Featured Cast and Crew: Sunnie Larsen
Rather than indulge in yet another autobiographical post about my love of 80’s musicals, today I would like to focus on the work of one of our long term team members, Sunnie Larsen.
Sunnie was involved in six of the seven Rites of Eleusis that we presented, taking the stage in five of those in the role originally filled by Leila Waddell. For The Rite of Venus in 2007 she was able to collaborate on the music, but sadly unavailable on our performance dates. This is when we learned that if we wanted to book Sunnie, we would have to plan it more than a year in advance. Which we did, going forward.
If her wonderful composition and live performances were the extant of her involvement, that would be enough. Her voice and instrumental skills were integral in the shaping of our presentations. Her stage presence is grand, and her unflagging positive demeanor throughout the rehearsal and staging process make her a joy to work with. But that is just what you can see from the stage, or in the videos.
In reality, Sunnie did much more for our productions than deliver excellence in composition and performance. She spent many hours of her personal time (working closely with Marcos Duran) to transcribe the choral arrangements into sheet music for the cast. In addition, she regularly took point on teaching the choral arrangements to the various sections, and offering guidance and support to other cast members throughout the rehearsal process and theater run. Her skills brought everyone on the cast to a higher level, and her participation and dedication improved the productions for everyone involved.
The majority of the viola arrangements Sunnie performed for the Rites were her original compositions, either working with Jon Sewell to capture a specific theme, or having free rein to create something that works with the music provided. Many of the more moving tracks started out as improvisational pieces that were developed into melodies crafted to create the sense of other worldly wonder called for by the various narratives of the Rites.
As a case in point, this piece from The Rite of Saturn was her first take at the material, and we were all so moved we kept it.
Currently Sunnie is working on a solo album entitled “The Space Between Notes”, which is being crowdfunded via Kickstarter. I urge everyone who has come to appreciate her music over the years to contribute to this project.
The Space Between Notes
If you would like to learn more about the composition process for The Rites of Eleusis, and how the team worked together, there is a brief YouTube video here.
Musical Adaptation Part One
We would also like to take time to acknowledge Katie Cashatt, who performed the role of Luna in The Rite of Luna (2005), and Heather Freeman, who learned the music Sunnie composed to perform as Luna in Taurus in The Rite of Venus (2007). Each of them brought so much strength and beauty to their performances, and enriched the projects with their skill and craft.
