Photograph by ProPhotoSTL
Sleepy Kitty performing during "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
As the members of Sleepy Kitty tell it, their current run with Upstream Theater, in which they serve as the pit orchestra and musical backbone of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, is borne of a longstanding desire to try out a musical theater role. The timing wasn’t necessarily ideal, with a split-seven coming up for this weekend’s Record Store Day and plenty of other artistic and musical projects pulling at their time. But an offer’s an offer, and the opportunity to score Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s work was too tempting to pass up.
“I love theater and musical theater and musicals,” says SK multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Paige Brubeck. “I’ve always intended for us to do something like this. When this opportunity came up, it wasn’t the first or second thing I’d thought to adapt music for, but it felt like a good opportunity.”
And it’s one that grew organically as concept became reality.
“Originally, we thought of writing four songs,” adds drummer Evan Sult. “When we sat down together with [director] Patrick Siler, it became 20 songs.”
The end result is a mélange of material coming directly from the original, 1798 (and public domain-ed) language of Rime, as well as some bits adapted and written specifically for the production by Sult and Brubeck. The small cast—only three actors—has been meshing with the two-person pit orchestra of Sleepy Kitty through one weekend of completed shows, as well another run this weekend, including a Sunday matinee. Working with the added voices on onstage added to the intrigue. As did… well, a little bit of everything in the theatrical process.
“I’ve gotten an education in what it takes to get a show on, the behind-the-scenes work that goes into it is amazing,” says Sult. “It never seems as if there’s going to be enough time to get open. I was freaking out for a while. There are so many moving parts that you have to be aware of and eventually you just realize it’s not your job. Staging is not my job. Line readings are not my job. ‘While we’re doing this, who’s doing the set?’ It all comes together, regardless.”
Because the piece took considerable work, it’s not ridiculous to ask if the show could travel, at least a bit.
“The goal right now is to successfully do it in St. Louis,” Brubeck says. “It’d be a shame to only do this a few times; it’d be fun to do it a lot more times. But multiple people are involved. We’ll finish in St. Louis, then we’ll see. It’s been so immersive and that’s been pretty cool. I haven’t felt like this since college finals.”
The final performances for Rime of the Ancient Mariner are April 17 and 18 at 8 p.m., and April 19 at 3 p.m. at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 North Grand. Tickets are $30, $25 seniors, and $20 students. For more info, go to upstreamtheater.org.
