by Kirby Lindsay Laney, posted 29 October 2016
At West of Lenin right now, through November 13th, find the black box theater filled with music, and mayhem, as ‘Murder Ballad’, a compelling, 75-minute rock musical, unfolds. Directed by Fremont favorite, Billie Wildrick, ‘Murder Ballad’ knits together award-winning material, in an immersive-style, with talented performers collaborating as their characters collide.
‘Murder Ballad’ is the second show produced by Sidecountry Theatre, and Wildrick shared her great delight at both her producers and their willingness to trust her vision in realizing this production. “Murder Ballad is going to be a really concentrated, high-energy rock show, immersively staged, with four really exciting young actors,” Wildrick explained, “You’ll feel like you are sitting in the pages of a really pulpy, graphic novel, and you’ll want to come back and sit in a different place, for a new experience.”
From Stuffed Animals To Live Music Video
Wildrick may be best known to audiences as a charming and talented actress with a tremendous voice and presence. ‘Murder Ballad’ gave her a chance to return to Fremont, and West of Lenin, but this time behind the footlights, as a director.
According to Wildrick, she’s been directing as long as she’s been acting – starting at age four when, “I’d be directing full-blown musicals with my stuffed animals.” As to whether she considers herself primarily an actor or director, Wildrick explained, “I’m a split down the middle. Both exhaust me in different ways, and both excite me in different ways.”
With directing, “I love working with actors,” Wildrick said, “to watch them be so brave, and to grow in their trust among one another. They grow this trust and chemistry together, and then they put it out there for the audience.” For ‘Murder Ballad’, the four actors must draw out, and convey, many deep, difficult emotions quickly, through song. This emotional candor and control demanded an inter-reliance, and Wildrick admired how these “four really fantastic, visceral performers,” found their way so quickly. “They have a great chemistry,” she observed, “they’re pros!”
The characters in ‘Murder Ballad’ are all archetypes, but through song and interaction, the performers reveal the insecurities – particularly about being unheard, unseen, invisible – that make them human, and relatable. “It’s very topical,” Wildrick observed, “It’s about how we see, and don’t see, each other.”
“It’s a meta-play,” Wildrick explained about ‘Murder Ballad’, the off-Broadway sensation by Julia Jordan and indie-music artist Juliana Nash, “it’s a play within a play. The singers act out a murder ballad,” a song that details a conflict, the consequent violence and death. For modern audiences, the immersive-like style of this production may feel like being a part of a live, music video.
A Whole New Place
Wildrick feels strongly about the need for more accessible, live theater, giving audiences, like those attending ‘Murder Ballad’, a compelling experience, “Otherwise, you may as well watch a movie.” As she explained, “Theater is people; it is live people.” In directing a show, “Things happen and you have to be ready,” she said, “You have to be ready with a yes.”
In live theater, anything can – and should – happen. “My whole approach is ‘Yes!’”, Wildrick said of her directorial style, “you have to come with a spirit of yes,” even when things go wrong. Wildrick particularly recalled directing Sara Henley-Hicks, who plays the ‘Narrator’ in ‘Murder Ballad.’ In a production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at Seattle Musical Theater, Henley-Hicks fell and broke her foot a day before opening. Someone found a ‘Tiny Tim’-like crutch for her to use in her role as Judas. According to Wildrick, it brought a Richard-The-Third gravity to the role, and the production, “and took the physicality to a whole new place.” Rather than regretting the change, Wildrick feels grateful to find an aspect she’d missed in her original direction.
“The appeal of reality television and sports,” Wildrick explained, lay in the possibility that anything might happen. The audience feels the risk that things may spin off into unknown, and unknowable, consequences. “We’re supposed to be doing that for the audience,” she observed about live theater. ‘Murder Ballard’ provides that, with actors/singers bringing to the floor some powerful emotions coupled with a violent story of mayhem. Such a story provides catharsis, the director explained, as “we get out there and do it in your stead.”
‘Arms Around The World’
Before ‘Murder Ballad,’ Wildrick hadn’t worked with Sidecountry, or its founder John Sutherland. “I interviewed for him,” she explained, “John really wanted to do the West Coast Premiere of this show.” Sidecountry prefers to do socially relevant, provocative, and entertaining, theater works. Wildrick likes this commitment to showing, “the struggles we have.”
Sutherland chose West of Lenin, a theater Wildrick has had success at as a performer previously, and she thought it a great choice for this particular piece. “I think the black box is perfect for this,” she said, “We’re always switching the perspective. Depending on where you sit, you’ll always get a different show.”
Wildrick also shared her gratitude to Sutherland, and Sidecountry, for their willingness to trust a female director with a significant production. “I’ve always wanted to direct,” Wildrick explained, “but it’s a tricky thing, particularly as a woman.” She’s experienced some push back during previous productions, running up against moments of resistance and outright sexism, but she continues to apply for directing opportunities. “Musical theater is the most collaborative art form,” Wildrick observed, something she adores. As a director of this murderous musical, “I’ve got my arms around the world, and I’m letting the people in that world do their lives, their art, in that world. That’s what I love about directing. I just love collaborating!”
See the world of this sexy, and enticing, ‘Murder Ballad,’ at West of Lenin, before November 13th. Shows are Thursdays and Fridays at 8p, and Saturdays at 7p and 9:30p, with Sunday matinees at 2p. Also check out a special performance Halloween Night, October 31st, at 7p. Purchase tickets through Sidecountry Theatre or the West of Lenin website.
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