美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Snow Child' Conveys Alaska's Wild Magic In Musical Form

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

A well-known Russian folktale tells the story of an elderly couple who yearned¹ to have a child. They create a little girl out of snow, and she comes to life. Writer Eowyn Ivey reimagined that story in her novel "The Snow Child" and set it in her home state of Alaska. Now that book has been made into a musical at Arena² Stage here in Washington. NPR's Lynn Neary has more.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE³: In Eowyn Ivey's novel, the childless couple are homesteaders who have moved to Alaska from Pennsylvania in the 1920s. Ivey says seeing the stage version of her story was amazing.

EOWYN IVEY: It was a kind of surreal and very moving experience to watch it, sort of like watching your dream come to life on a stage where everything is kind of the same but not quite the same, right?

NEARY: Perhaps what surprised Ivey the most was the decision to turn the book into a musical.

(SOUNDBITE OF ORCHESTRA WARM-UP)

NEARY: Ten days before previews began, the cast and crew gathered to rehearse for the first time with all of the musicians.

GEORGIA STITT: Hey, guys, I just want to say hi, and I would love to give a lovely welcome to our band. This is our band.

(APPLAUSE)

NEARY: Among the observers that day were composers Bob Banghart and Georgia Stitt. Banghart is a native Alaskan with a background in folk music. Stitt, who also wrote the lyrics⁴, has classical training and works in musical theater.

STITT: Molly Smith sent me the book and said, do you think this is a musical? And I called her before I was done and I said, yeah, I'm not done with it yet, but it's definitely a musical. And she said, well, finish it and then we can talk (laughter).

NEARY: Arena Stage artistic⁵ director Molly Smith was excited to do a play about Alaska. She is co-producing "Snow Child" with Perseverance⁶ Theatre, which she founded when she was living in Juneau. Smith says music seemed like a great way to give people a feel for what Alaska is really like.

MOLLY SMITH: Because the natural world lends itself to a musical rendition and because I've always loved the music that is in Alaska, which is often bluegrass. I think of it as cabin music, some of the most popular music in the state.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "SNOW CHILD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, vocalizing).

NEARY: In some songs, a couple of the actors join the string band with their own instruments.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "SNOW CHILD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Grateful for the daylight, grateful for the moon, grateful for the silence and the talking and the tune⁷, grateful to the God who provides another day. We wouldn't have it any other way, oh, Lord. We wouldn't have it any other way.

NEARY: Bob Banghart says that bluegrass sound may seem more southern than Alaskan but...

BOB BANGHART: There was a long tradition of these types of instruments being up north, and then it really solidified⁸ in the '20s with record players. And then when radio came in, forget about it. All you hear is country music. So it's - I like it. We're building an interesting stew⁹, but it is musical theater, and that's the part that I find so intriguing¹⁰.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "SNOW CHILD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) We wouldn't have it any other way.

NEARY: Another part of that stew is a sense of isolation¹¹ that can be overwhelming in a place as vast and wild as Alaska. Georgia Stitt says they had to find a way to capture that as well.

STITT: How do you create silence through music? How do you create space through music? You know, we're going to be on a stage that won't feel anything like what it would feel like to stand out in the open in Alaska. And yet we're trying to create that sense of emptiness, and how can the hollowness of the music express that?

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "SNOW CHILD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Hello, silence.

NEARY: As the play opens, a woman stands alone on the stage. She and her husband, the childless couple, are heading into their second year in Alaska, struggling to create a farm out of the wilderness¹². She stands by a frozen river contemplating¹³ suicide.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "SNOW CHILD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) I can see the water moving, crashing under sheets of ice - makes a person think twice.

NEARY: When she hears what seems to be the voice of a child, she changes her mind.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "SNOW CHILD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, vocalizing).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Who is it?

NEARY: It's the snow child, who brings wildness and magic into the story. And magic, says Molly Smith, is a big part of Alaska.

SMITH: The natural world is magic to me, so my whole question was if I can bring a piece of Alaska to the stage in any way, shape or form and allow the audience to see it and feel it, we'll be successful. So that's what we tried to do.

NEARY: After "Snow Child" ends its run at Arena, it moves to Alaska for performances in Juneau and Anchorage. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "SNOW CHILD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, vocalizing).

1 yearned   

渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The people yearned for peace. 人民渴望和平。
• She yearned to go back to the south. 她渴望回到南方去。

2 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

5 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

6 perseverance   

n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠

参考例句：

• It may take some perseverance to find the right people.要找到合适的人也许需要有点锲而不舍的精神。
• Perseverance leads to success.有恒心就能胜利。

7 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

8 solidified   

（使）成为固体，（使）变硬，（使）变得坚固( solidify的过去式和过去分词 )； 使团结一致； 充实，巩固； 具体化

参考例句：

• Her attitudes solidified through privilege and habit. 由于特权和习惯使然，她的看法变得越来越难以改变。
• When threatened, he fires spheres of solidified air from his launcher! 当危险来临，他就会发射它的弹药！

9 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

10 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

12 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

13 contemplating   

深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想

参考例句：

• You're too young to be contemplating retirement. 你考虑退休还太年轻。
• She stood contemplating the painting. 她站在那儿凝视那幅图画。