Behind the curtain: 'Liberty: The American Experience'

Alpine Theatre Project co-founder Luke Walrath is writing three columns explaining the group’s new original shows, titled “Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness.” Up this week, “Liberty,” which opens at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center July 14.

Music and dance are perhaps the world’s most universal languages. They give our souls the voices they need to make sense of being alive. What better way, then, to celebrate the human experience than by using these languages — the language of musical theatre?

This year, Alpine Theatre Project is setting out to do just that: to celebrate the human experience at the personal, national and global levels using music and dance performed by 14 seasoned Broadway veterans. We’re calling it, “Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness.” It’s ambitious: these three separate shows contain a total of over 90 songs in over 20 different musical styles in over 15 different languages, and all performed by the same company of Broadway actors and musicians.

Last week, I gave a little glimpse into the creation of the first show, “Life: The Broadway Experience.” This week, we turn our gaze from the personal level to the national level with “Liberty: The American Experience.”

In these times of political and ideological division, ATP’s Artistic Director Betsi Morrison, wanted to create an uplifting and inspiring concert (free of politics!) that focused on celebrating and commemorating our shared history as Americans using music and dance of different styles to highlight different pivotal moments in American history. After all, the arts have long been common ground in America, supported and patronized by the full spectrum of Americans.

Her main challenge lay in figuring out a way to cram almost 250 years of complex history into a single concert that isn’t didactic or dry, but inspiring. Where do you start?

Those of you who are familiar with the nonprofit world know the importance of a mission statement. It is the star by which you set your organization’s compass. It is the guiding principle that informs your organization’s actions. And, when your organization sometimes loses its way, you go back to that statement to get back on course. Just like a nonprofit has a mission statement, so does our nation. It was coined so eloquently by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” This would be the main focus of the evening.

Originally, the idea was to depict specific pivotal moments in American history, like the signing of the Declaration of Independence or Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat, but after months of research and soul-searching, she decided to focus on movements (taking a line from the Broadway smash hit, “Hamilton,” as inspiration, “This is not a moment, it’s the movement.”). Then it was a matter of deciding which movements to show.

Morrison decided to use the same convention as “Life: The Broadway Experience,” showing a progression from birth to death. In this case, we would focus on America’s journey from its birth during the American Revolution to its continued evolution and maturity as it grows older. Each section, or chapter, of this story needed a title. Our titles would be, Revolution, Expansion, Secession, Arrival, Suffrage, Union and Evolution. All these words encapsulate major movements in American history — specifically those on American soil.

Great, so you know what you want to show, but how do you show it? What songs do you use? Morrison decided that songs of all different styles would be needed, from Broadway shows like, “Hamilton,” “Wicked,” and “Hairspray,” to gospel, folk, jazz, bluegrass, and even an ’80s rock anthem by the band Journey. Nothing was off limits if the song effectively told the story we wanted to tell, whether it was using Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” to talk about the Civil Rights era of the ’60s or a classic showtune like “Don’t Rain on My Parade” to emphasize the women’s suffrage movement.

Once the songs were chosen, the company got to work filling out musical arrangements, choreographing dances, and assigning solos and harmonies. This process was all driven by Morrison, in whose brain contained the final picture.

In total, the 30 songs contained in “Liberty: The American Experience” create a quilt of sorts — one made up by a multitude of fabrics, each showing a different piece of the American story. It’s an amazing story, one that is continually unfolding and evolving, and it is ours, together.

With “Liberty” done, it was time to spread the focus even wider, and take on a global perspective with “The Pursuit of Happiness.” But that’s a story for next week.

Luke Walrath is the co-founder of Alpine Theatre Project. Visit www.atpwhitefish.org or call 406-862-7469 for more information.