What’s love got to do with it?
When it comes to Rock of Ages and the people who put in the time and effort to make the show happen, quite a lot.
This year’s performance, which rocked out the CATS venue on Saturday, March 14, was sold out weeks in advance. Clearly the audience shares that sentiment.
At its basic level Rock of Ages is R.F. Staples staff and other members of the community miming to popular music.
But really, there’s nothing basic about the production. How could there be when there are 40 performers, supported by a full compliment of backstage and front of house staff, all putting in hundreds of hours of effort.
Few, if any, of the people taking part are actors, musicians or theater professionals. They put the show together in their spare time to raise money for replacement seating in the CATS space.
Nora Nykipilo teaches junior high language arts and played, amongst other things, Mick Jagger.
Her performance was complete with a chicken walk, huge pout and all the other elements of Jagger’s unique physically.
“The CATS seating is defiantly in my mind. I’m a drama teacher as well, so I’m in the theater all the time. So it’s nice to know what I’m doing is actually going back into something that will indirectly affect me and my students,” she said.
At last count, this years Rock of Ages show had raised over $5,000 for the replacement seating.
But the show is not just lip syncing and playing air-guitar like teenage girls living out their One Direction, or Backstreet Boys, or New Kids on the Block, or Jackson 5.
Generally, each song seeks to replicate the music video or cinema moment down to the smallest detail, or as close as possible. Although there were some home grown efforts, such as the Star Wars-inspired MC Hammer dance.
You get the feeling that if the cast and crew could have worked out how make it seem like The Rolling Stones Satisfaction number was cut together from five or six live shows, just like the video clip, they would have done it.
Each cast member put in a minimum of 10 hours per number and this year’s show had 22 songs, if you include the flash mob that kicked the event off.
When you add up the hours, the time and effort put in individually and as group, it boggles the mind.
Maurice St. Denis is a guidance councilor at the school. His performance of Napoleon Dynamite dancing to Jamiroquai’s Canned Heat opened the show.
“I probably spent about 20-25 hours just watching the dance online and trying to break it down into smaller parts and then it was just practice and trying to envision visual cues,” he said.
“I’m not a very good dancer. I think anyone in my life would attest to that. So my wife helped me out a lot with the step count.”
The process of deciding what goes into the show is a collaborative effort.
Director and one of the Rock of Ages founding members, Jerry Buchko, leads the group, but like all good creative processes, everyone gets input.
“We get together, a number of us early on in the school year, and we each throw out our own ideas and once we’ve settled on a number of acts I think we try to find characters or parts that would best suit us,” St. Denis said.
“That being said, I think a lot of us see this as an opportunity to step out of our comfort zones and try something different.”
It’s not just teachers and other R.F. Staples staff who take part.
Christine Conquergood is one such person. Her day job is with the Westlock Community Health Services and one of her bits was playing Tina Turner singing What’s Love Got To Do With It?
“I think it’s a great fundraiser for the school and I think it’s something fun for people in the community to watch and see teachers and other people in their community lose there inhibitions a little bit,” she said.
Each cast and crewmember gets something different from the experience and their motivations can differ as well.
For St. Denis it’s about working with colleagues on something that isn’t educating our doctors, lawyers, clerks and leaders of the future.
“It’s collaborating with staff I don’t normally have an opportunity to collaborate with. It really helps with the staff cohesiveness, relationship building and obviously it’s a lot of fun,” he said.
“It’s staff coming together to work towards a common goal and it’s fun to see where process takes us.
“We work in a world were the results of our labour isn’t always tangible, so it’s nice to see what a little hard work, and team work, does.”
While this year’s show is done, because it was a huge success, who knows what it might become in 2016.
After selling out well in advance there is now talk of two shows next year.
Even though it might not seem possible, you can be assured that whatever the group of dedicated educators and other community members come up with, it will be bigger and better than ever.
