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Join us for an informal evening sharing songs and stories from Eugene Onegin, a new bluegrass musical by Sarah Gancher.
Set in 1940’s Arkansas and then 1960’s Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry, Eugene Onegin retells the story of Eugene and Tanya—one of history’s greatest tales of The One Who Got Away.
After the pop-up, celebrate Sarah's birthday with us as we open the jam to all and party the night away. Musicians, please bring your instruments and friends and feel free to call a tune or two!
We look forward to bringing you into the community at the core of this project.
Event Details:
Date: Monday, December 11th
Time: 7:00 Doors
Location: The Gray Mare 61 Second Ave
Happy Hour: 6pm- 8pm (food and drink)
Songs from Eugene Onegin
Book, music, and lyrics by Sarah Gancher
Based on the novel-in-verse by Pushkin and Tchaikovsky’s opera
Creative team: Jade King Carroll, Lana Russell, Pete Lanctot, Ginger Dolden
With:
Nick Blaemire, Diane Davis, Alan Epstein, Nina Grollman, Jess Lynn, Joshua Machiz, Marianne Rendon, Cameron Scoggins, Mike Shapiro
Hillary Hawke, Cesar Moreno, Kensuke Shoji, Rick Snell
About the Story
Set in 1940’s Arkansas and then in the world of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry during the 1960s, Eugene Onegin explores what it is to build identities, dreams, and communities through music. It’s structured as a picking party, where singer-musicians sit in a simple circle of chairs to tell their tale, with seats left open for audience members who might want to sit in.
Casting: 5W, 6M — but has a smaller 4W, 5M version.
So Is This A Musical, Or... What Is It?
This “musical” is structured like a bluegrass jam. A story told by and for the community of musicians telling it.
Most of the actors will play instruments, and all of the musicians also speak. Our performers sit in a simple circle of chairs to tell, act, and sing the story. There will be real bluegrass “breaks” — improvised solos. Plenty of harmony. The audience should feel free to sing along on big choruses.
Ideally, there would be some chairs in the circle left open for audience members who want to bring their own instruments and sit in. Almost all of these songs are written to be simple enough to pick up by ear. Ideally, the audience would be seated around the edges of the circle, in the light with us, free to get up and grab a beer and come back.
The play will mostly be staged in a classic “picking party” circle. Some staging, but light and simple: a kiss, a fight, a square dance.
The Chorus
One of the great pleasures of Pushkin’s novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin (the first novel to be written in the Russian language) is the narrator. Pushkin speaks directly to us like a friend, like a buddy, and makes us believe that we already know everything about a world that is actually totally foreign to us. In this version of the story, the role of the narrator is played by the musicians in the “chorus.” They tell their own versions of the story of Tanya and Eugene, they have their own opinions, and they have their own reasons for telling this story. Ultimately, this story is about them—about the kind of intimacy we develop with the people we make art with.
Set in 1940’s Arkansas and then 1960’s Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry, Eugene Onegin retells the story of Eugene and Tanya—one of history’s greatest tales of The One Who Got Away.
After the pop-up, celebrate Sarah's birthday with us as we open the jam to all and party the night away. Musicians, please bring your instruments and friends and feel free to call a tune or two!
We look forward to bringing you into the community at the core of this project.
Event Details:
Date: Monday, December 11th
Time: 7:00 Doors
Location: The Gray Mare 61 Second Ave
Happy Hour: 6pm- 8pm (food and drink)
Songs from Eugene Onegin
Book, music, and lyrics by Sarah Gancher
Based on the novel-in-verse by Pushkin and Tchaikovsky’s opera
Creative team: Jade King Carroll, Lana Russell, Pete Lanctot, Ginger Dolden
With:
Nick Blaemire, Diane Davis, Alan Epstein, Nina Grollman, Jess Lynn, Joshua Machiz, Marianne Rendon, Cameron Scoggins, Mike Shapiro
Hillary Hawke, Cesar Moreno, Kensuke Shoji, Rick Snell
About the Story
Set in 1940’s Arkansas and then in the world of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry during the 1960s, Eugene Onegin explores what it is to build identities, dreams, and communities through music. It’s structured as a picking party, where singer-musicians sit in a simple circle of chairs to tell their tale, with seats left open for audience members who might want to sit in.
Casting: 5W, 6M — but has a smaller 4W, 5M version.
So Is This A Musical, Or... What Is It?
This “musical” is structured like a bluegrass jam. A story told by and for the community of musicians telling it.
Most of the actors will play instruments, and all of the musicians also speak. Our performers sit in a simple circle of chairs to tell, act, and sing the story. There will be real bluegrass “breaks” — improvised solos. Plenty of harmony. The audience should feel free to sing along on big choruses.
Ideally, there would be some chairs in the circle left open for audience members who want to bring their own instruments and sit in. Almost all of these songs are written to be simple enough to pick up by ear. Ideally, the audience would be seated around the edges of the circle, in the light with us, free to get up and grab a beer and come back.
The play will mostly be staged in a classic “picking party” circle. Some staging, but light and simple: a kiss, a fight, a square dance.
The Chorus
One of the great pleasures of Pushkin’s novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin (the first novel to be written in the Russian language) is the narrator. Pushkin speaks directly to us like a friend, like a buddy, and makes us believe that we already know everything about a world that is actually totally foreign to us. In this version of the story, the role of the narrator is played by the musicians in the “chorus.” They tell their own versions of the story of Tanya and Eugene, they have their own opinions, and they have their own reasons for telling this story. Ultimately, this story is about them—about the kind of intimacy we develop with the people we make art with.
Synopsis & Songs(with song titles for the songs we are sharing tonight ONLY**!)
ACT ONE. Late 40s, Northwest Arkansas. Aspiring songwriter Tanya dreams of falling in love and playing music, while her little sister Olga has second thoughts about growing up and getting married. (OPENING.) Olga’s beloved fiancée Lensky comes home, surprising Olga. He’s moved to Nashville and joined a band—and now he’s stranded on tour. With Lensky is cynical, debauched country musician Eugene; Tanya is instantly smitten. She asks him to play her some of his songs (HOUSE ON THE TOP OF THE HILL) and she plays for him in return (MAY I LOVE YOU)—he is deeply moved, but swears that he won’t get involved with her. The powerful attraction between the pair grows, scaring Eugene. He ghosts Tanya, leading her to do something shocking for her day and age: write him a love letter (LETTER SONG) begging him to take her away. ACT TWO. Lensky and Eugene have arranged a church hall dance to raise enough money to leave town. As the dance kicks off, Lensky annoys Olga by bragging about his new life in Nashville and his fancy music friends. Eugene is still missing. Tanya worries that he won’t show up at all, but he bursts in with good news: Lensky and Eugene have been offered permanent places in a big national act. This means Lensky will finally be able to marry Olga. To celebrate, Eugene pulls Lensky and Tanya onstage to play (ROSE ON A MOUNTAIN.) As Tanya and Eugene play together, they connect powerfully. They sing a romantic ballad together (YOU’RE GONNA END ME.) Watching them, the small town audience starts buzzing: clearly they’re destined to get married! Eugene realizes that he’s let himself get too close, and flees from Tanya. Meanwhile, Olga gently tells Lensky that she’s not sure she’s ready to be married. He refuses to listen to her, so she puts her message in song onstage (I WANNA HAVE FUN.) In the shadows behind the church, Tanya confronts Eugene, who tells her firmly that he doesn’t return her feelings, and she should be more careful about who she throws herself at. Tanya is heartbroken and humiliated, especially since the whole party now assumes she’s going steady with Eugene. For his part, Eugene blames Lensky for putting him in this position. Tensions between the two friends, which have been building for months, burst into the open when Eugene spitefully asks Olga to dance with him—and kisses her in front of everyone. Lensky starts a fist fight with Eugene. Eugene wins—but with one freak punch, he accidentally kills Lensky. ACT THREE. The act begins with a gospel song Lensky wrote before he died (A LIFE MUCH BRIGHTER) that his friends still play in tribute to his poetic soul. We skip ahead many years; tortured by guilt for accidentally killing his friend, Eugene has given up his musical career and hit the road. One day, in a diner, he hears the Grand Ole Opry on the radio—and recognizes Tanya’s voice. In Nashville, Tanya is now an Opry star who performs with her much-older and less talented husband George (IT AIN’T ME.) Eugene, who has made the pilgrimage to Nashville to see Tanya again, is gobstruck, and wonders how she got here. A song catches us up (IT CAN’T BE THAT BAD IF I’M SINGING.) Seeing Tanya in the glow of fame and success Eugene finds he is suddenly in love with her—but she ices him out, ignores him and dodges his attempts to talk to her. Finally Eugene writes Tanya his own love letter. Getting no response, he surprises her at her home. Eugene finds Tanya rereading his letter and crying. She admits that she still loves him, but she won’t leave her husband for him. He protests: he wants to be with her! She tells him they can be together—when they play music. (HOME SONG.) As they play, the chorus who has told the story over the course of the evening reflects on they kind of love that we have for the people we play music with. **There are many more songs in the show itself! We are only noting these for brevity’s sake |
Tonight's JamAfter we present songs from Eugene Onegin, we will open up the jam to anybody who brought an instrument and would like to pay! (Feel free to ask to borrow an instrument!)
Every jam is slightly different. This one works more like Sarah’s home jam, Tone’s bluegrass jam at Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook. Anybody can pull out their instrument and play along. The person who called the song will decide who gets solos or in some cases our jam leader (probably Eugene Onegin MD Pete Lanctot) will call solos. If you want to sing a song or call a fiddle tune, just let Pete know and he will make sure you get a turn! |