After/BAAL (a rock & roll reckoning), a new play by Rose Cullis with songs by Astrid Van Wieren,  dramaturged & directed by Jon Michaelson, has been workshopped and developed at The Banff Centre for the Arts, and in Toronto at The Red Sandcastle Theatre, and at the Tarragon Theatre by November Theatre between 2022 and 2024, with generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.

Plans are underway to mount a premiere production in the coming seasons. After/BAAL is again poised to receive production support from all three levels of public funders, while we are also pursuing private and corporate donors as well. We are currently seeking a co-producing partner or presenter with a suitable venue to program our show in their upcoming season. After//BAAL has presented two very well received workshop presentations in Toronto, that we will build from so that future audiences will enjoy this provocatively topical contemporary character drama, which features eight original songs, performed by a diverse and talented cast of six actor/musicians, led by Dora award winning actor Astrid Van Wieren. (Broadway’s Come From Away). Directed by Jon Michaelson. Designed by Denyse Karn & Michelle Ramsay.

NOTHIN’2ME (rock n roll version - Act II opening - full song Video)

(Tarragon Extra Space - 2024)

(left to right: Sarah Richardson, keys, Parmida Vand, bass guitar, Astrid Van Wieren, JD Nicholsen, rhythm guitar)

Genre and Cast Size

After/BAAL is a contemporary character-driven drama with live rock music, featuring a cast of 6 actors/musicians, performing scenes and songs in on and off stage environments

Part One is set in regional Ontario, Part Two in Berlin. Run time is about 100 minutes.

The gifted and versatile cast consists of Astrid Van Wieren as Baal, Parmida Vand  (aka PATER) as Sophie/Sage, J D Nicholsen (Lesie Spit Treeo/Regal Road) as Shepard, Sarah Richardson (The Black Rats) as Brenda, Michael Scholar Jr. as Taggart, and drummer Mike Tae Lee as (the always taciturn) Gunther.                                           

Story

A brilliant singer/songwriter (Baal), who abandoned her career because of a tragedy, returns to performing after many years and finds nothing and everything is the same in the world she left behind. Baal wants to do it differently this time, but finds herself haunted by her past, bearing an identity (butch) that feels dated in the queer community, feeling used and traded on social media, and forced to confront problems she hoped she’d left behind.

Sixteen years ago, Baal and her band split up after her lover, Sophie, died of suicide. A disillusioned Baal retreated from public life. When the play opens, Baal is impoverished by her self-imposed isolation and longing to share new music with a larger audience. She returns to touring with another musician (Brenda), dreaming of a second chance, but dragging the ghost of Sophie with her. Baal is guilt-ridden about how badly she treated Sophie when she was alive, and can’t come to terms with having done wrong, especially when the outcome was so tragic. Almost immediately, things start spinning out of control. Baal’s former manager, Taggart, appears with news of a BAAL song video that’s gone viral, and the possibility of a touring and recording contract in Berlin. Then, Shepard, once Baal’s lead guitarist and best friend, appears. Shepard has his own secrets. He introduces Baal to a young non-binary person named Sage, who turns out to be Sophie’s child from a very brief encounter Shepard and Sophie had so many years ago. Baal soon believes all this is a sign that she’s following her destiny. She forms a new band that includes Brenda, Shepard and Sage, and signs a management contract with Taggart. When Sophie died, Baal and Shepard made sense of what happened in isolation; now, events force a reckoning.

After/BAAL is more than an engaging piece of rock & roll theatre, it is also a piece that explores contemporary issues of gender, sexuality and identity, and recovering from a suicide. The high stakes in this play are informed by love and fear, and sweetened by humor.

Rose Cullis’s play script is available on request. (rosecullis.com)

Tech. Considerations that might impact budget/touring

With set, projections, and wardrobe designed by Denyse Karn, and lighting by Michelle Ramsay, the show is being conceived as a tour friendly vehicle, with minimal settings in the service of its on-the-road onstage/backstage performance dynamics. Prerecorded and live video clip projections will play on scrim screens backing band instruments, mic stands, amps, monitors, and travel box cases used as furniture pieces.

A brief history of After/BAAL’s development:

After/BAAL has been in development for a number of years and will be ready for production in 2026!

The core After/BAAL creative team consists of playwright Rose Cullis, director/ dramaturg Jon Michaelson, songwriter/lead performer Astrid Van Wieren, and set, projections, wardrobe designer Denyse Karn. Following an initial workshop at the Banff Performing Arts Centre in 2022, the core group joined forces with Toronto based November Theatre company’s artistic director Michael Scholar Jr, and received Canada Council funding to do a second workshop in Toronto in 2023. Then with support from the Ontario and Toronto Arts Councils we undertook a third pre-production workshop in December 2024 at the Tarragon Theatre’s Extra Space, which benefited from a public work-in-progress presentation.

FYI - Full (100 minutes) Archival workshop presentation video is available at:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UkmuWtRkNFiAkail2etXRPYCU5AyOYjs/view