What does queer community look like after the end of the world as we know it?
That is what Sour Flower Events seeks to answer with its newest theatrical production, The Violet Wire: A Selection of Songs from the End of the World. The show comprises of songs from contemporary musical theater and indie folk/rock songs all tied together through the story of a queer radio show in a post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh.
Coming off the heels of their sold-out run of A Queering of Spring Awakening, the team behind Sour Flower knew they wanted to create something that was a lower lift than staging a full musical, but a project that still fueled them as artists. Then came the idea of a queer cabaret song cycle with a backdrop of the end of the world.
“We pulled together a bunch of classically queer songs in musical theater as well as some indie folk songs that represented a lot of the queer experience. While we were trying to figure out the order of the songs, we started to come up with a lot of interesting ideas and commentary on queer community, queer resistance, what it means to do queer art together and looking at what’s been happening lately in the world,” said one of the writers and directors Abby Martz (she/her).
In most theatrical productions, actors are given the script and layout and direction on exactly how the story will be told. For this show, Sour Flower encouraged actors’ input from auditions to rehearsals and gave them a role in shaping the story itself.
“I’ve never done something that was this collaborative,” said writer-director Mel Kleeburg (they/them). “The cast is even creating their own characters and we are guiding them along.”
The writing-directing team of Mel Kleeburg, Ariel Squire, and Abby Martz attended rehearsals with a script, but encouraged actors to play with the material which fed into what would become the final script.
“Everyone brought at least a little bit of something, which was really special to see,” said Martz.
For Violet Wire actor Leaf Stinelli (he/him), the creative flexibility available to him was intimidating. “I felt a sense of shyness and embarassment at first. But being in that space with so many warm friends and creative partners made me feel capable of doing it. So I submitted myself to the uncertainty of it, and started writing,” he said.
Leaf plays a nomad named Skip, a character he had a hand in forming, including writing his own monologue. “When you’re in a DIY production like Sour Flower, it’s really fun to see what you can create from a world that is nothing, to build it ourselves,” he said.
So, why a post-apocalyptic setting for a queer cabaret?
“It’s hard to imagine a future right now,” said writer-director Ariel Squire. “The future we are imagining [in the show] is a little bleak, but also trying to find that spot of hope. We will still have each other and our community and our art.”
Mel Kleeburg added, “I also think it’s a little easier to make a modern day commentary by abstracting it a little. It’s a commentary of where we’re at and where we could go.”
To Leaf Stinelli, this show is about the beauty and the difficulty of creating something from nothing. “What if the thing we’re all thinking about happens? What happens after? What if this scary thing creates closeness more than we ever had? What if it creates joy we haven’t been able to feel before?” he said.
The Violet Wire: A Selection of Songs from the End of the World. runs from Saturday, November 1 to Sunday, November 15 at Little Giant Studio.
