Skip to main content

New Music Artist Spotlight EXCLUSIVE: Steampunk Musical and Interview With Gretchen Suarez-Peña

steampunk-artNew Music Artist Spotlight: Steampunk Musical & Interview With Gretchen Suarez-Peña

New Music Resource was excited to interview exciting musical theater playwright and director Gretchen Suarez-Peña about her latest musical theater production: Melina A Steampunk Musical Tragedy. Gretchen Suarez-Peña is a long-time playwright and lover of the theatre. She has been acting, directing, and writing plays since her teenage years. Her most recent success was winning overall best full-length play at the 2018 Tampa Bay Theatre Festival for her show Conversations in the Car.

playwright gretchen saurez pena
Playwright and Director
Gretchen Suarez-Peña

NMR: How did you start in musical theatre? What inspired you to follow this path? 

I've been involved in musical theatre since I was a kid. I loved the theatre, acting, singing, and acting in middle school and high school. I participated in every thespian competition and community theatre production I could at that time and into college and early adulthood. I started writing, directing and producing plays in High School and I knew that was my true passion.


NMR: Melina took over a decade from concept to finally entering production. Tell me a little about this process.

In 2006, while listening to the song, Helena by Nickel Creek, I suddenly envisioned a man with a top hat and Victorian attire declaring his love to a girl that was sweet and coy, but not at all what she seemed. Her sweetness was her manipulative charm and he was leaving his current love to be with her only to realize that he would later be left alone. It wasn't until 2009 that I started the script, it was a way to deal with unrequited love. A guy I had dated a long time before had dumped me and I really felt like I had no closure from the situation even though I was married. His memory became a bit of boogie man in my life. Writing the script became a way to deal with it. 

That original script was a short straight play, more or less what the first act of Melina is today. But I always knew I wanted it to be a musical. I put the script away for many years, I brought it back out in 2016 when I began writing again. This was also after I had discovered the genre of steampunk and the man in the top hat came back to me. In 2018, the story grew and expanded and I found that my original premise, still there, had grown. 

steampunk-artists
Cast of Melina: A Steampunk Musical Tragedy


Time had passed, children and new loves were now part of the story and the classical ideas of manipulation, paying for our parents' sins, and regret grew into a story I like to call Shakespeare meets Greek Tragedy meets a splash of Jules Verne. I feel compelled to tell it now because I believe it’s a story many can relate to. First and foremost, I want to tell good stories and to entertain and I think it’s time we dug our teeth into another mythology, a tale that people leaving the theatre will turn over in their heads again and again and again. I can't say I can identify my process other than its inspiration meets planning meets opportunity.

NMR: What is Melina about? 

steampunk artIn the fictional steampunk town of New Comen, Jacob is the highly esteemed heir to the "throne" who is in love with a lower-class girl named Mara. Mara is an aspiring vocalist that has gained the favor of the town despite her status. Their love is one of the fairy tales until Melina enters the scene. Melina sweetly wins Jacob's attention and he ends up falling for her and leaving Mara. 

Mara is heartbroken over losing her first love until she meets Jeremiah, an artistic manager who promises her the world. However, Melina’s affection for Jacob begins to wane and she ends up leaving him the day Mara weds Jeremiah. Melina eventually returns having given birth to Jacob’s daughter. Disgraced and hoping to restore his place at his noble family’s estate, life takes unexpected twists as the fate of Jacob’s daughter, a talented inventor, and Mara’s son, a talented vocalist himself, become intertwined. There are twists and turns and not everything is what it seems


NMR: What inspired your story for Melina?

That's mostly in answer to question 2 but some inspirations are: personal experiences and people in my life. The songs Helena and Reasons Why by Nickel Creek, My Immortal by Evanescence, Forget About it and Lucky One by Allison Kraus. Also archetypes in Greek tragedy

NMR: Tell me more about your collaborators on this project, the cast/composer, etc.

musical theater
Gretchen Suarez-Peña
My last musical was entitled Martha and Mary and was orchestrated by Jonatha Gautier. Jonathan Gautier is a long-time musician and composer. He is a recording artist-producer and owns his own recording studio in Lakeland, Florida. Tyler Anderson is a college student currently working on his music education degree. He is an avid musical theatre performer and composer. He is the musical director of a college acapella show choir group and also composes music for their production.

I write the lyrics and melody line and they orchestrate around it. My workshop cast is a group of actors who will be helping table work the production. They include: Alyssa Yates, Dion Spires, Jacob Reilly, Gabrielle Wood, Ashley O'Connor, Eric Sanchez, Chad Sell, Julie Newton, Logan Harris, Lisa Negron, Omar Negron, Edel Nazario, Destiny Velez, and Haylee Rowland. I'd also like to give a shout out to a few big supporters and readers of the script Stephanie Lazanowski, Austin Lazanowski, Tony Murvin, Kimber Wiggs, Glori Snow, Alan Pena, Sean Grennan and many more that have read the script and provided comments and feedback to make the script even better.

NMR: How can readers support your project? 

Liking my Facebook Page Plays by Gretchen. Melina is the biggest project I have undertaken but it is not my first. If you love theatre supporting my page as a playwright is huge. Giving and supporting the Kickstarter to get the demo album recorded so I can submit to competitions and festivals.

NMR: Anything else you would like to add? 

I really would love people to consider supporting new and different works of theatre. I love remakes and jukebox musicals but I really feel like there are so many new and original works that really can pain the theatre scene in a new and engaging way and we can only do that by supporting one another.

---------
Sabrina Young is an award-winning composer and filmmaker. In 2019 the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival awarded Sabrina Young the Lois Weber Award. She is a Cintas Foundation Composer Fellow. Her latest film Spiritus premiered this past August in Buffalo, New York. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Composer's Brief Guide to Percussion Mallets

When composing for percussion, it is important to know the difference between a variety of mallets. Although in most cases the percussionist will choose the proper mallets for the passage, sometimes as a composer, you want a particular sound. It is always good to research a mallet before indicating it in your score. Consult a percussion catalogue for a more in-depth look at the hundreds of mallets available. 1. YARN MALLETS They come in every dynamic range from supersoft baseball-sized to forte. They are the multi-purpose mallet, used for toms, suspended cymbal rolls, marimba, xylophone, woodblock, and pretty much anytime a percussionist doesn't have time to pick up another mallet. 2. CORD MALLETS These are harder than the yarn mallets. More effective on xylophone and vibes, these mallets can also be used for a variety of percussion instruments. 3. BRASS MALLETS These are for use on the glockenspiel/bells and the occasional brake drum. They produce a more "tinny" kind of

EDGY New Film : Special Needs Revolt! A man with Down syndrome is on a mission to save America from a racist dictatorship

Special Needs Revolt!  Is an action-horror-comedy film. The film's hero, Billy Bates, who will be played by up-and-coming actor Samuel Dyer, is a young man with Down syndrome. Billy wakes up from a two-year coma and discovers that the United States has been turned into a brutal dictatorship thanks to President Kruger, to be played by award-winning veteran actor Bill Weeden ( Sgt. Kabukiman   N.Y.P.D. ). Kruger has put all people with disabilities into institutions. Billy becomes the leader of a diverse group of resistance fighters committed to ending Kruger's reign of terror. "Special Needs Revolt!" is also a satire on our current political situation, done in the style of Troma Entertainment. Lloyd Kaufman of Troma will appear in the film.  CHECK OUT THE INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN:  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/special-needs-revolt#/ Adrian’s latest work  Special Needs Revolt!  may seem edgy and even shocking to some. However, it demonstrates that he is grow

Music Secrets: The Music School Survival Guide

Music Secrets: The Music School Survival Guide Don't have any time to balance rehearsals, exams, and a social life? Then read on!  So you find that between playing in orchestra, the school musical, a solo recital or two, joining Sigma Alpha Iota or Phi Mu Alpha , playing in the alternative band at night, pep band, and marching band that you can't keep your eyes open, let alone study for the music history midterm next week or even begin to write your term paper on Debussy? Then read on and learn to balance life in Music School. 1) Musicians DO need to Sleep   Yes, you need to sleep, even if it is only five hours a night plus catnaps. Your brain cannot function if you do not sleep. So sleep, even if that means that you can't play in that awesome alternative band that jams every other night till 5am at the local bar. 2) Eat right and exercise Okay, so I sound like your parents, or Oprah, but I am serious. My biggest mistake as an undergrad (well, one of my bigges