Murder Ballad: Free Range Human’s shot across the bow in Frederick starts with immersive theater at McClintock

There’s something different in the air in Frederick these days. Yes, climate change IS happening in real time, but I’m talking about something more ephemeral – as in culture/arts in the city. I’m talking about a new kind of thing that Frederick has yet to experience; immersive theater is about to take over McClintock Distilling, starting on June 21st with a limited 5 show run of the indie rock musical “Murder Ballad.” There’s a lot at stake for director Elizabeth Lucas (losing shirt notwithstanding), but if it’s anywhere near successful, it may be the start of a seismic shift in the city’s art & theater scene. Subversive Zine chatted with the former executive director of New Spire Arts about her first official foray with her new multimedia company Free Range Humans, the electrifying ‘love triangle gone wrong’ musical that’s literally outside the box of a stage, and just a hint at some of the transformational projects running around in Lucas’ mind.

Before we get into a Q&A with her, keep in mind this link to Frederickland podcasts. Dewey Stewart interviewed Lucas within days of our communiqué and it’s a fantastic audio companion piece to Subversive Zine’s own interview with Lucas.

Subversive: So what’s all this about “Murder Ballad” and immersive theater? I’ve just dipped my toes, glancing at some very decent reviews in the Guardian and Variety from the original off-broadway run in New York and London.

Elizabeth Lucas: Free Range Humans is doing immersive entertainment…it’s everywhere from site specific theater – which is the most traditional thing that we got on our docket, and which is what “Murder Ballad” is. It’s where we go in as an audience into the environment of a story, and the story happens around you rather than there being a wall between where the audience sits and where the performance happens. So site specific theater is very simply theater -without theater seat arrangements. It’s a way of putting you in the environment a little more personally. And all the way in the other end (of the immersive spectrum) is virtual reality and augmented reality.

For me, immersive entertainment is this HUGE umbrella – it can include escape rooms and gaming and all these other things, but what I’m focused on is site specific immersive to mostly augmented reality…

“Murder Ballad” takes place in a bar and this bartender starts to tell us this story. As she tells us this story, the characters in the environment are invoked around you. And the story happens in and around you with these other three characters. So it’s a 4 person indie rock musical. The composer/songwriter (Juliana Nash) wrote for a band called Talking to Animals for many years. This is her first and only foray into theater. And it has this great indie rock sound to it and a great book writer (Julia Jordan) wrote this thriller. It’s a love triangle gone wrong and we’ve heard that form before, but not in this way of telling it. It’s smart and sexy and indie rock and fun and I hope people will come in and enjoy that environment in this sort of intimacy of the story, because it’s going to be in an intimate environment.

*From the opening number of the original off broadway production in 2013:

Subversive: Having it inside the bar at McClintock, it’s like a 4D stage…

Elizabeth Lucas: It’s like if you go to something in the round, you’ve got a clear line between where the audience is and where the performers are. When you go to something that’s immersive, the actors are moving through the space where the audience is – and around the audience. (McClintock)…it’s beautiful, it is such a great environment. It’s perfect for this. I can see us using it again for some other things. For this story I was so thrilled to find a place that had capacity to where you had the room to move…their tasting room closes at 8pm and then our curtain goes up, so it’s kind of the perfect pairing.

It’s a stunning space. The guys over there are great, Braeden Bumpers and Tyler Hegemeyer. They’re interested in supporting the arts, they’re interested in being a part of the community in Frederick, and they were just so game.

Subversive: They sound very culture forward. So are you expecting audience to be standing or sitting?

Elizabeth Lucas: Sitting at tables -it’s going to feel more like you’re at a bar.

Subversive: This is thinking outside of the box. What inspired you to go for this angle?

Elizabeth Lucas: This was the right show to start with. One is that it’s in the title, that this is a grown up piece. There is a lot of entertainment around here that is focused for families and for the kids, and there’s not a lot that says ‘quality grown up work.’ It’s been really important in my marketing to say we’re bringing in a professional cast, live band, this is a grown up piece so don’t bring your kids (laughs). That’s the kind of sophisticated layer I want on top of that – we’re presenting something that you’d have to drive to Baltimore or DC to see this quality.

The growth of Frederick is so great. There are plenty of people who are moving to Frederick who still think you have to drive (an hour away) to have quality entertainment. And it’s not in any way to denigrate what’s here, but when talking about musical theater – for adults – that is for the audience – not for the participants…there isn’t a lot.

Again, I don’t want to denigrate what’s here. There’s some quality work going on, but this is a level of professionalism that we hope to bring to Frederick. We’ll see if it’s embraced or not. If it is, there’s a season being prepared. We’ve already got our next show – I’m ready to announce, it’s “Always…Patsy Kline.” We’re doing it at Sky Stage in August. There’s going to be 5 performances, those tickets are going on sale any moment now. Then we have a series of 5 shows that, it’s going to be dependent on how well these go this summer. If Frederick embraces it, we’re going to have a whole new immersive theater season.

{end of the interview part 1}

MURDER BALLAD

Starring
TJ Bolden
Allison Bradbury
Matt Hirsh
Kylie Smith

Directed by Elizabeth Lucas
Music Directed by Marci Shegogue

90 Minutes, no intermission

Performances at 8pm on Thursday June 21, Friday June 22, Saturday June 23.

The following week Thursday June 28 and the closing night on Friday June 29th.

Tickets on sale at EVENTBRITE

!!!!!!! UPDATE:  there’s a special code for Subversive readers for a $10 off discount. Go to eventbrite link above, type in “NoVanilla”  for the discount

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Consider what you just read as part 1 of our conversation – in the near distant future we’ll revisit Lucas on her other future extensions with Free Range Humans – she delves a bit into a different but equally exciting venture that features Frederick history coming alive on your phones and devices via AR format (think Pokemon-Go, but way more awesome, with historical figures like Stonewall Jackson conjured out of thin air, roaming around downtown and talking to you). We also touch on the subject of the super rad multi-media immersive art collective Meow Wolf and falling through literal rabbit holes –wait —what does Meow Wolf have to do with Frederick? For now, you’ll have to be content with this youtube video from their compound in New Mexico. Stay tuned.

 

 

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