At Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre, a new musical called Rez Gas is revving up for its world premiere.
Co-written by singer-songwriter Cale Crowe and playwright Genevieve Adam, Rez Gas begins with a musician named Destin returning to the reservation where he was born, after an abrupt departure years ago. The trouble is, that return isn’t intentional — car trouble caused it — and his old friends and neighbours aren’t exactly brimming with fond memories of this prodigal son. As Destin waits for a mechanic to arrive at the Wide Wigwam Diner, he has to decide whether to shut out the past for good, or if making amends might be on the menu.
Though Crowe has loved musicals since he was a child, before this project, he’d never considered writing one of his own. In his 12-year musical career, he’s almost always “written from a first-person perspective in my own music,” he said in a Zoom interview. “Writing from the perspective of different characters was a huge first-time obstacle for me.”
Crowe credited Rob Kempson, the Capitol Theatre’s artistic director, as the person who turned the ignition key on Rez Gas. In 2022, Kempson invited Crowe to create a musical as part of the Capitol’s new play development program.
At the time, Crowe “was in the full throes of being a dad,” and he worried that writing a musical was outside his wheelhouse. But Kempson kept encouraging him. “If not for him insisting that I take a chance, none of this would have been possible,” said Crowe. “He’s the balloon to my anchor.”
When the development program paired Crowe with Adam as a co-writer, the pair “immediately clicked,” and settled into a clear creative rhythm.
“Genevieve would help me write the scene leading up to a song,” Crowe explained. “Then we would write somewhere between five and eight [additional] lines of dialogue between characters — or, if it was a solo number, [the first few lines of] a monologue.” These fragments gave Crowe a springboard from which he could start songwriting.
“I would read [the text for that story beat] over and over, like I was memorizing lines,” Crowe said. Once he had a sense of a scene’s internal “tempo,” he’d begin “figuring out rhythm, structure, and melody.
“[I’d find myself] in front of my computer and my little MIDI keyboard, plunking away, making these fun tunes that hopefully people enjoy.”
In his solo songwriting, Crowe’s musical influences range from ‘60s rock to hip-hop to nu-metal. When composing Rez Gas, he and Adam drew inspiration from iconic musicals.
“The number of times that Hamilton got brought up [in the creation process] is bordering on embarrassing,” Crowe explained. And Kempson and Adam used “Come From Away as a means of describing our show, [because of] this idea of being stranded in place.
“Rent was also a huge influence,” he continued, “in terms of genre and how I structured certain pieces, especially the duets.” His childhood love of musicals means that he’s “sure there’s [a] Lion King influence, and probably The Little Mermaid [as well].”
Although Crowe, who is from Alderville First Nation, made it clear that Rez Gas isn’t an autobiographical story, he noted parallels between his own experience and Destin’s struggle with homecoming.
“I lived in the GTA for a little while, and Oshawa and Peterborough as well,” he said. “Every time the idea of moving home came [around], in my mind it was always met with this [in]flux of shame. Because I chose to [be an artist] for a living, [there] was always this nagging thing in the back of my head [saying] that going home would signify failure in some way.” In Rez Gas, Destin’s shame is intensified by looming fatherhood, “internalized racism, and all of these [other ways] that he’s embarrassed.”
Crowe has overcome any unease he might have felt around moving home. Today, he lives and raises his children in Alderville. “Home has always been a big value to me,” he reflected. “I always said that if I was going to start a family, I would want to be close to home. I don’t want to be too far away from a community that I’m comfortable with.”
As for his music career, “it’s not a matter of having to pack up your stuff in a sling on a stick, and hop on a train to a different part of the world,” he said. “You can come home and still pursue your lifelong goals and dreams.”
Do those dreams include another musical? During the first workshop for Rez Gas, which happened in February, Crowe remembered being asked by actor Dillan Meighan-Chiblow whether he had “‘caught the [musical theatre] bug.’
“My initial answer was no. Then, in the hour or so that followed, I realized, ‘I guess I have!’ Maybe this is a possibility for the future.”
For now, though, he’s focusing on the present. “Every now and then, I have to remind myself that [Rez Gas] is actually happening,” he said. “If it works in [the rehearsal] room and all these people believe in it, then we can take on the whole world.”
Rez Gas runs at the Capitol Theatre from August 22 until September 7. Tickets are available here.
Capitol Theatre is an Intermission partner. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
WRITTEN BY
Nathaniel Hanula-James
Nathaniel Hanula-James is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who has worked across Canada as a dramaturg, playwright, performer, and administrator.
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