Gold Rush Girls, a new musical with a book and lyrics by Karmo Sanders (a.k.a. Birdie Googins -- more about that in a minute) will have its world premiere at Cyrano's Theatre Company in Anchorage, Alaska next July, after a long development process. Recently, Karmo took a break from some rewrites to talk turkey.
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| Karmo Sanders |
KAM: First of all,
congrats on the world premiere run of Gold
Rush Girls next summer! That’s fantastic. The development process of
the show has been a long one – according to the project history on the Web
site, a decade. Was that frustrating, or necessary/by design? Or both?!
KS: You’ve
got me laughing here. Has a decade been frustrating? You bet. Was that
necessary? Apparently.
We
all know the art of crafting theater is precise and demands honesty and
perfection. Lucky for me, over the years
with encouragement and help from Kate Snodgrass and Rick Lombardo, we had a
series of wonderful readings at BPT and a great two-week workshop at The New
Repertory Theatre. We’ve been ready for the next phase of collaboration for
about a couple years now. Of course the reality is once the piece is finished
you’ve got to embark on a whole new journey of selling the fruit of that
passion. Because you hit a point where
as the writers you must have an
opening. I need that team of actors, director, dramaturg and theater, to move
onto the stage, work the material and give Gold
Rush Girls a chance to shine. I’m
ready to see these “ladies of the night” singing and dancing their way through
the dance hall.
