First, a HUGE thank you to everybody on the reception to Katy Shaw. Response has been overwhelmingly fantastic and i am both grateful and ecstatic. The album will be out on Spotify, iTunes, Google, etc soon and i will most certainly let you know. I hope you are all enjoying the experience of listening to it.
Although there’s more to talk about regarding Katy Shaw, i’m just going to ahead and announce the next project now. After careful deliberation, and really, i’ve agonized over whether this is really a good idea or not, i have conclusively decided that i am going forward with The Donner Party. It’s going to happen, i will will it into being. i dont know how, but the obsession has clicked on, and when the obsession clicks on, it means you go with it. It will be dark. It will have a good bit of narration, a good bit of choral shenanigans, lots of broody ambience, acoustic beauty, and will effectively tell the tale of a very messed up long day’s journey into night.
My intended cast list thus far, and understand i haven’t actually asked anybody yet, is:
Lauren Osborn as Sarah Graves
Hayley Warner as Tamsen Donner
Liel Bar Z as….. havent decided yet but if she’s willing i definitely need her voice.
Psyche if i can fit her, but i’ll likely need more voices than usual and she’s my card up the sleeve.
Oliver Marsh as George Donner. Dude, Oliver Marsh was MADE for this type of high drama
I’ll do James Reed or Lawrence Hastings. I’m thinking James Reed has a bit of a Bob Dylan style and i can pull that off that rather well
Somebody…. as Lewis Keseberg?
Somebody…. as Lawrence Hastings
I will likely use 4 female voice, 4 male. Like i said, i’ll need extra voices for this one. It could get a hair expensive, but i wont need as many extra musicians this time. Or i may… hard to say. I’ll make it work.
Definitely narrated by Michael. I set Michael up in case i decided on this one.
As hard as this is to figure out how to do, i have bits worked out that i cannot walk away from and directions i am dying to experiment with that i cannot put aside. There are dramaturgy aspects of making this that are insanely difficult, so i may have to come up with some creative workarounds.
Still, it’s a go. The Donner Party and then after that perhaps The Transhuman War Series or whatever i end up calling it. You know, The Ballad Of Lloyd Allen. But later. Much later. Donner Party now.
