Call with Emily Rollie

The conversation with Emily Raleigh discusses her involvement in the Sound of Music production in Leavenworth. She shares her childhood connection to the show and her excitement to work on it. They also discuss her background in theater, including working with universities and devising theater in Portland. Emily talks about the unique experience of performing Sound of Music outdoors in Leavenworth and the dynamics of the diverse cast. She emphasizes the importance of ensemble-driven storytelling and the exploration of relationships within the production, especially in terms of intimacy and character dynamics. Okay, great, so here talking to Emily Raleigh, and are you in Leavenworth recovering from the heist of opening weekend of Sound of Music? Well, I'm in Clay Elam, I'm based out of Clay Elam, so it's only an hour or so in the area, and definitely, like, breathing a little more smoothly now that it's open and on its feet, so yeah, you're so right. Oh my goodness, well, what was your choice in saying, yes, I'd like to spend my summer in Leavenworth and work with this traditional and iconic musical production, given all your other credits? That is a fabulous question. I told the cast in our, like, opening company meeting that I've loved this show since I was very, very young, like, when I was little, this is such a silly story, but when I was very young, we had a babysitter that would come over, and we would set my brother up in some sort of activity, and then we had a giant bay window, and we would put on the record, I'm probably dating myself with that, but it's fine, with the record of Sound of Music, and we would dance to 16 going on 17 over and over and over again, so, like, I love this story, and kind of certainly grew up on it, and there's so much, I think, about doing a show that Leavenworth has done for, like, what, 29 years, this is your 29, for Sound of Music, that what does this ensemble in this moment bring to this really powerful, I mean, you said iconic, and just, like, beloved story, so I was excited to bring that early love, but then also what I've discovered through the course of my career about story and relationship, and, I mean, you looked at my resume, it sounds like, and so there's a lot of women-centered stories on that, and so I think Sound of Music is also so powerful in Maria as a character, and the story of her kind of finding her way, so, yeah, it has long lived in my heart, so I was excited to come to LST and get to play with it a little bit with this group of people, which is particularly a gift. Wonderful, yeah, so you're catching ideas I had in my head after seeing your website and your impressive CVs, and that word I honed into was artist-scholar, you've found a lot of ways to work with universities all over, and directing, teaching, studying, you've gone about as far as you can go in every direction of mastering theater, congratulations! Thank you! Really, I mean, I made it through my bachelor's and then went into working professionally in theater in Portland, but as a dramaturg, I dreamed of, like, PhD-level study, because I really get into theory as well as, like, acting modalities excite me, so. That's so cool, where in Portland do you work? With Hand to Mouth Theater, they're a devising ensemble since the 90s. Oh, so you're a deviser! Yes, I'm specializing in new script, like, adaptations from one media to another, so Ursula T. Le Guin novel, or a movie with Joaquin Phoenix, or with River Phoenix, and Keanu Reeves as young men in Portland, and looser stuff, like pep talk was, we just geeked out on all the best pep talks of all time and staged it in gymnasiums, kind of with coaches making a team of the audience to lift people's spirits and toured that rurally, so I had a great period there in, like, the 2010s as a dramaturg and company member, and then Coho Productions is still thriving, 99-seat theater with a collaborative model that put me in touch with a lot of great creators, so yeah, absolutely, it's really exciting to talk to someone like you, we have mutual interests. Yeah, definitely, I ran a site-specific, site-suggestive theater company when I was in Missouri, so the idea of pep talk in a gym just, like, makes my heart sing, that's so cool. Yeah, it really delivered on that, and I like regional work, like, site-specific, I mean, Sound of Music in Leavenworth is pretty site-specific when you get down to it, would you do that? Sure, I mean, I think, oh gosh, that's what really makes it special, and even, I knew it, but this last week as we've been teching and dressing on Ski Hill, it just becomes so goosebump-inducing, you know, it's so powerful and profound to watch this beautiful story, but then watch it happen as you look over the top of the stage and you can see the mountains behind, so when, you know, Maria sings her first opening moment in the woods, about the woods, we had a lot of fun, actually, playing with, you know, how is she physically responding to the world around her, and taking inspiration in that moment from it, so I think it just breathes a new life into it, and gives you a scenic element that you can't always get in a quote-unquote traditional theater space, yeah, it's just really magical to be out there in the woods, on the mountain, seeing the mountain at the sunset, it's, yeah, it's pretty special. It absolutely is, this time of year I look up at the sunset and I, like, picture your scene, it's, like, happening every night, it's so beautiful. My next question is, how has it been compared to working with university students who are in, like, semesters of work together, and know each other quite well, versus a summer stock like LST, where it's out of town, but maybe still student performers, and locals who have, like, years of experience, what's the dynamic of the cast like this year? Yeah, it's like you're in my brain, Jessica, I was thinking about that and reflecting on it today, in fact, about how, not to overuse the word special, but, like, truly special it is with this particular ensemble, is we've got some folks who've done it, I mean, I think Gary Hesse has done the show 17 times, he said, so he's a long-timer, and then we've got some brand new folks, and we've got some folks that came in from out of town, some that are just from the area, some that are coming back to it from being away for a while, and I think that mix of both skill, experience, and, like, institutional memory is really rich, because it means there's lots of ideas in the room, and there's lots of willingness to think about, like, what is this story for us right now in this moment, and how do we tell it with this ensemble, and for me as a director, ensemble is one of the foundational pieces of my practice, and so I am deeply invested in ensemble-driven storytelling and relationships, and so we've talked about that a lot in the room, and even the folks who have done the show multiple times have mentioned at certain moments, like, well, I haven't thought about the relationship in that way, or how it changes over the course of the show, and so I think having a diverse ensemble of veterans, new folks, people at different points of life, points of training, points of experience, lets everybody learn together, and I think that's what makes and has made our conversation so rich, and then you have the kids who are, oh my gosh, profound in some of the things that they've thought about in terms of the kids, the Vontrack kids and their story, and that just, like, enlivens the whole process too, so this ensemble, in this particular year, I feel really blessed because it is a group of humans who are so excited about bringing heart to the story, and for us to think about how we are, as this particular ensemble, bringing our talents to the center, so yeah, it's been really fun. Excellent, oh my gosh, that sounds, that sounds so ideal. I'm thinking about the dramaturgy of the characters in the ensemble for Sound of Music, and how there's an excitement around Maria, and the new actress who's going to play Maria every year, and their unique take on that heroine, and then there's the children. I love youth performers, I think they're our most natural entertainers that we have, and love to, like, elevate them in any way possible, and kids growing up in these roles, and maturing, I mean, it's such a community element in that way, and yet now when I'm seeing, anticipating from your direction, because you specialize so much in intimacy coaching on stage, is what relationships are you drawing intimacy out of? Of course, there's some romance, is that something you paid attention to with your actors? Oh, absolutely, I mean, as an intimacy choreographer, it's kind of wired into my brain, and my directorial practice in so many ways, because I think, oh, that's a whole, probably another conversation for us on another day, but the short version is, I think everything we do as artists is actually, quote-unquote, intimate, just because performing in front of an audience, things we've created, changes the dynamic. That said, we've talked a lot about relationships, we did a lot of work as a full LST company, there is a company workshop in terms of, like, consent tools that come out of intimacy for better communication and collaboration, which sort of set us up foundationally as a company to do this work in a collaborative way, and then certainly in the romantic relationships in Sound of Music, the trajectory of Captain and Maria, but also the relationship between Captain and Elsa, which we've spent a lot of time talking about the complexity of each of those relationships, and what is not only the dramaturgical arc, but also the physical storytelling arc that goes with and accompanies the intimacy, as well as, like, Liesl and Rolf, right? Like, we only see them in certain moments, but that young romantic relationship that is different than Elsa and the Captain, that is different than Maria and the Captain, and what are the physical moments in addition to the storytelling moments that are already in the text that we could mine and create so it works for the actors and tells the story in a really interesting way, and maybe speaks to the character's arc in terms of how they're realizing those things, because, I mean, the Captain's a complicated guy, and Maria, in her, she said there, she said, like, I'm God's errand, and so the feelings that she has no idea how to grapple with is complicated, so thinking about how those inform all of our physical storytelling moments, specific to the moments of intimacy, but just all of them, so the moments of intimacy also make sense. We talked about that a lot in rehearsal, especially with the adults, which has been really fun for me, and I think fun for them to explore and think about, too, so it has definitely informed all of parts of the practice, I think. Well, I can't wait to see that such a strong dynamic to draw out, thinking about physicality in terms of character development beyond, because when you have a traditional performance, like, people know, that's based on a movie, people know the words, they know the dialogue, they know the characters, they know the story, and so it becomes quite specialized how to style it year after year, and going in that direction. I know I texted you viewpoints, because you did a workshop in 2020, and that's back from my, you know, college acting, but such a great technique, yeah. I just, I recommended it to Rachel Powers in our conversation, because she's musical, and I think it breaks down movement into a musical language. I just love it. I'd love to do a class, take a class, teach a class, just anything to get people moving in that way again. Yeah, right, and I mean, as a divisor, there's so much in the viewpoints to draw from for inspiration that doesn't have to be text-based, but can complement text-based work. Yeah, so rich. I love it. Well, for now, I'm a professional audience member, seeing as much as I can and writing about things in advance, so I just live my bohemian dream of talking to artists about whatever they're making. It's a good place to be, and I hope we can talk again, meet in person when they come to the show. That'd be so nice. Yeah, absolutely. Do you know when you're coming to see the show? Not yet. Okay, cool. I'll keep you posted. Sure. Yeah, would love to connect, so I think it's great, and I think it's awesome that, I mean, you're available to cover LST and theater in the area, because so many, and you've probably seen this too in the field, that like smaller papers don't cover the art, and that's a challenge, so thanks for covering it. Oh, you're right, and I recognize that, because when I graduated and went like you did through Kennedy Center, and you've probably continued, because when you're working on university shows, those all apply to Kennedy Center, right? So those awards can do a lot. They moved my career into freelance journalism and dramaturgy, just like it's this, but everyone said, oh, we're so sorry, the arts critics are getting fired, and you know, the Oregonian laid off their staff who had been there for 30 years, and but the alt weeklies keep things going, and we've basically, the Wenatchee world hired me back after things started, or hired me at first after things started opening again after COVID closures, full-time, and there's, it's basically an alt weekly inside the newspaper. That's so great. How long, so you've been there like since 2021? How long have you been there? 2022, three years. Okay. Yeah, just passed it, so that's awesome. It's excellent, yeah, it's a good spot, and being connected to the wider region, down to Ellensburg and Cle Elum, I guess where you are, feels great. It's nice, nice to broaden the pool a little bit around here. Absolutely. Well, is there anything else you want to especially say about Sound of Music? We've talked a good amount, but I want to talk more eventually, but for an interview, I'll wrap it up soon. I mean, I just think it's a talented group of humans this year. I don't know, are you talking to Fiona at all, who's playing Maria? Might as well. Yeah, Fiona's great. They're so, so smart as an actor, so they might have some great things to say, but yeah, Fiona's doing awesome work. It's a, and the kids are adorable. I mean, like you said, kids are the most authentic performers, but this crew of kids, both sets of them, are having a good time, and have really blossomed, so I'm excited for you to see it, and I'm excited for everybody else to see it too. Yep, get out there, get your tickets, and see the show, everybody. Yep, 100%. Okay, well, thanks so much, Emily. Best of luck for the next part of the run, and enjoy your time up here. Yeah, thanks so much, and yeah, let me know when you're going to see the show, and maybe I will be there that night. We'll see, but I would love to connect and chat some more about all things Kennedy Center and dramaturgy. Oh my gosh, yes, there's only a few of us that were proud. Yeah, as you should be. Dramaturges are so, so important, so yeah. You should be proud. PHC, oh, you've gone to the heights. It's so good. Okay, keep directing. Sweet. Thanks so much. Bye. Sounds good. Have a great day. Bye-bye.