Rootabaga Pigeons (a musical work-in-progress)

The musical theater piece “Rootabaga Pigeons” by composer Miriam Gerberg and  based on Carl Sandburg stories, will be presented as a work-in-progress performance on Friday evening September 16 at 7 pm in Sundin Muisic Hall on the Hamline campus. The performance is open to the public and geared towards all ages.

“ Rootabaga Pigeons” is an original musical exploring the colorful and imaginative world of Carl Sandburg’s own version of Midwestern American fairy tales. Sandburg, more widely known for his poetry was an expert storyteller, and easily wove important messages of fairness, empathy and social justice into his writings. These fanciful tales, transformed into lush yet tunefully energetic story-songs for this musical, also reflect Sandburg’s interest in folk ballads and nonsense verse. Saint Paul based Green T Productions Theater company, headed by director Kathy Welch, is presenting this magical exploration of the Rootabaga stories using their special brand of physical theater, movement and dance drama. The cast includes Twin Cities' favorites: Misty Brehmer, Alicia Britton, Matt Kessen, Heather Quigley, Ki Seung Rhee, Dave Schenieder and Mickaylee Shaughnessy.

The composer and book adapter for “Rootabaga Pigeons” is Miriam Gerberg, a St Paul based musician, composer, educator and concert producer whose previous works have been performed around the Twin Cities, in Los Angeles, Seattle, Connecticut, New York City, Sumatra, Israel and Palestine. For this project she won an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to revamp her music theater work originally written and produced in 1984. In this workshopping process, which is leading up to this performance, the songs and script have been undergoing rewriting and tweaking to hone it into an hour-long work, fun for adults and young people.  The performance is a chance to let an audience influence the evolution of this work, which will have a fuller production schedule later in 2017.

This performance is free, though donations to offset costs are happily accepted. For more information: Visit the Facebook Event page https://www.facebook.com/events/1097962493628973/

 A school performance will also be offered at 1:30 Friday Sept 16 in Sundin Music Hall. If you are interested in attending or bringing a group of children please contact [email protected]