Announcing: this October 15th, Northern Michigan Universityβs Forest Roberts Theater presents the first, full-on stage play of Above the Timberline!
The Art and Theater Departments have gathered their talents, collected a 28-member cast, and assembled an enthusiastic production team to create a fantastic glimpse into the Timberline world.
I was initially approached by the illustration department to visit the school and do a talk and lecture for the illustration students. Before long, I was speaking with representatives from both departments asking if they could have the right to produce a stage play of the book. I gave them an enthusiastic βyes!β and started to work on the script.
At the same time, the NMU team went to work building props, stage settings, and wildest of all, large-scale polar bear puppets!
They wanted to keep as much of a flavor of the story as possible in the production. To accomplish that feeling they asked to use the paintings from the novel as backdrops for scenes. They will be projected on a twenty-four foot screen, upstage of the performers.
Working closely with the director, Keli Crawford-Truckey, over several months and about ten drafts later, the Timberline script was ready.
During the Summer, I revisited many of the paintings from the book and digitally removed figures, animals, and anything unnecessary to keep the stage and performances the highlight of the tale. This also allowed me to make adjustments to some of the paintings, including adding more imagery to broaden the aspect ratio of the scenes. Iβve included several examples below.
At the same time, the NMU team went to work building props, stage settings, and wildest of all, large-scale polar bear puppets!
Similar to the play, War Horse, where onstage puppeteers brought the animals to life, so too will the polar bears perform onstage, along with their nemesis, snow leopards. The rhinos will make an appearance as well.
As with any interpretation or translation from written word to stage or screen (this one includes both) scenes were reworked for efficiency and several things edited, modified, or dropped altogether. One must be open to allowing others to create their own visions for your material. This opened me up for a wonderful collaboration with other artists. (Iβll share some of the costume designs when I can. Beautiful!) The entire process has been so fascinating that Iβm re-energized to work another storyline into the Timberline world.
On top of all that, an original score is being written for the production, along with sound effects. Other exciting news is that they plan to travel the show and hopefully film it for limited availability online.
The NMU production team has already begun rehearsals and Iβll be traveling to the college to speak and be there for all the tech and dress rehearsals. I plan to provide photos and quick glimpses into the production as it comes to fruition. Stay tuned here and at my Instagram and Facebook pages for updates.
Seven performances are planned. Would love to see you there if you can make it!
That’s so unbelievably cool! Can’t wait to see their tour schedule and hear more about it! Congrats Greg π
Hot damn this is wild! Congrats! An original score and everything!? Hell I do hope they travel to Seattle…UW has a theater department right?
A huge congrats again to you and everyone involved.
I love your book Greg! Such a beautiful creation! Hope the play goes amazing. Congratulations.
And also, hyped you’re into working another storyline. HBO should pick this up π
Above the Timberline, on IMAX.
Oh this is so cool! I hope to see it online!
THANKS, everyone! Nice to hear so many good thoughts for the production!
ATTL: IMAX….LOL! That’s just about how big this feels for the stage, Sebastian. MASSIVE paintings. And I do think it would be a really fun series for HBO or Netflix. We’ll see. You all will be the first to know.
Yes, hoping it will tour colleges and universities and gain speed. Just finished a short story in the ATTL world which will be released soon. Stand by!
Congratulations Greg, that’ll be exciting to see the polar bear puppets brought to life!
This is amazing! So happy for you!