Getting it Right:
Her-Stories in Seattle’s Grunge Rock Past
Our memories grow shorter and shorter. Many young people today know little about Vietnam and there are only so many living witnesses to the world changing-events of the early twentieth century. That first time a student asks her teacher, “Weren’t there any women anywhere during the Civil War?”, a consciousness grows that history is remembered selectively, and that the rich and powerful have often controlled the archives. Rare is the opportunity to correct the neglected, erased, and invisible, in a story in which one lived, in one’s own lifetime.
Well, the rare opportunity is here, and the illuminated historiography of the women in Seattle’s grunge movement is in the passionate and dedicated hands of Gretta Harley, Sarah Rudinoff and their collaborators. Their sizzling project is cooking at ACT’s Central Heating Lab and if you care about rock music, Seattle’s history, or just love to watch fabulous women and their friends on stage, this is the show for you.
Harley/Rudinoff Productions presents These Streets: a Rock ‘n Roll Story of Women in the Grunge Era, under the auspices of ACT’s developmental program. But these fierce women are clearly in charge of the world that currently inhabits the Greg Falls theatre until March 10, and if you want to say, “I was there, back when it all started”, you better get busy and grab some tickets. Because by closing night, this half-documentary, half-book-based rock musical, and half-grunge night at a virtual Comet Tavern (yes, I know that’s three halves), is going to blow the roof off ACT, and the mosh pit on the stage will be filled, no doubt safely, with audience members who aren’t content with just watching, and want to, well, rock.
The three halves are part of the show’s struggle to find form, but the struggle is thrilling to watch and engages many complex riches. With the dramaturgical goals of the creators, which include writer Elizabeth Kenny and director Amy Poisson, These Streets carries a big burden. The awkwardly titled project wants to be a docudrama (in the vein of landmarks works such as Emily Mann’s Execution of Justice or Anna Deveare Smith’s Twilight), structuring oral histories that were painstakingly gathered over a year of interviews, into a coherent and actable play. On the other hand, These Streets is also a fictional, plot-based drama with music, played by an ensemble of characters presented both as their younger selves on Seattle’s Capitol Hill in the late 80’s, and as middle aged rockers, living in Seattle next door to you today. The third half/hand is a theatrical milieu where music, history and character merge, and we find ourselves in the middle of a pure moment of theatricalized rock and roll.
I have no doubt that the collaborators will be developing this show with the most ambitious kinds of visions. Sarah Rudinoff, a brilliant stage talent whose musical and comic gifts haven’t seen any comparison since the days when Jillian Armenante lit up Seattle’s theatres, and Gretta Harley, the living grunge legend who supervises the proceedings of These Streets from behind her guitar, are formidable leaders. They have crafted a story that follows a group of young women singers and their friends thru the roller coaster of the early grunge music scene, and finding (or not), a path for success for their music, and their friendships.
When this premiere is over, we can only hope the creative team will go back to work for stage two, shaping and honing their project. Perhaps they won’t abandon their ambition of being able to embrace fiction and truth in one play. But they would do well to trust their storytelling more, and examine the exposition-heavy “interview” sections of the show to try and streamline the action. The convention of present-day Brian’s radio show (played by the marvelous John Q. Smith), works to a point, but sometimes sits down too comfortably and These Streets loses its way. Other moments however, crystalize the needed fusion of story and rock. When the Kylas of the past and present (Hollis Wong-Wear and Sarah Rudinoff) join together in the eloquent reprise of “When 3 is 2”, the poetic voice of the era is framed beautifully. And when young Ingrid’s’s boy-lover Jarrad ((peter Richards) is killed, she throws her fragile character’s fury and grief into an all-out grunge dance explosion of emotion. In this moment, the collaborators’ hard work and detailed process comes together.
The live band, Gretta Harley along with Mitch Ebert (Drums), Fiia McGann (Bass/Vocals) and Ron Nine (Guitar/Vocals) inhabits the entire upstage, of the theatre carrying the sounds and songs which fill the show. Gretta Harley’s solo in the second act is one of the most chillingly authentic moments in the production, and serves to remind us how resonant rock music still is in world culture.
With stronger connections between the older and younger selves, and trust that sometimes gesture or a song can render a story better than an explanation, the structure of the play should gain its momentum. Hopefully director Poisson will help the ensemble tighten transitions, and make clearer choices for lights and sound at the end of the second act. Though the theatre offers earplugs, I didn’t need them. i thought the show was mixed brilliantly and it will only get better and better. Kudos to the team of sound folks and all the designers who kept their ideas simple and workable. The entire ensemble of actors (Rudinoff, Wong-Wear, Richards and Smith, along with Terri Weagant and Imogen Love (past and present Christine), Samie Detzer and Elizabeth Kenny (past and present Dez), Eden Schwartz and Gina Malvestuto (past and present Ingrid), and Evan Crockett as Young Bryan) do a marvelous job at working with this new material, and building an alternative family together, one that loves, fights, struggles, and rocks.
There are two powerful presences that are not physically in the theatre. The spirits of Kurt Cobain (These Streets tells us he once said the future of rock would be the women), and Mia Zapata (the singer/songwriter who lost her life in a brutal attack twenty years ago) are watching over the theatre, with their “ghost muscles” flexing. They are resting a little easier I think, knowing that Harley Rudinoff Productions is hard at work.
These Streets: Conceived by Gretta Harley and Sarah Rudinoff. Written by Greta Harley, Elizabeth Kenny and Sarah Rudinoff. Directed by Amy Poisson. Runs at ACT through March 10. Show contains loud music (earplugs will be available at the door) adult language and situations and is suitable for ages 14+ Included with the ACTPass – no additional charge! Learn more about The ACTPassSingle Ticket Prices Start at:
Adults: $30 | Preview: $20 | 25 and Under: $25 | Seniors: $25 | Students: $20 | Teen Tix: $5
Pay-What-You-Can Performance on Thursday, February 28.
Day-of sales only, in person at the ACT Theatre ticket office beginning at 1:00pm.
With music by: 66 Saints, 7 Year Bitch, Bell, Capping Day, Danger Gens, Faster Tiger, Flood, The Gits, Hammerbox, Incredible Force of Junior, Kristen Barry, Maxi Badd, and more. – See more at: http://www.acttheatre.org/Tickets/OnStage/TheseStreets#sthash.sWC3Nmyy.dpuf