COAL - A GLOBAL DIALOGUE MUSICAL
“Coal has always been both a creative and a destructive force. It is the tension between the two that makes the story of coal so compelling...”
Barbara Freese
“Another world is not only possible; she is on her way. On a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing.”
Arundhati Roy
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In 2009 Molly Sturges initiated a series of coal related projects in an effort to bring cultural animation to critical issues related to climate change and climate justice work. Coal, the largest greenhouse gas emitter, is one of the most important and problematic energy sources on the planet. It is a fuel that threatens survival. The COAL team recognizes that we are standing at a major crossroads and straight ahead is the real possibility of an era of social and environmental responsibility and renewed connection.
COAL is a global-dialogue musical based on a simple mythical story about a grandmother who gives a boy a magical rock that contains both creation and destruction within it. The boy’s journey takes him through themes of wonder, possibility, addiction, desire, consumption, reciprocity, citizenship and human connection within a folktale format. At the apex of the story the boy, out of control, in a flurry of consumption and expansion, finds his beloved grandmother deathly ill as a result of his acts and desperately calls out for help. A blackout silence follows. He is then answered by people from all parts of the globe through integrative video responses. This interaction structure creates essential spaces for collective imagining of our common future. Based upon a multi-lingual and generative structure, COAL incorporates a range of innovative community engagement strategies. It is designed to travel from one host community to another in a two-week residency form. As it moves it reflects and adds community responses into the piece becoming an evolving strategy for global dialogue and culture change.
Unlike many expressions about our most pressing environmental issues that focus on fear and the good/bad dichotomy, COAL is a cross-pollination project that relies on a creative and programmatic framework that will inspire us toward connection as opposed to motivate us out of fear. The musical format invites us into a world where we can be collectively moved and inspired through the ever-existing human forms of expressions including song, dance and story. COAL will be performed by one central narrator, a grandmother, a boy, and five musicians. As a touring project the piece will be portable and flexible - able to be performed in any community and performance settings. The musical score will reflect many of the musical elements found within the ten top hard coal producing countries which include: China, USA, India, Australia, Russia, Indonesia, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Poland, and Columbia. Touring will focus on the five top coal consuming countries (70% of all consumption)- USA, China, India, Russia and Japan.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT- MOLLY STURGES
In 2009 I was awarded a major artist award, The United States Artists Fellowship- http://www.unitedstatesartists.org. My response was to delve into issues around climate change and see if there was some artistic response that would be personally meaningful and could expand our dialogue, connection, and response to the major events occurring in these times. I wanted to contribute to a movement towards positive envisioning as opposed to simply averting disaster. COAL became a means to create more spaces and opportunities to connect us to our shared humanity.
Frustrated by theme-based projects that oversimplify, the path to finding a starting point has not been obvious. Convinced that climate change is hard to relate to I committed myself to creating a musical out of my belief that songs can foster the emotional connection so desperately needed in this conversation. This is not a project about right and wrong - it is about what connects us as human beings. It is about what we must let go of and what we must carry with us as we create and remember sustaining and regenerative relationships. I am not interested in projects that prescribe solutions. I am interested in nuance, multiplicity, inquiry and dialogue.
COAL contains within it a predicament. The answer to our central social and environmental challenges may not be found in the current language and perceptions that dominate - it may be found in our collective insight- this is what I seek to create through this musical, a true interaction that brings us face to face with creating our shared future.
Having worked with many communities around the globe I am aware of the myriad of worldviews and cosmologies that hold notions of climate change in radically different ways. I care about these differences and am committed to an elegant expression of this multiplicity that welcomes us into a textured global imagining of our future.
CONTACT:
Molly Sturges
molly@littleglobe.org
505-660-9473
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROJECT ELEMENTS
TIMELINE
September 2009-June 2010
Preliminary research and content sketching, development of preliminary team, fundraising strategy, project workshop at Institute for American Indian Arts and other schools (completed).
Summer 2010
Script development, music sketches and recording ( including writing and production with up to 16 musicians), finalizing development team, fundraising,
initial partnership conversations, initial coal salons with community groups, energy professionals, tribal leaders and community members, mining community members, and more.
Fall 2010-Spring 2011
Full development, work-in-progress workshops and documentation, engagement structure planning, continued salons, presentations and partnership building, pilot planning, PR strategy, documentary planning.
Summer 2011
Preparation for staging, plan and prep pilot tour cycle, secure funding and partnerships for first touring cycle.
Summer-Fall 2011
Pilot Performances, documentation and evaluation, media strategies, fundraising for first full tour.
Fall 2011- Revision and planning- TBA
2012
Full Tour Cycle focusing on USA, China ( we can only hope ), India, Russia, and Japan ( five top coal consuming countries).
BUDGET
COAL is currently seeking the following:
Stage One Development: 20K (CURRENT)
Includes creation of script, recording of 3-5 songs, visual materials (storyboarding), fundraising, partnership building, and general research and development.
Stage Two: 60K
Works-in-progress workshops (feedback strategy) in multiple communities around New Mexico, development of full piece including workshops with
musicians and actors, recording of score, fundraising, tour planning, partnership development support.
Stage Three: 160K
Pilot Tour includes performance in 20 communities, creation of first documentary film about the project, social network launch, full PR and
production support, evaluation of pilot project and fundraising, partnership development.
Stage Four: TBA
Full on-going tour sequence to the five top coal producing countries (China may not be possible).
*Initial funding provided by Creative Footprint and Littleglobe
ABOUT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/INSTIGATOR/COMPOSER
MOLLY STURGES is an artistic director, composer, and performer. She is the artistic director and co-founder of Littleglobe and is best known for her work integrating intermedia performance, community dialogue, and social and environmental equity and healing. She specializes in intergenerational, community specific, large-scale community engagement projects that integrate a range of creative mediums. Commissions include: The European Festival of Culture, The Stockton International Arts Festival, The New Mexico Arts and Social Change Consortium ( a partnership of local and national funders and community organizers), The Santa Fe Opera, SITE Santa Fe, The City of Evora, Portugal, The Lensic Performing Arts Center and more. Projects include guest artistic director with The Creative Center: Arts for People with Cancer (NYC); creator and director of Moment, a five-month project with homeless older adults for The EU Festival of Culture in Ireland, 2005; and Memorylines: Voces de Nuestras Jornadas, a community-dialogue opera commissioned by The Santa Fe Opera. Current projects include creator/artistic director and composer for Lifesongs, a partnership with The Santa Fe Opera, nursing homes and hospice programs; Common Ground: TOC, an multi-year intermedia community capacity and arts project with intergenerational participants from two Eastern Agency Navajo communities and from the rural village of Cuba, NM; composer and director for SALVE, a music project with returning women veterans; and composer and artistic director and composer on RUTA, a new intermedia community bus opera. Sturges is a performing vocalist, recording artist, and leader of creative music ensembles. A recipient of numerous commissions and residencies, she has written and performed original music for a wide array of projects including music for dance companies, silent films, circuses and sound installations. Sturges holds an MA in composition from Wesleyan University. In 2008 Sturges was awarded the United States Artist Fellowship in Music. In 2010 she will join the faculty of Art and Ecology at The University of New Mexico. Sturges has lived, studied and created projects in many countries around the world, she speaks several languages, and regularly teaches workshops and speaks on art and community engagement and capacity building.
THE COAL TEAM
The COAL team consists of professional cultural workers who stand out in their fields and are connected to the project through a sense of inspiration and commitment. The team, currently in development, includes active consulting writers/artists/producers:
David Gallegos is a producer, dancer, educator and community facilitator. He has run large-scale community and education programs in the US and abroad. He produced a multi-year community engagement arts project with three border town communities near Cuba, New Mexico, and is a core artist with Littleglobe. David specializes in international work and community health through creative expression.
Luis Guerra is a bass player and producer with years experience working with a wide range of exceptional musicians including Alejandro Escovedo, Kim Richie, Patty Griffin, Rahim Alhaj, Coleman Barks, Felipe Ruibal and Quemoso, Jason Marsalis, Bobby Shew, Dr. James Polk and AJW, Tosca Tango Orchestra, Charanga Cakewalk. He composes music for films and theatre and his ensemble Terremoto has released three recordings and toured across the USA. He is devoted to musical diversity and has worked with musicians from India, South America, Africa, as well as new musical collaborations with Chicano musicians.
Jamie Figueroa is a writer whose work includes fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. She has created a wide range of youth, community literacy workshops and is currently finishing her B.F.A in creative writing at The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jamie has been an active artist with Littleglobe since 2008 and has recently performed poetry as part of: SALVE: Women in War, Women Warriors at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and for the exhibit FORM and FUNCTION at 516 Arts. As a mixed race woman who identifies as Boricua, she has strong convictions about fully including and celebrating ethnic and cultural diversity.
Valerie Martinez is a poet, teacher, playwright, librettist, and collaborative artist. Her books include Absence, Luminescent; World to World; A Flock of Scarlet Doves; And They Called It Horizon; This is How it Began, and Each and Her. She is a member of the core artist team of Littleglobe, Inc. and Santa Fe Poet Laureate for 2008-2010.
Jason Jaacks (scenic and video artist) is a documentary photographer, filmmaker and community media facilitator. He has worked on projects ranging from environmental stewardship to human rights to community digital storytelling using the camera to explore the stories of our times. He works for National Geographic’s All-Roads project with indigenous youth and works regularly with Littleglobe. He is the founder of Cordillera Productions.
Acushla Bastible (stage director) has created and directed several pieces for the Santa Fe Opera, Littleglobe, Theater Grottesco, Todi Arte Festival in Umbria, and the Festival Internazionale dell Attore in Naples. With her own company, Angel Exit Theatre, Acushla has been nominated for awards at both the Dublin and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. Bastible specializes in integrating new media and music. She regularly works with Littleglobe.
Additional Contributors:
Adelma Hnasko (concept)
Bob Brady (design)
Chris Jonas ( music)
Henry Shukman ( writing/concept)
