Love. Loss. Community. Transience. Combine these themes with bluesy keyboard riffs and you’ll have an idea of the pieces Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby shared in the culmination of their Ancram Center residency. These songs are part of a larger piece—loosely titled “Conversations”—inspired by interviews with Indigenous elders in Redbone’s life. But how does a stack of transcribed interviews become a song? Or two? Or four, even? As is the case with many Civilians adjacent projects: process, process, process. The first step is, unsurprisingly, the interview itself which requires constant collaboration and negotiation between interviewer and interviewee. At the talkback, Redbone said, “Sometimes people have something things that they want to discuss specifically, but Aaron and I really loved throwing out different ideas to make them think about memories.”
After completing the conversation sessions, the pair go through the pages of transcribed interviews with a color coding system (more proof that the American theater is deeply indebted to highlighters). From this point, Whitby and Redbone note where stories intersected and what interested them. Certain phrases jump out, like “things change,” or the idea of being “good enough,” both of which turned into two full-length songs. In the case of “things change,” Redbone said, “It immediately sounded very melodic: you hear the rhythm of [it].” Of course, “full-length” is not the same as “fully developed”; Whitby emphasizes that the songs still live in the realm of ideas and sketches, musically and otherwise. But, being able to experience artistic work in a beautifully gooey nascent state is no less of a gift.
However, while the songs are in a germination process, the histories they tell (or gesture towards) are layered and rich. Moreover, through this project of cultural preservation, we see how much has remained the same over time. Discrimination, racism, objectification, generational trauma and environmental catastrophe have affected Indigenous families in devastating ways, and Redbone’s community members speak to these challenges with a matter-of-factness that is familiar to me as a Black woman, but no less heartbreaking. But, there are also stories of family, and love, and tradition; one of the people featured in the interviews—Ed—remembers his grandmother’s meticulous beadwork and the ways she bathed him in culture and legacy. People share traumatic memories, while expressing simultaneously how much love they surrounded them, and how, in turn, love can make us feel that we are enough.
Hearing all this, one might wonder, “Well, is this an album? Is this a play? A musical?” One curious audience member did, in fact, ask this at the talkback, to which Redbone slyly replied, “Yes.” Conversations is undefined when it comes to form, but from an emotional, political and cultural perspective already has a clear shape, revealing what we may learn about ourselves and the world around us if we stop to ask, and more importantly, listen.
Extended Play is a project of The Civilians. To learn more about The Civilians and to access exclusive discounts to shows, visit us and join our email list at TheCivilians.org.
Martha and Aaron’s residency at Ancram Center was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Ancram Center’s Summer Play Lab is made possible, in part, through a Fairgame Arts Grant.
