>>PREVIEW
THESE PROPORTIONS ARE EPIC
Thursday, February 1
MacEwan Hall Ballroom (U of C)
Brimming with motivation, energy and perhaps a stubborn desire to take on daunting tasks, local musician Michael Bernard Fitzgerald is poised to unleash a student-created and student-produced showcase.
Meshing the talents of nearly 50 performers was a feat unto itself, but the final product is even smaller than Fitzgerald originally imagined.
"I originally envisioned a grand, grand scale," he explains of the project that has been developing since last September. "I wanted 25 orchestra members, a choir of 20 (singers) and 10 to 15 dancers, I wanted to go even huger.
"I really like in theatre when you see something really cool on stage and you hear something really cool through the speakers, it gives you goosebumps. I’ve always admired the combination of incredible sights and incredible sounds."
The evening is designed to unfold as follows – Fitzgerald, his backing band and a 12-person choir will play 10 of his upbeat pop songs while a live orchestra of 16 will accompany them with an original score, written by University of Lethbridge student Jesse Plessis. Seven of the songs will have five dancers interpreting them, while four actors will introduce the sets with corresponding scenes. The group has strived to avoid high school variety show clichés and rather create a multi-sensory spectacle, with all the elements interacting at once.
Determined to not be the sole focus of the evening and not micro-manage the creative processes, Fitzgerald has been more than content to let students take their respective helms and see what unfolds.
"I’m just the guy that plays guitar, but I’ve got a good base for these people to platform upon and add their skills. I haven’t told the dancers anything, I haven’t told the actors anything and I haven’t told the musicians anything."
Most of that base will come from tracks on Fitzgerald’s recent debut album Black and White Phonetics (Love), a collection of endearing, up-tempo pop-soul numbers with undeniable positivity and charm. Setting the tone for the evening will be Vancouver-based Rebecca Ramone and her band the Wicked-Radd. A pop balladeer whose voice emulates a gentler Melissa Etheridge at times and Chantal Kreviazuk at others, Ramone has shared stages with the likes of Matt Costa, Teddy Geiger and Jessica Beach.
"It’s so silly, I should be opening for her," Fitzgerald says gushing. "She, in terms of performance, has seen way more stages than I have."
Not everyone was as easy to get on board as Ramone and early in the planning process, financial and personnel challenges posed obstacles.
"Just getting people that are kind of trustworthy and people that are on the same page has been a little tough. Challenges have been getting people to see the vision I’ve got and getting people to invest their trust in me. They don’t understand what you’re doing it for, some people thought I was doing this for money at the beginning."
Instead of having to finance the production out of his own pocket, which the second-year drama student was prepared to do, the student’s union at the U of L stepped in and helped secure enough funding for four shows – two in Lethbridge and one each in Calgary and Edmonton. Without monetary stresses, Fitzgerald has been able to focus on bringing the various strands of the performance together, and his momentum and enthusiasm are contagious. Trying hard not to look to the next project and contemplate bigger and grander spectacles, for now he is simply content to share the visual and aural mingling with those yearning for something different. |
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