Paige Tufford sits down with Chelle Peterson and Rob Roznowski to discuss the latest productions in LCC’s Summer Stage season: The "Tail" of Peter Rabbit and Going Medieval! They share insights into adapting the classic children's story into an interactive musical, as well as explore the creative partnership between writing and directing.

Website: LCC's Summer Stage

Event Information:

The “Tail” of Peter Rabbit – A Musical

When: June 24-28 (7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday / 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday)

Where: Black Box Theatre, located in the Gannon Building, room 1422

Young audiences will love this charming, interactive musical with its comical characters and five original songs. This adaptation follows the adventures of Peter as he raids Farmer McGregor’s garden and gets tangled in netting and then lost. We join Peter on his search to find his way home and get to meet all the creatures he interacts with along the way.

Going Medieval! – Two comedic plays from the 1400s

When: July 22-26 (7 p.m.)

Where: Dart Auditorium

“The Second Shepherds’ Play” is one of the most well-known mystery plays, depicting the lives of three shepherds just before the nativity. Known for its blend of religious theme and regional humor, this is one of several plays included in the Wakefield Mystery Cycle. Each play in the cycle depicted a story from the Bible, and it was performed through small towns and villages.

“Mankind” is a morality play written around 1470, often considered one of the most humorous and controversial plays to have survived the period. The story follows the character of Mankind and his temptation into sin by characters representing four worldly vices.

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Website: LCC Performing Arts

Welcome to Exit Stage Left: LCC Performing Arts. Your all access pass to creativity, talent and stories shaping the stage at Lansing Community College and beyond. Places, everyone. Energy up. Okay? Let's make some magic. And now, here's your host, LCC Performing Arts Coordinator and Theatre Faculty, Paige Tufford.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Exit Stage Left.

I'm Paige Tufford, and today I have with me two special guests, Chelle Peterson and Rob Roznowski, to talk about the shows that we are doing for LCC Summer Stage under the Stars. The first show is the Tale of Peter Rabbit, written by Rob and Shelley Peterson and also directed by Shelley. So thank you both for being here.

Thank you for having us.

Yeah, thank you so much.

So you guys wrote this together when you were at msu, Shelley, correct?

Yes, I was a student and Rob was one of my professors. Yes.

So what sparks this project? How did it start?

Rob was writing a show for Summer Circle and their theme was pick a children's book and write a show based on that. And I had just started there and just did music for the freshman showcase.

And then he asked me to write a children's song based off of a children's book. And I picked where the Wild Things Are, and I wrote a song, presented it to them at the end of the semester.

And then he asked me to write the music for Peter Rabbit, which was done in one semester.

Wow, that was quick. So tell me about. Go ahead, Rob.

I don't know. Just this, I think that was important for that, is this.

I. I just saw how quickly Shelley wrote and how really great the work was, and so it was just like a natural fit. I think for me, too, I had gone back to what was going to be public domain.

So that's when I picked the Peter Rabbit idea, because it was now, you know, available for anyone to traumatize or radicalize. So that's sort of why that show was chosen.

Now, did either of you have any connection to the story, like, growing up or as children or.

Not particularly. In fact, I think I side more on the side of Farmer McGregor because I had more experience with rabbits eating all my garden food. So.

So had one of the original. Like, as a kid, we had one of the original illustration books, and so that's the only way I remember it.

But then, like, taking that very slim book and turning that into an musical was the difficulty, actually.

Was it difficult just because the book was short or.

Yeah, the book was so short. Yeah. So you would have to just take, like, little moments and then create backstories and stories related to that and, and.

And kind of expand just on little things that were in the Beatrix thought of to begin with.

And that was difficult just because it was a stretch.

It was fun.

It was fun. Yeah.

Well, think like a rabbit, right?

Yeah.

Have you two worked on or collaborated on any other projects?

I don't think so. Was this just the only one for us?

I think it was, yeah. But you've gone on to do so many other things with Dion and other stuff, too.

Yeah, yeah. So this is our only thing together, but we each have our own pool, right? Yeah.

What other music have you, you know, shows have you written for? Has it been primarily children's theater or theater for youth?

Mostly, yes.

I've done lots of things for MSU Sensibility Ensemble, which is chaired by Dionne o' Dell and geared towards neurodivergent children and audiences for them specifically. And that's been fun. We're actually going to start another one that she wrote with her class this last spring, and she wants to add more music.

I hear there's music in there already, and I haven't seen it, but she wants to fine tune it and send me lyrics to write music for.

Oh, that's great. Well, what about you, Rob? Where do you get your inspiration for the plays that you've written?

It comes from weird places. The last thing I wrote was a children's musical to kind of advocate for the arts in STEM education.

So it was called the STEAM Plays, and it went and it toured around and it played actually in MSU campus at the F Reb Theater there.

And so students would come in from various schools, get a tour of the facilities, and then we would do a play about how important the arts are in STEM education. And so it comes from places that I think that I. That I find advocacy for or things that I think are.

Wish that I had when I was a kid, first STEM education, really for me, just like, I can't believe we have a STEM building on the MSU campus, but it's not the STEAM building. Right. So it's like I really was advocating for the art to be part of that.

That's wonderful. Yeah. Well, I took a look at your website, you know, and I was looking at the list of plays and some of the comments that.

That people had left, and they say that your comedy is, you know, great. You know, you. You want to cry and then you want to laugh and. And you're slipping in a message there.

So do you, like, strive to do that with your writing?

Yeah, I Think. Because I think humor is the best way to get to the emotion, that aspect of it, or at least that's the way the defense mechanism I have in my life.

And so what I do is kind of write. I write on a subject. Like, I wrote a play about the cookbook collection at the MSU Libraries. Right.

And so each one of those scenes was a different decade based on a different cookbook. But some of the scenes were really hilarious and some of them were really heartbreaking.

And I think I kind of write around one theme and look at it from a bunch of different directions. This Peter Rabbit was one of the more linear pieces that I written with Shelley.

So what was the last thing that you had worked on? Or can you tell me what you're working on now?

Do you want to go first?

I think I just mentioned it. I don't even know what it's called.

Yet, but it said msu With Dion o'?

Dell.

Yeah, with the Sensibility Ensemble.

So, okay.

Yeah.

I heard a couple of people that were in it talking about it. They love the experience. So it's always such a beautiful thing that Dion does. And your work with her is great.

Thank you.

Yeah. A show that I wrote about the cookbook is being done in Michigan this summer in Detroit, and that'll be in August.

And then right now, I'm back to academic writing, and I'm writing an article about kind of decentralizing the acting teacher as the arbiter of truth in the classroom and making it a more shared aesthetic with the students as opposed to top down authority. So it's not very entertaining, but it's kind of interesting to me right now.

That is interesting. Yeah.

Can I ask a question?

Yes, absolutely.

Shelley, what's it like to direct a show that you wrote? I mean, what, like, years ago, Like, I just. When I went back reading it this morning, I'm like, oh, what a cute thing.

I remember where we were and what we were like back when we wrote it, but what's it like returning to it or directing the piece?

Well, it's been interesting because at first, you know, I'm looking for Ryan Dutta, and yet there's only one Ryan Duda in the world. Right. And so I have to re envision what was done and make it its own thing.

You know, that has been a real good journey of discovery for me, trying to let the actors inform the characters as much as the material does and see what choices they're gonna make and hone it in. So last time I directed last summer, and it was the first time that I have directed here, so it was a fun experience and a short.

Okay, well, I'll worry about this when I get to the blocking or whatever, but it's been interesting because I want to make it its own creature and yet equally as entertaining and fun. And.

Yeah, it's gotta be hard for either of you.

Like, if you work on a show that you're creating and then you direct it, is that hard to kind of step away from that whole creative process and let the actors come in and, you know, create things that you didn't, you know. Do you ever go, wait, that's not how I envisioned that character? Or. I mean, that question is for both of you.

Yeah, for me, for sure. Definitely. Because, like, we've just had one read through and we've had one week of learning music.

Right.

And for instance, one of the actors, they're learning the song, they're singing the song, they're singing the notes wrong. But what they are singing, I like better. I'm like, do that.

Do you have that experience, Rob? I mean, have you directed a piece that you wrote and then do you have any struggles with watching actors and what they bring to the process?

I think it's more exciting than it is frustrating because then I'm like, just like Shelley said, like, yeah, do that. That's better. That's better than what I wrote.

And it's also great to have a living, breathing script in rehearsal that you can make adjustments related to what the actor is doing. Right. So then you're like, you go home and rewrite something because you're like, o, that's really cool.

This is their wheelhouse, that this is their strength. So then you can kind of expand on that.

But for me, it's normally been like finding a way to kind of great, because you've just been acting it out in your head when you're writing it, and then you hear somebody else bring it to life and you're like, I didn't think of that at all. And that's so much more exciting.

That does sound exciting. Yeah, I guess that would be great if you got to go home and do the rewrites after, you know, some rehearsals.

And do you normally have read throughs or readings of your scripts when they're still in process, like work in progress?

Rob changes the script the day after opening night.

That must be fun for an actor, right?

Did I really do that?

Yes, you did that with.

Thank you.

Which one was it? TWA kid. Thus with the kiss, I die.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.

You were rewriting dialogue after the show opened.

I know, isn't it? Oh, I mean, that was. That was like a 50 person mega marathon.

That was fully interactive, immersive theater. That's what that was.

Okay, so, yeah, I don't normally do that, but you're exactly right. I did do that, but. No, but I think it's kind of fun to. For the actors, too, to keep changing and doing all that.

Like this cookbook show that this theater company's producing this summer. They keep sending me, like, notes and be like, hey, can this line. What do you think about this?

And I'm like, let me just rewrite it and let me change it and send it back to you. So it's kind of fun to just be a playwright, not necessarily in the room, and just watch how something turns out.

And being like, that's not what I planned. But it's cool what you've done with that.

Oh, that's great. Yeah, absolutely. So this is for Peter Rabbit, right? We're talking about the Tale of Peter Rabbit.

And I want to ask, what do you want people to take away from this? Was there something about this story that you want the audience to connect with, young or old?

I mean, we'll have people in there who read it when they were children and also children there who may not have ever, you know, seen the book. What is it about this story that deserves to be staged?

For me, I want them to have a good time. I want them to have a lot of fun and go in and laugh and be a part of the story.

One thing I love about this show is how the actors interact with the audience and how the audience gets to participate. So I think that's great, and I think that it makes it not just a day where you go when you sit and watch and you have to be quiet and whatever.

So it's especially for kids and adults, too, because I love it when they make us do stuff.

So what about you, Rob?

I think that's when I reread it. Meanwhile, I didn't even know you guys were doing that this summer. I thought you were talking about Chelle.

So for me, when I reread it Today Day, I was just like, I think it works, like, in the best way of kids entertainment in terms of being entertaining for the adult on one level and then being funny for the interactivity in the children. And like, like Shelby was saying, getting the people involved is really, really fun.

I think that part of it is really interactive, and I love that it took this role and the children understand how important the arts are and how much fun they can be. And then, you know, we get another person supporting the arts or being part of the art.

And another thing he's done with this script is a lot of the lines have sprinkled in a bunch of theater education. And they talk about different things like the linear narrative and just the exposition and the rising action. And it's great.

That's wonderful.

For me, as an educator, theater for youth, I think, is one of the most important, you know, genres of theater, of, you know, exposing young audiences to the magic. You know, that's, that's how I feel about it.

I mean, I, of course, I love theater for adults and everything, but there's something special about theater for youth. What are your thoughts on that, Shelley?

Oh, it's my favorite.

It's your favorite?

It's my favorite. And this is why, usually, because we do so much theater that is a challenge. A challenge for the audience. Not.

And we need that and we do so much of that. And there's so much out there that every once in a while I want to have something that is just pure joy.

Yes. Yeah. Rob?

I think back to some of the bad children's theater that I did like. That's how I got my equity card doing children's theater. And it was, some of it was really condescending and really just blocky, right.

And just didn't really respect where kids are and who they are and what they know and that sort of thing. And so to me, it's always been this double edged kind of approach, which is, yes, get them to laugh.

But also there's some things in there, and not necessarily in the Peter rattling one, but a way to get people to think about different things. I guess this play really is about rules and when rules can be broken and how to follow them.

But I think there's the best children's theater are things that entertain you but also let you think.

Agreed, agreed. I mean, there is nothing better than sitting in the audience at a show for young people and watching their reactions.

I mean, they are the most honest audience members I have ever experienced. But I love that they abandon. Right. They abandon all sense, all, you know, everything. And they're completely immersed in that.

And I would want to see all people do that, you know, even adults let go. Right. Suspension of disbelief. So the other thing that we're doing this summer, Rob, Chelle's actually designing the costumes for Going Medieval.

That's going to be in July in Dart Auditorium. What do you think about medieval drama? I mean, it's not done that often.

No, not at all. Right.

There must be a reason for that.

It was really popular back in the Middle Ages.

Yeah. What made you. Because you said before we started recording that some of it's body and it's so much fun and all that sort of stuff. It's so funny.

I haven't read that in college, so I couldn't remember any of the things that you're referencing.

I don't know. I mean, normally we do a Shakespeare in the summer, but we're moving that to fall semester, so we wanted a classical piece.

And I had taught the Second Shepherd's Play in an Intro to Theater class, you know, years ago, and I thought it was hilarious.

Do you design a lot of medieval shows, Shelley?

No, no, not typically. Don't get those thrown at me. Very much.

Peasant couture.

Yes. Yes.

Well, I want to close with the dates of the Tale of Peter Rabbit, which is June 24th, 28th in the black Box Theater. And, you know, we do five performances in a row, but the Saturday and Sunday performance will be 2 o' clock instead of 7 o', clock.

So we'll have two o' clock matinees on the weekend, we'll have children's activities and fun things to do. And hopefully we'll fill the house. That little Black Box theater. Yeah. Get here early. Right? No reservations. It's free admission.

You too.

Yeah. Thank you. You too.

That's a wrap for this episode of Exit Stage Left: LCC Performing Arts. We're so glad you could join us. And we hope you've enjoyed the show. To see what's taking center stage next at Lansing Community College, visit lcc.edu/showinfo. Exit Stage Left is a part of the LCC Connect Podcast Network. You can listen to this episode and others at lccconnect.com. Until next time, keep the lights bright, the cues tight, take your bow, and exit stage left.