Harmonizing Bravery and Creativity: Crafting The White Rose Emo-Rock Opera Project
Anna Jastrzembski and Landon Braverman become “Friends of the Ferg” as they workshop their WWII rock opera project at NML
At the New Musicals Lab, NML, artists of all kinds are welcomed to workshop their up and coming musicals in various points of the developmental creative process. This season the NML staff and company were delighted to connect with Anna Jastrzembski, from New Mexico, and Landon Braverman, from New York City, as they workshopped their original WWII rock opera project. Their new musical is an emo-rock opera recounting the true story of The White Rose, an anti-Nazi resistance group formed by a band of German university students in 1942. Led by the fearless siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, The White Rose secretly distributed leaflets denouncing the Nazi party, putting themselves in deep peril. This is an incredible story of bravery in the face of evil, set to a blistering pop-punk score. At NML, the team was given their first opportunity to sit in a room together, as they live states away from each other, and begin to piece the project together. Although their new musical is in the very beginning of its life, Landon and Anna were able to make great advancements at NML and grasp a more concrete idea of what they are setting out to create.
Unveiling Artistic Destiny: From Chance Encounter to Musical Revolution
The pair fatefully met in New York City in the fall of 2017 when randomly paired together on a graduate school project. Anna was attending Columbia University pursuing her master’s degree in playwriting, while Landon was enrolled in New York University’s Tisch School of Arts Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program, GMTWP. Their professional relationship quickly budded as they had similar tastes in music and were able to seamlessly artistically collaborate. For their class project, they developed a “David Bowie-type character” and, on their first try, were able to produce a piece that received no notes or critiques from their professors or peers. “We nailed it on the first track and were shocked. That truly never happens,” Landon said. Following this project, they continued to develop this character together and, six years later, created a glam rock musical called Captain Zuke.
When Landon and Anna were in residence at NML, Landon went on a brisk morning run around Christopher Newport University’s breathtakingly beautiful campus. As he ran past the Ferguson Center for the Arts listening to the soundtrack and story of RENT the musical, he began to ask himself why he was the right one to tell the story of The White Rose. As a child, Landon was aggressively bullied and found his voice and himself in the theater. When he was reading about the heroic lives of the Scholl’s and other members of The White Rose, he was awestruck as he identified, “Oh, these are the people who stood up to the bully, it just happened to be the biggest bully of all time,” Landon said. Landon noted that he felt a true connection and almost a responsibility to share their story to the masses, “They’ve inspired me with who they were and their sacrifice and I want to contribute to keeping that flame alive in the ways I know how through music,” Landon said. Anna has always found immense interest in social and political changes where people speak out against the establishment and fight the status quo. “I find it fascinating how these big events, movements, and ideas that we all know, really always come back to a very personal level, like the Scholl’s brother and sister relationship,” she said. Taking a more humanizing and personal approach to major events, like Landon and Anna’s new musical, grants individuals a fresh perspective to engage with history and identify how it relates to modern day and their own lives.
Additionally, Landon is profoundly devoted to the integration of authentic rock and roll in the musical theater soundscape and saw this story as an outlet to explore that. Although the new musical will be set in 1943, the music will be contemporary emo punk rock, with influences from artists including Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Hayley Williams from Paramore, and Panic! At The Disco.
A Timeless Lesson: The White Rose and Taking a Stand
Sophie Scholl, along with her brother Hans and their companions, formed The White Rose group at the University of Munich. Through distributing leaflets and engaging in acts of defiance, they openly criticized Nazi crimes and called for resistance against the regime. Despite their young age, Sophie and her companions displayed remarkable bravery. Eventually, Sophie was arrested, tried for treason, and executed at the age of 21. In late 1943, their leaflets were smuggled out of Germany to Sweden and England. The Royal Air Force made hundreds of thousands of copies of them and, as the allies were bombing Germany, planes dropped them all over the country for German citizens to read. History has shown that their bravery and sacrifice was exceptionally important and inspirational. In Germany, they are revered individuals, especially for young people, and are, in a way, a part of the national lore. Their story forces us to ask, “no matter the time, no matter the place, no matter what’s at stake, what am I willing to die for?” Landon said.
Although Anna and Landon believe this story is cross-generational and will touch those of all ages, they hope this new musical will specifically inspire young people, or the next generation of theater goers, and offer them a real sense of self. As the members of The White Rose were in their early 20s, this story offers young people an outlet to see themselves represented on stage in an extremely impactful way. For example, when Sophie Scholl was on trial, she told the judge, “Well someone had to make a start!” In modern day, we face many issues that could be solved by people taking a stand and making change, just like Sophie did. Although Sophie and her compatriots' stories have concluded, their message is more than alive and relatable today. By sharing their story and showing that The White Rose was composed of real young people, the creative team wants youth to feel empowered and leave asking themselves, “What do I believe in? What would I fight for against all odds? Who is going to take a stand? Will it be me?” This story also shares a plethora of wisdom about the power of friendship, “Their resilient bonds of friendship held them up as they powered through trying times despite the odds and exceedingly dark times they lived in,” Landon said.
Two Paths, One Passion: Landon and Anna's Musical Journey
Landon grew up fully immersed in musical theater as a child actor and then went on to study it in college, “the whole rigmarole,” he said. While Landon’s life has been encompassed by the complexities and beauties that are musical theater, Anna did not have a comparable background in it before studying it in college. While to some this could appear to be a weakness, Landon and Anna see it as a great strength of their collaboration. “In the past, what I have seen as a gap in my musical theater knowledge and great hindrance, has actually proved to be an incredible tool as I am able to see things from a different angle or point of view,” Anna said. They both laughed as they thought about a time when they were composing a new song for Captain Zuke and Anna said, “what if this sounded like an Arctic Monkeys song?”
Like musical theater creatives alike, Landon and Anna are influenced by great Broadway musicals and the creatives behind those works. However, they both agreed their collaboration is profoundly guided by “the craft.” “Our craft takes us on a journey where we will be learning until the day we die, but that’s the very reason I love it. It is living and breathing,” Landon said. For them, it is not just about the musical aspect, but more so their connection to their work and the intricacies of the creative process like book writing and outlining elements. “When we are looking at a new project, we aren’t looking at the smaller details like genre or setting, but rather the impact it has on us. The most important factor of our creative process is if we emotionally connect to the story and are touched by it. We have to believe in and truly care about the story to be able to tell it in the best way possible” Landon said.
New Musicals Labs and Next Steps
Anna and Landon were profoundly thankful for the opportunity to join this season of the New Musicals Lab. “Our minds are kind of blown here. From the facilities to the unique levels of support for writers in varying steps of their processes, and the fact that The Ferguson Center for the Arts can be home to all of this. We have truly never seen anything like it,” Landon said. Their other new glam rock musical, Captain Zuke, is looking to join a development pipeline and has a concert in New York City this fall. If you would like to listen to the Captain Zuke soundtrack, check out this link soundcloud.com/landonbraverman.
Creative Team
Anna Jastrzembski- Book & Lyrics
Anna Jastrzembski is a New York City-based playwright, television writer, and lyricist. She graduated with an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University in 2019. As a theater artist she is interested in how feminist and queer theory, poetry, and performance intersect. Recent credits include A Modest Proposal (The Studio at The Cherry Lane Theatre), DOG (Signature Theatre Studio), The Happy Garden of Life (The New Ohio), TRAFFIC (The Exponential Festival) and FEAST (The Tank NYC). She is collaborating with Landon Braverman on a new queer glam rock musical entitled Captain Zuke.
Landon Braverman- Music & Lyric
Landon Braverman is a Brooklyn based composer and lyricist, originally from Vancouver, Canada. He has written the scores for Picture Perfect (Prospect Theatre), Queen of the West (Best Score and Best Musical – Manhattan Theatre Mission) and CHOICES (Top 10 Finalist Ken Davenport Short Play Competition, NAAP). He is currently working with Anna Jastrzembski on a new glam rock musical, Captain Zuke. Landon is the Co-Founding Artistic Director of the Canadian Musical Theatre Writers Collective (CMTWC), a national organization devoted to supporting and promoting the work of Canadian musical theater writers at home and abroad. He is a proud alum of Mount Allison University, and the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU-Tisch. He is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild.
Written by Abbey Ballance