An Original Rock Musical
Initial Development
We Want More started as the question of an introspective high school student with a love for rock music: Why does the rock industry seem to breed, even encourage, self-destructive lifestyles? Initially, it was very much a rip-off of my favorite rock operas–Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Who’s Quadrophenia, and yes, Green Day’s American Idiot–but as I studied Creative Writing in college, I became passionate about grounding it in something real and more personal to myself. I finished my first full draft of the script shortly after graduation, and while there was still a lot of work to be done, I was happy enough with some of the songs that I wanted to create a “proof of concept” of sorts.
The Artist EP (2014)
Recorded at Hobin Studios near Baldwinsville, NY, We Want More: The Artist EP featured 7 songs from the first draft of the musical. It’s a flawed recording, but it got the idea across, and I’m still proud of it, warts and all. At the CD Release Show, I performed as many of the songs in the show at that time as I could, telling a version of the story.
Unfortunately, it didn’t quite give me the momentum to finish the show and put on a production the way I hoped it would. Over the next several years, as I played in several different bands and worked on other projects, I would come back to We Want More intermittently, redrafting songs, then scenes, then the entire script at times.
It wasn’t until January 2020, with the help and encouragement of a friend in the CNY theater community, Tyler Ianuzi, that I finally did a reading at my house of the current version of the script with a number of actors I’d met doing productions over the past couple of years. I got a lot of incredible feedback, and everyone seemed really excited to see where it went.
And then the pandemic hit.
Workshop Performance (November 2022)
Most of my music plans came to a hault with the advent of the pandemic. The Ramshki Alley album, which we had planned on releasing in late 2020, got pushed back to March 2021, and the album release show went from a live show in downtown Syracuse to a streamed performance at Subcat Studios. I started streaming musical performances on Twitch since I wasn’t able to play out anymore, and while I was glad to have it, I missed being in the same room as the audience.
But, I had the extra time on my hands to work on We Want More. I met with one of my oldest friends (and sound engineer on most of my albums), Andrew Sudol, and had some long discussions about the songs and story beats that were important, since at this point, I had several full, disparate drafts of the book and 30+ songs. Rather than write another complete draft from scratch, I ended up assembling a working draft by grabbing my favorite bits from each of the previous drafts, throwing them together, and smoothing out the edges. I submitted that to CNY Playhouse’s script search in late 2021 and asked Lynn Barbado King to direct since 1) she was already familiar with the project through the 2020 house reading, and 2) I had seen her directing and loved it. I also pitched it as a workshop production, since this would be my first time actually putting it on stage, and I knew there would be a lot of kinks to work out.
CNYP selected it, and in November 2022, we put on the first ever live performance of We Want More in its entirety.
I couldn’t be happier with how the workshop went. It was FAR from perfect, but the number of things that went right far outweighed any of the flaws. And in any case, it was a workshop production. The whole point was to figure out where things could be improved.
Evan Bujold (Attamizk) played Sid Williams, the timid singer/songwriter turned reluctant rock star. Michele Lindor played Grace, a struggling visual artst and Sid’s ex. Chris LeFever played Roger Mackson, the erstwhile rock star turned record producer trying to recapture the glory of his younger days through Sid’s career. And Olivia Semsel played Rhonda, Grace’s new girlfriend and confidant as Grace navigated the perils of new love and old trauma. They brought these characters to life in ways better than I could’ve ever imagined, and I will always be grateful to them and the rest of the cast and crew for making the dreams of that introspective, rock-loving teen come true, even if just for a couple of nights.
The Future
Honestly? I’m not sure what the future of We Want More is. I would love to revise it again, get all of the sheet music properly in order, and put on a non-workshop production. Barring that, I’d also love to do a cast recording at some point. Currently, though, my attention is focused on the band Mosaic Mind and our upcoming album.
After that? Who knows what the future holds.
Ian Doherty 