These Streets is a multi-disciplinary project created by Sarah Rudinoff and Gretta Harley. Known as the band We Are Golden, Harley and Rudinoff are writing an original rock musical inspired by the lives and music of young female musicians in Seattle during the “grunge” years of 1989-1994. In addition to the theatrical production, which will debut at ACT Theatre in February/March, 2013, These Streets includes an oral history project featuring interviews with women in the Seattle rock scene from the late ’80s to early ’90s; an educational project aimed at adding music written by women to the standard rock repertoire taught to kids; and a visual art show featuring material gathered throughout the process.
Throughout 2012, The Project Room will follow and document the creation of the work in the form of public conversations, online documentation via this website, and a display of archival materials as they are accumulated. This webpage will feature images, video, and other content that will be assembled and presented in an exhibition in February 2013.
The program kicked off on February 3, 2012 with a discussion with Harley and Rudinoff around the theme of new ideas in conjunction with the Beginnings project series. Read more about this event.
These Streets addresses issues about the role music plays in community and how the choices we make as young artists shape our lives. More than a production, however, These Streets is also a multi-disciplinary effort to make a positive impact on the history of rock music.
From the Artists:
These Streets started as a song about an artist getting older in a changing city, and while she takes notice of the new music around her, she reflects on her life and choices when she was young. That song became a seed to our new rock musical about women rockers in Seattle whose lives, outlooks, and music evolved as their city changed. The project tells the stories of the infamous “grunge” years in Seattle from a wholly different perspective. This project seeks to unearth the great music written and performed by the women rockers from those years that have been lost in the re-telling. The play also challenges ideas of age and genre, as these women still rock.
About the Artists:
Sarah Rudinoff has been writing, performing and producing theatre in Seattle for 15 years. She wrote, produced and toured her solo shows, Broad, Go There and The Last State to The Adelaide Festival (Australia), PICA’s TBA Festival (Portland), The Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), The HBO Workspace and Les Deux (LA) and in Seattle at Re-bar, Bumbershoot and On the Boards. Sarah performs as an actress at the 5Th Avenue, Seattle Rep, Annex Theatre and Theatre Off Jackson. Named alongside legendary blues singer Ernestine Anderson as one of the two Seattle female vocalists with “pipes to die for” by Seattle Magazine, Sarah has sung cabaret, rock and blues at Vito’s, Town Hall, The Showbox, The Triple Door, Neumos and Bumbershoot. She is a “Stranger Genius” award winner in theatre.
Gretta Harley is a composer, performer and music director. She sits on faculty of the music department at Cornish College of the Arts, and is the theater department’s resident composer and music director. In addition to several plays at Cornish, she has composed music for Intiman Theatre, Wooden O, UMO Ensemble, Seattle Shakespeare Company, independent films and TV. Gretta was co-founder of the community organization, Home Alive, and producer of its first CD on SONY Records featuring Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Ann and Nancy Wilson, etc. Gretta rocked out in the early 90s days of the Seattle rock explosion, playing regularly in the club circuit, releasing records and touring. She designed and has taught music programs at EMP, Boys and Girls Club of America, Seattle Conservatory of Music and Seattle Emergency Housing. In collaboration with Cornish, Gretta and Wade Madsen partnered with Seattle Art Museum co-directing flash mobs of Nick Cave’s Soundsuits around the streets of Seattle in the Spring of 2011.
We Are Golden formed after Sarah asked Gretta (who worked as her musical director for her show, Last Year’s Kisses) to start a rock band with her. The band has sold out the Triple Door, played Bumerbershoot twice, and several Seattle venues, toured NYC, LA, recorded an EP with legendary producer Martin Feveyear (Brandie Carlile, The Screaming Trees). They are currently finishing material for a new record to come out on FIN Records in early 2013. The band has included among other stalwart musicians, Joshua Roman (Seattle Symphony principal cellist (2006-2009) and Barrett Martin (Drummer for The Screaming Trees). They also appear on the compilation, “Sex Positive,” a recent benefit CD for Planned Parenthood.