by InsideOut Staff March/April 2009
Children’s author Hudson Talbott, actor/director Casey Biggs, and composer Frank Cuthbert are some pretty accomplished artists. Talbott’s book, We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story (Dragonfly Books, 1993), was adapted for an animated film by Steven Spielberg; Biggs has appeared on virtually every prime-time TV show since 1980, from “Ryan’s Hope” to “Without a Trace”; and Cuthbert is a musician, singer and art gallery owner. Here at home, they are three good buddies collaborating with students to bring Talbott’s newest book, River of Dreams: The Story of the Hudson River (Putnam Juvenile, 2009), to life on the stage.
InsideOut: How did this project come together?
Hudson Talbott: It started with a dream I had, growing up in Kentucky. I wanted to go to the great city on the great river that happened to have my name. And I did it. I came to New York, and I made a career. I ended up living in the Hudson Valley. And eventually I became aware that there was this 400th anniversary [the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial] coming, and that somebody ought to do a book about Henry Hudson and the whole thing. And who better than me? I do kids’ books. So I pitched it to my editor. She jumped on it.
IO: Who’s the target audience for River of Dreams?
HT: Seven-year-olds to everybody. I tried to make the book as interesting for adults as for kids, so that parents don’t get bored reading the book to their child. The concept of the book is great moments in the history of the Hudson River.
IO: How do you craft books for children?
HT: I operate from the little 7-year-old Hudson inside me—what things made me wonder and be curious, and so forth. If there are any set rules, it’s that I have to honor and respect that children have a limited vocabulary and a limited attention span.
IO: Much like the adults I know.
HT: Exactly. That’s why children’s books do well for adults. I mean, this is like the CliffsNotes version of the history of the Hudson River. And I know a lot of adults buying it for that very reason.
IO: How did Casey and Frank become involved?
HT: Very simple. They’re my buddies, and they took pity on me.
We were all at a party discussing the quadricentennial, basically asking, “What’s Catskill doing? What’s Greene County doing?” We hadn’t heard anything. I toyed with the idea—wouldn’t River of Dreams be wonderful to stage?
Casey Biggs: I knew that the quadricentennial was coming up. And I had gone to Kate Farrell, the school superintendent here in Catskill, and said, “Let’s do something with the students that is somehow generated by the students.” At this party, it’s like a light bulb popped over my head. I went, Frank’s a composer. We’ve got a children’s book, and we have students. We have a professional director and choreographer to work on it. So I asked Hudson, “Could you give us the rights to do this?” And he got very excited about it.
And then I prostrated myself in front of Frank, because he’s a terrific composer, and said, “Frank, would you be interested in doing this?”
And he thought about it for 10 seconds and said, “Yeah.”
Frank Cuthbert: When Hudson gave me one of the early galleys, I thought it was just terrific how effectively he was able to distill and compress the history of the river from its geological inception to the modern day. I thought that the way the chapters were divided, they lent themselves very easily to the development of a musical, because of the dozen or so very apparent themes that Hudson very well discusses and illustrates in the book. And I thought it would be a lot of fun to work with these guys on a project that recognized how important the river is, and what an historic place we live in.
CB: We’re very fortunate also that we have a set of designers who have just moved up here from New York City—Rita and John Carver, who have Dragonfly Productions. They’re designing the lights and the set and the costumes, and in their warehouse, they have just about everything we need. I said, “I want miles of China silk.”
And they said, “Oh, we just happen to have that.”
IO: How is this going to play out?
CB: Frank is now writing music, and he keeps unfolding these fantastic tunes to us. I run The Greene Arts Foundation, which is sponsoring it in conjunction with Catskill High School. We now have three or four school districts that are involved. Any kids from fifth grade to 12th grade can be engaged. Now we’re running a series of eight workshops with the students.
Our first workshop had 56 students. Next week, I think we’ll probably have more like 75. The director and the social director are running one workshop a week, for eight weeks, in which they are putting the students through a series of theater games, improvisations and writing exercises. In one exercise, they took a line from one of the songs that Frank wrote and said, “You’ve got 10 minutes to write. Write anything you want on this. Just write.”
What we’re hoping to do is to have the students come up with their own concept of what their dreams are, and what their experience is living on the river, and somehow winding them together into this piece, into this show.
HT: One of Frank’s tunes is called “Inspiration.” It’s about how the river inspired Thomas Cole, Washington Irving, James Fennimore Cooper—and how it still is a source of inspiration for all of the artists who are living here now, and will go on being for our students and for the people who are going to be putting this together. So that’s a real important thread. It’s an exquisite song that he’s written.
IO: When does River of Dreams go into production?
CB: We will open May 15th, hell or high water.
IO: And for how long will the show run?
CB: It depends. We will at least run for two weekends, which is six performances. But this project has legs, so there could be a life much longer than that. And that’s the reason that I wanted to do it, and get engaged: It will reverberate long after it’s over, as opposed to some other events that are being done for the Quad, which are great one-day splashes.
IO: So what you’d like to have is kind of a moveable feast of a production.
CB: Yes. And can you imagine the experience these kids will have if they get to do this in three theaters up and down the Hudson? We’re designing it so that it can move.
IO: The Hudson River has always been an incubator for a variety of life forms, including art.
CB: And one thing that’s interesting in this political climate that we’re in, and I’m involved in this fight—is that this project, this kind of engagement—is not a luxury. This is a necessity, particularly for the generations behind us.
IO: Has it been hard to raise money for this?
CB: Given that this is the first year of The Green Arts Foundation, I have never written a grant in my life. I wrote seven grants for this particular project. And people tell me I should feel lucky when I write a grant for $10,000 and get $1,000 around here, which, I guess, is pretty good. The budget is not that big. We’re going to be underfunded.
IO: Can you tell us what the budget is?
CB: I need to raise $24,000, which is nothing in terms of the kinds of things that I’m usually involved in, which are $1 million or $1.5 million when I’m directing another show for another company.
IO: The arts are not the first thing that should be cut; they’re among the first items that should be funded.
FC: I remember when I was in grammar school. I grew up in the Berkshires. And I remember all of the terrific programs that were available, seemingly, to kids. And at the time, I suppose I didn’t appreciate how valuable they were. Looking back on it, though, I realize the impact on my development—and probably all of us at this table had a similar experience—of being the beneficiaries of a fairly prosperous society that had, I think, a larger recognition of the value of art.
It’s unfortunate that in this economic climate, art is the first thing to go, and has always been the first thing to go. That’s why this project, for me, is so important, and I’m happy to give my time and energy. It’s really, to use the cliché, a labor of love. And the process of writing the songs, and imagining how they’re going to unfold through these children’s voices, is very exciting.
HT: What is always interesting to me is that they can slash art, and trash it, and cut it to pieces, but it will still bubble up somehow. Because no matter what, artists need to express themselves. People need the nourishment of art. And I’m sure people like us would figure out a way to make something happen, whatever the budget is, whatever the available funding is for it, because that’s just the nature of us as humans. We need art. And that will always express itself.
IO: When you’re making art for or with kids, you get an early shot at their spirit, if you will. What is it about children that you think you can tap into?
HT: Corny, but it’s the child within me. I think it’s that sense of wonder and innocence and curiosity that we all still have. You know, the 7-year-old Owen is still there, the 7-year-old Amanda, Frank, Casey. We all still have that child within us.
IO: Frank is still a child.
HT: Yeah, he never left. The great question I always get when I visit schools is, “Where do you get your ideas from? And why do you do what you do?” And it’s that sense of me reaching out, the 7-year-old in me wanting to play with the 7-year-old in you. And this is the way I do it.
Whatever I can put down on a page to say, “This is what’s going on in my world over here; this is the way I’m seeing it. How ‘bout you?”
And you say, “You know, I feel exactly the same way,” or, “Actually, you know, I’ve never thought of that before. That’s really cool.” And that sense of connection, that communication, is ultimately what I think all of us are doing as artists.
IO: What can the people who are reading this do to help you guys?
HT: Send money. Make the effort to show up. Come be part of it.
And just so you know, this is open to all kids. There are no auditions. Any child who shows up for this is going to be included in some way or another. It’s all-inclusive, and it’s free. And we want all the performances to be free, too.
