Feb/Mar 2013 THESE STREETS DOSSIER. a rock n roll story. at ACT Theatre

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1 THESE STREETS DOSSIER a rock n roll story created by Gretta Harley and Sarah Rudinoff at ACT Theatre Feb/Mar 2013 IMAGE DESIGN by Michael Strassburger directed by Richard E.T. White Project Contact: Amy Poisson, Line Producer amypoissonrocks@gmail.com

2 An Overview These Streets is an original work of theatre inspired by women rock musicians in Seattle during the infamous grunge years. It was inspired by over 25 interviews conducted with the women musicians who were an integral part of the Seattle music scene and whose stories and songs have been overshadowed by the familiar bands and retrospectives. The story centers on five musicians who share a house in Seattle from We meet these characters when they are young. We hear their music and witness the challenges they face as their tight-knit community unexpectedly explodes and their city becomes an international rock Mecca. We also meet the characters in the present, their stories evolving just as much as the city around them. These Streets will include music from that era as well as new songs, all played and sung by the characters and a live band. These Streets will have its premiere at ACT Theatre in Feb/March Historical Background MUSIC FROM BANDS INCLUDING: 66 SAINTS BELL CAPPING DAY DANGER GENS FASTER TIGER FLOOD HAMMERBOX KRISTEN BARRY MAXI BADD THE GITS ORIGINAL MUSIC BY: WE ARE GOLDEN 2

3 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Maxi Badd (Gretta Harley, Dave Parnes, Tess Lotta) The recession of 1971 that brought Seattle the "Boeing Bust" and the isolation that followed was summed up with the now infamous billboard that read Will the last person leaving SEATTLE -- Turn out the lights. That self-deprecating humor still prevailed when the young musicians who grew up in 1970s Seattle played in rock bands in an intimate community with a handful of small clubs. Young musicians from other parts of the country started moving to Seattle in the late 80s and early 90s adding their energy to the Seattle music scene. As the number of bands grew, more clubs opened and a small industry was created. Independent record labels started up. Recording studios opened. Local artists silkscreened t-shirts, record covers, and posters. Small indie zines reviewed records and interviewed bands. Local booking agents sent bands on regional and national tours. Small livings were eked out by some and most subsidized their passion of music through odd jobs. There was a scene in Seattle. A quiet, supportive, DIY scene. Then, in 1991 an international spotlight was turned on Seattle with the popularization of grunge music. The lives of the young people who were part of this small, supportive music community were forever changed. Many stories have been told, books written, films made, and retrospectives celebrated. But mostly absent are the many women who played in bands. History has incorrectly lumped them with the Riot Grrrls of Olympia. These Seattle women started bands, played live, recorded, toured, lived their passions and just plain rocked. 3

4 SOURCE MATERIAL In the spring of 2010, Harley and Rudinoff were working on a new batch of songs for their band, We Are Golden. During that time, the idea of writing These Streets began to germinate. They began by inviting women who had been a part of the Seattle scene from that time over to their homes for informal Rock Girl dinners. They let the alcohol and conversation flow while recording the stories that emerged about their lives then and now. They asked questions: Why rock n roll? When did you fall in love with music? How did you learn to play? What brought you to Seattle? What did you think of your hometown becoming the center of the universe for a brief moment? How did having kids change your ambitions? Is freedom owned by the young? What has Seattle lost? What has it gained? Where are you heading? To date, Harley and Rudinoff have hosted several dinners, conducted over 25 one on one interviews, read many retrospective books chronicling the time and listened to hundreds of little known songs, all of which served as the core source material for the work. Most towns we walk, well they all look familiar. Streets and the kids looking cool with their coffees, and all of us trying to make something happen, cause anything s better than just getting older. Walk these streets, when we already ran them. Can we go back downtown? - lyric from These Streets Selected list of interviews Carrie Akre Carrie Akre (Hammerbox) Valerie Agnew (7 Year Bitch) Jen Ayers (Honey Tongue) Charles Cross (Editor, The Rocket) Amy Denio Linda Dershang (Owner, Linda s) Rachel Flotard (Visqueen) Bonnie Hammond (Capping Day) Sally Johnson (Faster Tiger) Mike Katell (Faster Tiger) Molly Lannon Kenny (66 Saints) Tess Lotta (Maxi Badd) Emily Marsh (Faster Tiger) Fiia McGann (Miracle Baby) Steve Moriarty (The Gits) Rhonda Pelikan (Crypt Kicker 5) Susan Robb (Incredible Force of Junior) Amy Stolzenbach (Flood) Carla Torgerson (The Walkabouts) Laura Vanderpool (Capping Day) Vanessa Veselka (Bell) Kim Virant (Lazy Susan) Kim Warnick (Fastbacks) Stepahnie Wicker (Algae) Steve Wells (Owner, Re-bar) 4

5 MONOLOGUES AND STORIES EXCERPTS INGRID I was born at Ballard General Hospital in I was this skinny, long-ass baby. My dad didn t meet me until a few days after I was born. He bragged around Ballard that he didn t name me after some famous Swedish actress but after his favorite bartender, Ingrid. She served stiff drinks at the Club Tavernnow the Lock and Keel. Damn, I still wander around this city running through all the things that used to be. A city can haunt you, ya know? It wants you to go in reverse sometimes. BRYAN When I first saw the GoGo s play on TV, or whatever, I remember thinking they looked funny. The instruments were too big for their bodies. I wasn t opposed to it, but it was a little freakshowy to me. Then in 1992, that PJ Harvey Dry record came out. That was the first time that I, as a guy musician- really just a guy listening to a record- thought that there is no fucking way a dude could do that. Like no way could a guy make THIS music. I don t remember anybody dismissing that record or dudes saying, yeah a chick whatever CHRISTINE There was a feeling here that you had to be guilty to want success. Everyone would say, We re not in it for the money. And I mean like they would all say that tagline as if it was some kind of generic thing you had to say before you stepped onstage. Like, Hey, can I have more vocals in my monitor? And, oh-we re not in it for the money. It was this thing you were supposed to say if you were cool. But, we wrote pop songs. Of course we wanted to be big. KYLA If I had to pick one thing that women do differently, I think that women write lyrics first. Guys don t really do that. They jam it out on the guitar and then words kinda fly out I mean, I know Leonard Cohen spends like five years on one line but I think in general with women, the lyrics almost always come first. Before we wrote songs, we kept journals, you know? Most likely words are why a lot us sat down to write a song in the first place. We wanted to say something. DEZ Being a musician in Seattle in 1990, everything felt possible. And everybody else felt that it was possible. Nobody was saying no until the labels came in and said no. Then there was all kinds of mother fuckin NO. And then it just snowballed. There was this external no and Seattle took it in and turned it into an internal no, a defining no. That s how fame works yes, you re in, no you re not. That s what built The Stranger. The Rocket wasn t like that. That s why it went out of business. All those people who liked music, who WERE music, were taken over by a bunch of postcollegiate dickheads. And then there became the no. Because when you have the no, you can become exclusive. You can sell the no. Yes? You can t sell yes. Yes is just a bunch of people doin shit. 5

6 BIOGRAPHY Gretta Harley Gretta Harley is a composer and performer working in several modalities including concert music, theater, rock,movement, and visual art. She is a faculty member in the music and theater departments at Cornish College of the Arts. Gretta has designed and taught music programs at Experience Music Project, Boys and Girls Club of America, Seattle Conservatory, First Place School and Seattle Emergency Housing. She holds a Dalcroze Teaching Certificate and is a Cornish College of the Arts alumna. Angeles. She is known for her dynamic portrayal of characters including Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Re-bar), Ruth in Wonderful Town and Hildy On the Town (5 th Ave Theatre), Pere Ubu in Ubu (Empty Space) and most recently Daphne Maas in the critically acclaimed new Keri Healey play Torso. In addition to writing music for dozens of plays at Cornish, Gretta has composed music and musical directed for: Intiman Theatre, UMO Ensemble, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Wooden O, Tribes Project, and Hugo House. She has performed in numerous bands both regionally and nationally; appeared on several recordings; film and TV. She is a co-founder of the community organization, Home Alive, and producer of its first CD on SONY Records. Gretta is a co-founder and performer of the rock band We Are Golden. She likes to draw comics. Sarah Rudinoff Named alongside legendary blues singer Ernestine Anderson as one of the two Seattle female vocalists with pipes to die for by Seattle Magazine Music Portfolio, Sarah Rudinoff has been singing and making theatrical mayhem in Seattle for over 15 years. Rudinoff is an actress, singer and writer who has lived and worked from New York to Los Sarah has worked as an actor with local filmmakers Lynn Shelton, Dayna Hanson, Wes Hurley and Mark Price. Her solo shows have toured nationally and internationally including Broad, Go There and The Last State. Sarah has sung and performed cabaret at venues all over Seattle, including; The Triple Door, Showbox, Vito s, Sunset Tavern and Re-bar. Sarah has sung at Les Deux Café in LA, Joe s Pub in NYC, and opened for Kiki and Herb in Seattle. She creates original music with her band We Are Golden. Sarah was awarded The Stranger s 2004 Genius Award in Theatre. THE CREATORS LINK TO THE CITY AND AN ERA Gretta moved to Seattle from New York City in She co-formed Maxi Badd (later Danger Gens), a recording and touring band from Gretta worked at Seattle s CZ records from and WMIC/JAMPAC from She is a co-founder of the organization Home Alive. Gretta and Sarah at a Rock Girl dinner at The Project Room Sarah moved to Seattle from Hawaii (by way of L.A. and Chicago) in 1994, four months after Kurt Cobain s death. She worked with Annex Theatre on 4th Avenue and built The Broken Theatre in the Washington Shoe Building where she lived and worked in Seattle s Pioneer Square neighborhood. 6

7 Stephanie Wicker, Algae COLLABORATORS DIRECTOR Richard E.T. White Richard E.T. White s recent directing credits include Red at Seattle Rep and the Arizona Theatre Company, and The Lion in Winter and A Midsummer Night s Dream at Shakespeare Santa Cruz. He has directed at regional theaters throughout the U.S., including the Old Globe Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Atlanta s Alliance Theatre, Chicago s Court and Northlight Theatres, the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theater, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and locally, Seattle Repertory, Intiman and A Contemporary Theatre (ACT). Since 1995 Richard has held the position of Chair of the Theater Department at Cornish College of the Arts. His favorite bands include X, the Blasters, Les Boukakes, Shang Shang Typhoon and the Northwest s own Sonics, Fabulous Wailers, and Paul Revere & the Raiders. In high school he played lead guitar for the Talismen and bass for the Underground Railroad. DESIGNERS: Set Designer Montana Tippet Lighting Designer Robert Aguilar Costume Designer Harmony Arnold Sound Designer Rob Witmer Props Master Jake Nelson Project Partners Carla Torgerson of The Walkabouts being interviewed for the These Streets oral history project. 7

8 BRANCHES OF THE PROJECT These Streets portrays fictitious characters created by Sarah and Gretta. However, an integral part of the project is to illuminate the stories and music of the real life women rockers who were involved in the scene that changed a generation. We are creating an addendum to history with a few key projects that are branches of the theatrical performance. ORAL HISTORIES We have been conducting a video-based oral history project of women rockers with the help of Project Room curator, Jess Van Nostrand and filmmaker, Wes Hurley. These oral histories will be on-going and will be archived by the University of Washington Women s Studies Department and available to the public. WEB PRESENCE We are creating a web presence for the female musicians from this era, including writing Wikipedia pages and Itunes biographies as well as adding recordings and discographies to existing blogs and websites. GALLERY SHOW A gallery show of collected memorabilia and ephemera will be displayed during the run of the show at The Project Room. The Capitol Hill gallery is currently hosting an exhibit of the making of These Streets as part of their Why Do We Make Things? series. They are also hosting the oral history videos. Capping Day at the OK Hotel (Bonnie Hammond, Laura Vanderpool, Scott McCullum, Joe Ross) Bonnie Hammond and Laura Vanderpool of Capping Day in an oral history interview at The Project Room. 8

9 FUNDRAISING THE PLAN The Gits (Matt Dresdner, Steve Moriarty, Mia Zapata, Joe Spleen) We have a lot of activities on the horizon for raising the money we need to produce the show. Here are the upcoming plans so far. KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN * Video by Wes Hurley * Great donation rewards including signed Seattle rock posters and attending development workshops and special previews VIP PARTY AT GINNY RUFFNER S URBAN GARDEN IN BALLARD * An event at one of the most unique gardens in the city, hosted by the legendary local visual artist Ginny Ruffner * Performances by local luminaries ONLINE AUCTION * Donated one-of-a kind Seattle rock memorabilia including instruments, posters and records ROCK GIRL DINNERS * Dinners hosted by local female rock musicians in their homes- music, food & booze, and conversation. 9