Review Fix chats with Maguire Wilder and Kyle Best, wh discuss their new production, “RaTs:SubwaySongsandStories.â€
About the Production:
RATs:SubwaySongsandStories, a workshop production of a new musical written by Maguire Wilder opens January 23 and runs through the 26 (Thursday – Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m.) at TheaterLab, 357 W 36th Street, NYC. Music by Gavin Knittle, Kiara Negroni, Lucas Saur, Kyle Best, Maguire Wilder, Natalie Thomas, and Lo Williams.
RaTs:SubwaySongsandStories follows two rats, Rat Princess and Tabby Cat the Sewer Rat, as they journey towards freedom: both sexually and from the oppressive hand of the MTA. Part fact-based narrative and part queer fantasy, RaTs:SubwaySongsandStories is a musical tale (pardon the pun) inspired by and set in the New York City subway system, where we watch the rats attempt to live their lives under a system that wants them dead.
Remember the YouTube Video of the Rat with the pizza slice?
The MTA has recently announced that there is a new means of rat population control in their subway stations. Previously, the MTA would permanently sterilize female rats, but they have since turned to drowning them in large vats of alcohol. RaTs:SubwaySongsandStories attempts to draw the line between rat and human and open a discussion towards the varied ways that the MTA and other governing bodies abuse their power.
The rodently cast includes Fara Faidzan, Maiya Pascouche, Markese Mclamb, Claire-Frances Sullivan, and John Knispel. The production is directed by Kyle Best, designed by Lucas A. DeGirolamo, and produced by Maya Singer. Production stage management by Sarah Samonte; Music Direction by Claire-Frances Sullivan and John Knispel.
Tickets available at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/dept/1957
Review Fix: What was your inspiration behind this project?
Maguire Wilder (Playwright): I started working on RaTs:SubwaySongsandStories this summer when challenged to think about community and group protagonists in a musical format. Rat communities are endlessly fascinating, and, on doing some research, I stumbled across some shocking statistics regarding rat populations in New York. As a lover of rats, this information was bone-chilling. I found myself surprised at how little I knew about the way these animals were being treated right under my feet in New York. I encountered this information around the time when discussions around Roe V. Wade were occurring in my home state of Georgia, and I knew there was a line to be drawn.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Kyle Best (Director): I begin very much from a musical place as a director so I’m a big fan of the traditional musical theatre process where everyone spends a lot of time with the music before doing anything else. When I approached Maguire before the score was written, I asked about her interest in pursuing a world completely driven by subway/subway-performance music/sound. That was very much my way into this musical. Building the music therefore became a very collaborative process in its initial development. Almost a dozen composers are technically credited on this project. With a show like this, what was also most interesting is that it actually didn’t need much staging at all. We did previous staged concert versions of this musical and when moving into a full production, it was definitely important to maintain that feeling of a concert that we had at the concert readings. It had big sounds and musicality to it, but at the end of the day it’s a play driven by two characters and their relationship.
Review Fix: What did you learn/are learning about yourself through this process/production?
Maguire Wilder (Playwright): This musical was definitely created to challenge its audience and its makers. To ask us to step away from what we think we know and believe and interrogate power from another perspective. From a perspective that we are genetically disposed to be frightened of. Where do we choose to empathize, and where do we choose to look away? RaTs invites us into the hyper-sexual world of the rats and asks us to exist with them, to see ourselves in them, and to care for them. To think about the power structures that are seeking their eradication, and to ask ourselves where else that power lies.
Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this for the future?
Kyle Best (Director): Our goal was to build a full production of the musical, which we will have achieved. In terms of further development, I think that’s hard to say at the moment. I know Maguire has some big changes she wants to make once it’s over, so we’re planning to take a break after this development at TheaterLab. I love the world of the play and the people in the room, so I’d always be eager to take it somewhere else, once we feel ready for that. It’s a fun show and I’m sure there’s more to it’s little journey.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Kyle Best (Director): School! But for reals, all of us start school pretty much the day after this closes so I definitely can’t speak for everyone but I think we’ve all got our undergrad stuff to be thinking about. And just more work ahead. It’s SUCH a talented room: the actor-musicians, the designers, writers, everyone on this project has such an insanely big future ahead of them. It’s very exciting to have made this with this group and I know Maguire and I are super thankful to have trusted such an incredible team to make it all happen.
Leave a Reply