thought to myself, I think this could work really well as more of a chamber piece. Cut down the cast size to about 10 and have everybody play multiple roles. Not only could this be a pared-down version of show, but the actual orchestrations could go from what they currently are, which is a big, huge orchestral sort of Les Miz sound down to a small band.”
In addition to considering ways to make the new adaptation more affordable for smaller theatre companies, Kennedy also felt it was important to shine a light on the Indigenous storyline. “It is already part of the show, but I really wanted to try to find a way to augment that. And so Jani came on board. We had an elder who did an opening and a closing, and she blessed the process. I think it just encouraged all of us, I feel, to work on this piece in particular, and all theatre a little differently. My eyes have been opened in terms of how we approach the process, and so I was really grateful.”
For his part, Abbey was part of the first public workshop of Evangeline 15 years ago when it was being tested for Mirvish Productions. He marvels that nearly everybody involved in the present-day workshop has a connection to the original: “I still remember the music. and that’s something to say because it really sticks with you. Chilina has done a ton of work on this. It’s really beautifully scaled down, and it’s a lovely story. So it hopefully will have a future life.”
For now, Kennedy and Abbey maintain that the workshop marks “step one” of a much bigger journey for the piece. Kennedy is considering a public reading and maybe even a public concert, with the goal of sharing the music and story with as many people as possible. “But we’re looking at a timeline and building on the work that we did recently, so it’s an ongoing process. I’m looking at six months from now, a year from now, and all the work that we’re going to do in between.” The exact date and format are still to be determined, but the good news is that there will definitely be more than one opportunity for audiences to see and hear the show.
Kennedy and Abbey agree that the story at the heart of Evangeline is deeply compelling. “It’s equally a Canadian and an American story – because Cajun music and culture were born out of Acadians mixing with all of these different cultures and selves,” Kennedy points out. “It would be a massive hit on the east coast of Canada. Then I think it would be a huge hit all across Canada. And I think we could take it to the States and New Yorkers would respond to it. Southerners would. People in Louisiana would eat it up, too.” The source of this projected massive appeal is simple: “The story touches so many cultures and so many people. And I think that’s why the Indigenous storyline is so important, because they connect to us on so many levels. Shining a light on all of those very important stories is very valuable: a lot of people will connect to something in the show.”
Given this potential, it will come as no surprise that many producers, including some from Broadway, have already shown interest. But Abbey is unequivocal about his interest in presenting it at the County. “I would love, love, love, love that!” he enthuses. “What we’re trying to build in the County is not only a significant performance space, but a place where shows can be incubated and fostered and developed.” He wants Festival Players and Prince Edward County to continue to be a part of this initiative, and has discussed bringing artists up to the County to work on it. Perhaps as part of the show’s incubation process, there can at least be a public reading. “It’s an interesting model that I’m so interested in developing in the County.”
As it turns out, while Abbey was on the east coast in July, he drove to New Brunswick and touched the edge of Acadia: “I’m so biased with Prince Edward County, but when I was out east, it reminded me so much of the landscape that I’m attracted to in the County, and the beautiful vistas.” And this experience strengthened his aspirations for Evangeline: “The show itself is so much about the people in the land, and it has a nice connection. So I do dream that we could sing these beautiful songs in a big barn in Prince Edward County, open the doors, and just look out at the landscape. I think there would be a beautiful connection there.” Looking still further ahead, if Eclipse and Festival Players were to continue their collaboration on the piece, Abbey believes that it might find its way to Toronto eventually.
For Kennedy, the feeling is mutual: “We’re very excited to partner with Festival Players. We’ve been huge fans of Festival Players. And obviously, I’m a huge fan of Graham’s.” She would love to see Evangeline performed widely: in the County, in Toronto, in a great many places and integrating many formats – including being beautifully filmed so that as many Canadians can see this show as possible. “I think it’s an important part of the history of our country that’s been left out. I never knew about it until I actually did research for the show. I think that this is a wonderfully entertaining and artistic way of looking at a very important piece of Canadian history. And so the more we can get it out there, the better!”
While awaiting Til Then and the next iteration(s) of Evangeline, audiences can enjoy Call It Love until September 12, 2021. Reserve tickets here.
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2021
