Drama/Music Faculty Performance Production: Sarah Gancher’s “Eugene Onegin”
Course Description
Summary
From Novel to Opera to Bluegrass Musical
Set in 1940’s Arkansas and then 1960’s Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry, Gancher's bluegrass musical Eugene Onegin retells the story of Eugene and Tanya—one of history’s greatest tales of The One Who Got Away.
Eugene Onegin explores what it is to build identities, dreams, and communities through music. It’s structured as a picking party, a bluegrass jam, where singer-musicians sit in a simple circle of chairs to tell their tale. Many of the actors will play instruments, and most of the musicians also speak. There will be real bluegrass “breaks” — improvised solos, choreographed square dances, and other events. The audience should feel free to sing along on big choruses. The bluegrass ensemble will consist of bass, guitars, fiddles, banjos, accordion/keys, and there may be parts for lap steel and Hammond organ.
Ideally, there will be some chairs in the circle left open for audience members who want to bring their own instruments and sit in. Almost all songs are written to be simple enough to pick up by ear. Auditions will be held most likely in Fall 2025; Rehearsals commence in February 2026. The process culminates in three produced performances in Lester Martin Theater towards the end of April 2026.
The Chorus
One of the great pleasures of Pushkin’s novel-in-verse “Eugene Onegin” (the first novel to be written in the Russian language) is the narrator. Pushkin speaks directly to us like a friend, like a buddy, and makes us believe that we already know everything about a world that is totally foreign to us. In this version of the story, the role of the narrator is played by the musicians in the “chorus.” They tell their own versions of the story of Tanya and Eugene, they have their own opinions, and they have their own reasons for telling this story. Ultimately, this story is about them—about the kind of intimacy we develop with the people we make art with.
Learning Outcomes
- To learn the music and the style accurately and be able to play and sing every note you are given with confidence and conviction.
To create the world of the bluegrass musical within an ensemble and to learn to play together.
To deepen and personalize your character so that the ideas of Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, Sarah Gancher, and that you yourself hold about intimacy and loss resonate in the piece.
To learn to recognize and enjoy the process of adaptation as this story moves from a novel to an opera to a bluegrass musical.
To perform a fully embodied performance of this musical with the participation of a live audience in Lester Martin at the conclusion of the course.