alacartoona

Fired up by many hands, 'Oil Boiler' mixes theater, music and art

by Timothy Finn

featured in The Kansas City Star

The various disciplines in the local arts and entertainment community overlap regularly.

Ensembles like Quixotic and events like the monthly First Friday art exhibitions and live music shows at Midwestern Musical Co. all typically feature a varied mix of theater, dance, music and the visual arts.

This weekend, the worlds of theater, music and art will mix at “The Oil Boiler,” a one-act play to be presented in the Living Room at the Pearl, 1818 McGee St.

The concept for the play was conceived by Tyson Schroeder, a visual artist with his hands in a variety of other projects, including music and the band Medicine Theory. Initially, Schroeder wanted to present “Boiler” as a series of sit-down readings at a Kansas City drinking establishment.

But after he brought the idea to Christian Hankel of the theatrical/cabaret band Alacartoona, the plans evolved into something larger and more elaborate.

Eventually, a small horde of musicians and theater pros was enlisted. Joining Hankel and Schroeder in the play are Erin McGrane (Alacartoona) and actress Katie Gilchrist. Walter Coppage plays the disembodied voice of God, and musician and singer/songwriter Cody Wyoming is the club’s emcee.

The ensemble recently invited members of the media to watch part of a rehearsal so they could ask questions about the performance and witness the collaboration among everyone in the production.

The set, designed by architect James Pastine and Schroeder, was still in pieces at the back of the room, so at the rehearsal, the scene was set orally:

The play takes place in a jazz nightclub circa the late-’40s/early ’50s with its own live house band that has several local or formerly local musicians: jazz vocalist Shay Estes, keyboardist Jeffrey Rukaman, drummer Kent Burnham and bassist Johnny Hamil. The show’s musical director is Jeff Freling, who works for Blue Man Group in Chicago but is formerly of the local dance/party band Mongol Beach Party.

The show’s other local music connection is soundman Chris Meck, formerly of the band the Gaslights, now of Tiny Horse (and a new, as-yet-to-be-named band).

The music that was performed that night was a blend of noirish blues and jazz. The “soundtrack” has a few songs with vocals and a few instrumentals, all written by Freling and Hankel.

Veteran Kansas City actor/director Scott Cordes is directing the play and putting all that creative energy and know-how to use. But more than act as overlord, he oversees a project that is the product of everyone’s input.

“This show isn’t a bunch of actors with a playwright and director telling them what to do,” Hankel said. “Everyone is welcome to make suggestions.”

Wyoming said that was one element that persuaded him to be part of the project. “Everyone’s opinion matters,” he said. “Everyone has been involved from the start. That’s what made me want to be a part of this.”

The play is loosely about, as McGrane put it, “the big to be or not to be” question. It involves a murder and the issue of evil and its creation and God’s role in it.

.

Here’s one plot synopsis: “Welcome to the Oil Boiler, the twisted tale of Leon Nesrac, neurotic hit-man who has lost his mind and possibly his nerve. In the moments after killing his lover, Leon converses with God about the nature of free will and his attempt to come to terms with the person he was, is and will remain.”

“The play was written like I paint,” said Schroeder, whose paintings (go to thegreatandsmall.com) are as stunning as they can be abstract, sci-fi and/or phantasmagorical.

“This play,” Estes said, “is like walking into one of Tyson’s paintings.”

The other “actors” in the play included several puppets created by Schroeder, plus a projection of his artwork on a screen at the back of the set. Cordes said “The Oil Boiler” takes him back to his “old performance art days. … Sometimes I had to ask, ‘What does this mean? What’s happening here?’ ”

In character, Wyoming guaranteed only that you’ll leave his club “with a great sense of existential dread.” And that is the wider purpose. McGrane said the experience is more about the bigger picture — the process and the journey, not the destination, however that may reveal itself.

That process also includes insinuating the audience into the performance: The room will be set up as a nightclub, with tables and a bar serving alcohol, so the viewers are part of the set.

“We are trying to manipulate the line between art and the audience,” Hankel said.

For the actors and musicians, however, the larger process is also about working with colleagues and peers in other disciplines.

Cordes hailed Rusty Sneary and Shawnna Journagan, the proprietors of the building, who let the production take residency in the space, which saved everyone a bundle of time and expense.

Estes, who performs regularly at Jardine’s and other local jazz clubs, said that gesture is just one example of how willing people in the Kansas City art/entertainment culture are to help one another. And that can stimulate the creative processes and inspire people to think big.

“You can take artistic risks here because the financial risks are low,” she said. “It’s an easy place to be an artist. There’s such a community for it here.”