New musical ‘Lost in the Hills’ on stage August 10-14

There’s always something new to see at Theatre 33, including this weekend.

The new play development company, in residence at Willamette University, will wrap the last of its 2022 3 x 33 summer season of stage plays with a new musical. Be there for the experience (including a talk-back with the playwright) August 10 through 14 in the Putnam Studio, M. Lee Pelton Theatre at Willamette University.

Lost In The Hills, by Paul Lewis, is a new musical freely adapted from Zane Grey’s 1919 novel The Desert of Wheat.

In early 20th-century Washington state, a young Spokane woman traveling to the rolling wheat lands of the Palouse is haunted by the inescapable feeling that she has been there once before. While seeking to decipher the reason for that, she loses her heart to a troubled young agrarian and his radical sister. She soon must decide whether to return to the well-planned life she has always known—or lose herself forever in the scenic yet unforgiving hills. A story of loss, love, and the gravitational pull of the past, set against the backdrop of the battle for justice in the fields.

Click here to reserve your tickets. And read on to Meet the Playwright/Composer in an interview from Theatre 33.

What first drew you to theatre and playwriting in particular?

Paul Lewis: I fell in love with theater from a fourth-row orchestra seat in the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland, where my parents had taken me to see a touring production of “The Music Man.” I subsequently enrolled in the Columbia Record Club, dazzled by their magnanimous offer of twelve Original Broadway Cast albums for a penny, and spent much of my childhood conducting those shows, plus a number of others purchased at regular Club prices, in front of the stereo with a wand I pilfered from my brother’s magic set. Those recordings left an indelible imprint on me, and were the foundation of my musical education.

When I was inexplicably cast in a summer-stock role in “The King and I” (I played Louis Leonowens), I discovered that unique alchemy of beauty and adrenaline and terror which goes into a theatrical production, an elixir unlike any other. I also quickly learned that I really couldn’t act or sing. Writing was just about my only possible entry back into that world.

Who are the playwrights who have influenced your work?

Paul: Writing plays or musicals is about telling stories, the best of them taking you on a journey both specific and universal. I’ve been influenced and inspired by storytellers both within and outside the realm of theatre. Among the visionaries that come to mind — artists capable of conjuring up authentic, plausible, and enduring pictures of the world— are Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Miller, novelist Elena Ferrante, and composer/bandleader Maria Schneider. I recently found myself transported by a stunning new opera, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones”, with music by Terence Blanchard and a libretto by Kasi Lemmons, adapted from a memoir by Charles Blow.

How important are workshops like the 3 X 33 summer festival in developing a new play?

Paul: Plays have so many moving pieces, and there’s no good way to predict how well these pieces are going to unite and build a story without first moving the script from the page to the stage, hearing and seeing it in real-time, and then, if one is fortunate, trying it out in front of an audience. There are lots of questions to be answered: Is there a clear through line and tonal consistency from start to finish? Are the stakes clear, and are they high enough to deserve an audience’s attention? And in the case of a musical, do the songs move the story forward, or get in the way? Essentially, which elements work and which need to be improved upon, let go of, or entirely revisited? Surprises, both agreeable and appalling, are inevitable. It’s a scary, revelatory, vulnerable, and utterly thrilling process.

A workshop and performance opportunity such as this one, realized by a director and music director, a dramaturge, a gifted cast, designers, and a theatre with a clear artistic vision— it’s a rare gift for which I’m incredibly grateful. I’m really honored and excited to be able to watch the world of this story come alive on the summer festival stage, to be shared with Theatre 33 audiences.

What comes first when composing a musical theatre project, the songs or the story?

Paul: Most definitely the story. For me the usual sequence of events is story, character, dialogue, song. Ensemble numbers may be the exception, serving to provide color or context or a Greek chorus effect, but the ideal musical theatre song is usually one that arises organically from the scene and reflects the character or characters’ thought processes, emotions, and desires.

What was the initial inspiration for the play?

Paul: The singular beauty of the Palouse, an agricultural region in southeastern Washington, snuck up on me during my first visit there and captured my heart. At every turn in the road, the landscapes seem to deepen, draw you in, evoke the eternal pageant of agrarian life and, if you’re anything like me, suggest musical motifs. In fact, I composed one of this show’s musical themes shortly after a trip to the area, well before I knew what to do with it. (It became Lenore’s song, Agrarian Reverie.) I eventually discovered Zane Grey’s problematic yet evocative 1919 novel, “The Desert of Wheat” — the only book he wrote that’s set in the Pacific Northwest—and decided to use it as a jumping-off point while radically reimagining the arc and the moral compass of the story. Along the way, I created several new characters, including Julia, a young farmer who takes her place as a champion for a just and verdant land.

Reserve Your Seats

Theatre 33 is a donation-based company. Tickets for the performance are by donation. Click here to reserve your spot. The show takes place 7 p.m. Aug 10-13 and 2 p.m. August 13-14 in the Putnam Studio, M. Lee Pelton Theatre at Willamette University.