Conversation with G. Victoria Campbell, composer/writer of "Treeson: An Eco-Musical"

Broadway ReFocused is in conversation with G. Victoria Campell, writer and composer of the new musical: Treeson: An Eco-Musical. A new musical theatre writer, Victoria has created this entire musical during the COVID pandemic in Switzerland. Her dual background in psychology and music have informed the themes of her art, which focus on doing mission-driven work, inspiring people to act on behalf of the collective as opposed to the individual, and activism. Treeson: An Eco-Musical is set in present-day North America, in the beautiful landscape of the Pacific Northwest, where many respect nature, but others seek to destroy it. Treeson is educating, inspiring and entertaining listeners about climate change on its debut concept album released January 15th, 2021 on all music platforms. Learn more about Victoria on her website: https://www.treesonmusical.com/, and on IG @treesonmusical.

Musicals With Impact - Ep 3 - Treeson: An Eco-Musical

Spencer Williams: Today our guest is coming all the way from Switzerland to talk about her amazing new musical Treeson, an Eco musical. So, welcome G. Victoria Campbell from Switzerland.

G. Victoria Campbell: Thank you for having me, my pleasure.

Spencer Williams: Absolutely. First off, I want to say, this is kind of amazing because I actually found out about your musical through Instagram, I'm just excited to talk to you about this. The tagline comes through "Because earth is dying, we must do everything we can to inspire the world toward action." So, I saw that and I thought absolutely, climate change is definitely on the forefront of everyone's mind. And I just love the intersection of musical theater and this topic. So, why don't we just start with a little bit about you and how you started to write this musical?

G. Victoria Campbell: Yeah, my background is actually in psychology. Although I grew up performing and singing in choirs my whole life. So, definitely have a passion and interest in the Arts and the theater. I was working in corporate America for the last decade. And I really just transitioned into writing musicals this year -- the spring during the COVID pandemic. So, I consider myself brand new and Treeson is my one and only musical right now. So, I'm from Seattle, even though right now, I live in Switzerland and I hadn't been back to the Northwest since I moved. And so with the pandemic, I obviously couldn't travel and I was really bummed, really missing home.

And I started to get pretty nostalgic, just writing about the beauty of the Pacific Northwest landscape. You know, the velvety moss,  the foggy, misty air. The feeling of being so cold and so chill to the bone, but the dampness that makes you feel alive. And so the first few songs I wrote were really just reflective about how I felt about nature. And about a person or a character who's learning to appreciate the environment and, you know, the, sustenance and the nourishment that nature can provide. And then I realized that there was like a unifying thread across my songs. And so I paused, I stopped writing the music for a bit and I just, you know, created an outline and a plot for the story and jotted down my ideas for all the songs, which became much more clear. So, it really just started with me and journaling and making time to reflect. And then I just kind of dove in.

Spencer Williams: That's amazing. So, this is your first show then?

G. Victoria Campbell: It is my first show, but you know, I see musical theater as really just a musical story. And so I think having been a business psychologist in my past life, you know, that career was really centered on driving corporate change in organizations and rallying employees together around a common goal. You know, change management requires a business case or a story or a "what's in it for me" message.

It's all about selling people on a story and division. And so I realized that writing a musical has a lot of similarities. It's about first and foremost, telling a compelling story and bringing people along for the ride and Treeson is no difference.

Spencer Williams: I mean, I can't think of a better subject matter in 2020 than climate change. And so that's really exciting that that's kind of what you focused on during this pandemic. Taking a little bit of action in the pause to create something new and something very relevant. So, why don't you tell us little bit about the journey of the show in regards to the story and how you created that?

G. Victoria Campbell: Treeson is a story about a young man named Ash, and he is a conflicted logging heir, and he's seeking redemption and purpose after the damage that's been done to the environment by his father's logging company. He meets a whole cast of characters. He meets a character named Terra, T-E-R-R-A, who's an environmental activist and the elements of water, wind and fire.

And they help him on his journey toward a possibly different life. As I mentioned, it's set in the Northwest where I grew up. And so writing the musical Treeson I was channeling that American nostalgia, that American energy. And so I was really looking to intentionally leverage traditional American genres while allowing each character to have a unique musical profile.

And so for example, Don he plays the role of the villain. Yes the name was intentionally chosen and he is Ash's father. And so he kind of has like this wild west blues, like country vibe going on. The elements, water, wind, and fire, they're like super sassy and in your face and they kind of have this like soulful jazzy sounds. The activists, you know, they have this stereotypical like hippie vibe. And so their songs have a lot of like folk inspiration with natural, organic percussion. Tara who represents the epitome of nature and being one with earth, her songs tend to have like a soaring indigenous soundscape. But I think the album as a whole does have a cohesive unified sound that really reflects like the tone of the show. And so I would say that the musical style is like Americana.

Spencer Williams: Oh, I love all of those styles and how you put that together. That sounds really interesting. How did you come up with those styles? Is that something that comes from you innately, like where like those are the styles that you kind of grew up with or is this kind of something new for you?

G. Victoria Campbell: Great question. I mean, I guess it's a little bit of both. I grew up listening to all kinds of music, all genres. I mean, I don't really discriminate. I listened to everything. I would say that it's interesting, kind of how it played out. I wouldn't say it was that intentional in the beginning.

Like I knew the personalities I wanted for each character, you know, the story is about this like Wild West like blue collar logging company and kind of like, manifest destiny. And so I was like, well, it should be kind of like Wild-Westy bluesy for the main guy, for the dad. And the elements to me, I just -- they're like the conscience of society, like over Ash's, shoulder, like telling them what to do. So, I was like, they need to be soulful and sassy. And so when I was collaborating with my arranger in London, it just happened. So, I like to say that it was organic, but also thoughtful at the same time. I don't know. It just kind of happened naturally and it worked out.

Spencer Williams: Yeah, that totally makes sense. Sometimes things come to you and it's not necessarily like this intentional moment, but it's still intentional and it's. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, you've written the book, you've written the lyrics, you've written the music -- you just mentioned this collaborator kind of tell us about that collaboration.

G. Victoria Campbell: Yeah. So, like I said, I'm brand new , I'm very aware of my limitations and my lack of experience. And so I knew I could get as far as I could, but then I needed to find people who were better than me. And so I just put a bunch of ads up on the internet. Thank god for the internet and Facebook and YouTube. And I interviewed probably a dozen people and I picked my collaborator, Joseph Purdue. Who's amazing because his previous work are really like rich and lush. They sound like epic movie soundtracks and I knew that's kind of a sound I wanted, like I wanted to bring people to nature, kind of like when you listen to his earlier stuff, it sounds like you're watching like the Lord of the Rings or like The Hobbit.

And so I wanted to transport people into that natural environments. And so I got really lucky working with him. He course corrects me as he sees fit and we like have a push pull, you know, it's very much a dynamic interactive iterative process.

Spencer Williams: That sounds amazing. And I think any collaboration, you always want to find people that can A. do that push pull and then also really bring something to the project. I mean, no one writes a musical by themselves. A friend was just saying yesterday that they believe musical theater is the most collaborative art form out there and I a hundred percent agree.

G. Victoria Campbell: Yes. I feel like, I mean, I'm, like I said, new, but I've done my homework and research, and I know, I can just imagine a little bit that I've done just to get it to this phase. Not even talking about getting it to the stage yet. I feel like it's planning a wedding times a thousand. I mean, you need like so many people.

Spencer Williams: That is so true. Absolutely. I have felt the same thing, like even producing like shows for high school or whatnot. But when I was writing my own show, like, yes, it's like a thousand times more planning than a wedding. That's awesome. That's a great analogy. So, I feel like it's an easy answer, but at the same point maybe you can go a little bit deeper into this question, but why do you believe that this story should be told now?

G. Victoria Campbell: Yeah, good question. I mean, I feel like the story should have been told yesterday as soon as possible.

You know, as you talked about earlier in your intro, like climate change is real. I mean, I know there are skeptics out there who don't think so, but I think science shows that climate change is happening and we don't have a ton of time left as a society to course correct. And also I think today more than ever, and I've seen this in my, work as a psychologist, working for organizations in my former life, but like employees more than ever are, they're not satisfied with just working for money and working for the "man" you know, they want something more in life. They want more meaning, more purpose. They want to work for companies whose values align with theirs and who are doing something to contribute to society.

And so I feel like 1. From a climate change perspective, the show needs to have happened like yesterday or a show like this. And 2. I think it's just really relatable. People are reflecting more during pandemic times and thinking about how they want to spend their time and how they want to spend their futures. And so I think there's a lot people can glean from this. You know, there's already been like irreversible, irreparable damage and we're on track to continue to escalate things unless we can turn things around quickly. So, I just think it's a topic that many people are passionate about and they want to see positive change.

Treeson in particular is about deforestation. And deforestation is a huge influencer in climate change. I mean, trees, especially like really big old trees, you know, planting new trees is fine, but old   trees, they're the ones that are huge carbon things.     And so the older the tree the better. And I just think it's a good enough reason to tell this story to the world.

Spencer Williams: Absolutely. And I love your answer, yesterday. Within the title of your show, it's Treeson, but for listeners, they might not know how you're spelling it. So, why don't you tell us a little bit about that as well?

G. Victoria Campbell: So, Treeson: The Eco Musical is spelled T-R-E-E-S-O-N. So, the word trees is intentionally in the title.

And I decided to call my musical Treeson because it's essentially about betraying the trees. I mean, treason spelled normally according to Webster, T-R-E-A-S-O-N is about betrayal, you know? And so I, it was kind of like a punny, like play on words. Just FYI, there was another musical out there that I just came across. That's spelled Treason in the normal way about oh, the gun powder plots. And so mine is not to be confused with that one, but I was just trying to pick a memorable name that really represented betraying planet earth.

Spencer Williams: No, that's great. And I love that pun. So, we're going to listen in a few minutes to one of your tracks, but this kind of goes into that, like what part of the development process? I know you said you started writing this in COVID, but you already have songs like tracked out and I'm, excited to share that out, but tell us a little bit about where you're at, like full script, full amount of songs, like with that writing process.  Yeah, where are you at?

G. Victoria Campbell: So, it's a really fitting week because the entire demo album just got finished this week. And so that's a huge milestone for Treeson. So, where I'm at is, the demo is done 19 songs, 65 minutes of music and the script is in draft form. As you know, musicals, don't get written, they get rewritten. And so I'm constantly tweaking and refining the script. But I'm in a place now where I am  applying to a bunch of festivals and residencies and grants, mainly in the states. November and December is like a really busy time for these application windows. And so I was kind of harassing my arranger to get the demo done in time so I could make these deadlines. And so yeah, where I'm at now is just promoting the show now trying to get the word out there so that I can hopefully get access to a workshop or developmental opportunity to help, you know, to find a team of people, to help me refine the scripts. Cause it's hard doing it alone and I need people to look at it and to help me make it better.

Spencer Williams: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm, a little bit floored. We're going to go back. How did you get the demo done in COVID and where are you getting that done and how that all happened? Because like, I know how hard it is to get a demo done.

G. Victoria Campbell: So, I think this is maybe one of those times where ignorance is bliss. Like, I don't know what I don't know. And I don't know how long things usually take in a field that I am very unfamiliar with. And so I'm also not working, so this is like my full-time job. So, it's really just been like my passion working 12, 14 hours a day, seven days a week. But in previous roles, when I was a psychologist, I was also a project manager. And so I'm really good at like staying organized and making project plans and spreadsheets and keeping track of things. And so yeah, similar to how I found my collaborator. I found singers all over the world in so many different countries and, it was kind of like, musical directing them globally, remotely, and just working with them on getting like lyrics out and backtracks out and pre mixing sessions that I can get over to my arranger to final mix. And yeah, I guess it, I guess it did kind of happen fast, huh?

Spencer Williams:  I've been trying to get a full demo of my show for years, so we might have to talk afterwards, but like, so where are the performers? Like you mentioned that they're all over the world? Tell me more.

G. Victoria Campbell: I have two singers here in Switzerland. I met one via a girl at a meetup. It's like a girl's roommate that I met at a meetup. And then a couple in Australia, couple in the UK, one in Mexico, some in Canada, some in the US, one in Italy. So, just all over.

Spencer Williams: If you could see my face, like I'm literally like mind blown. I think that's amazing and yeah, we're definitely going to have to talk after cause that's, that's incredible. I mean, even in normal times, putting a demo together takes a while it takes money, it takes like making sure you find the right people like you've mentioned, the arranger, the orchestrator, like it's so many people, right. Again, after that idea of this is so collaborative, amazing that you've been able to get that done in COVID. I mean, I do think there was a lot of pause for theater and singers and stuff, there isn't a lot going on.

So, that is like the advantage that you have right now, but that's still very impressive. So, good work. We're even more excited to share out the music now right? Like the story behind the music is always sometimes like so exciting. So, very cool. Well, why don't we move into that? Why don't you give us a little bit of a background on the song that we're going to present today and maybe some story and then also how it kind of came about for you as a writer.

G. Victoria Campbell: Yeah. Yeah. So, the song that I chose to play is called "Birth to Earth" and it's the final number of Treeson. This was actually one of the last songs that I wrote and it was kind of an accident. I was really struggling with composing the song because I knew the emotion that I wanted to insight in the audience to be bittersweet, heartbreaking, yet uplifting and inspiring. And I just couldn't get there when I put pen to paper, but I flipped back through the history of my journal and I found like three different poems that kind of seemed to fit together like to form verses the chorus and the bridge. And then I realized it was in the same key as the melodies I came up with as a pre-existing song that features its own like anthemic chorus. And so I put that in there as a reprise. It was probably too much information for you. I would say as far as the titles, some astute musical theater nerds may also notice that the name "Birth to Earth" is a callback to another musical. It's actually aligned from West Side Story. I have a twin sister and we used to like copy the phrase that Tony and Riff would say in that, you know, one of them would say womb to tomb and the other one would apply with birth to earth. And so, because Treeson is about rebirth and growth and positive change but also about life and death. I thought it was a very fitting name for the finale. And so I don't want to give too much away and spill the ending of the show, but I can tell you that the song is ensemble featuring a large number of environmental activists, rallying together to inspire action and others in the audience. They are at the top of these cliffs that overlook the ocean with wild flowers and birds and fresh air. And just imagine one of the most beautiful natural settings you can conjure.

Spencer Williams: Oh, I love that. That's amazing. So here it is, here is "Birth to Earth".

Wow. Wow wow wow. Beyond it being amazing I'm also like just pausing because I'm like that all happened from all over the world. Which I think like, is so amazing within what you're trying to say. Like within the show, right? Like talking about climate change that affects everyone. And here you have, it's not just a New York studio cast, right? Or recording. It's like, there's so many people from all over the world coming together to sing this.

G. Victoria Campbell: Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I mean, It wasn't like the easiest job to find singers, but it was easier than I expected because there are just so many people who want to be a part of telling this really important story and they want to be a part of the positive change. And so yeah, I think that song has people from six different countries.

Spencer Williams: That's amazing. Well, I was absolutely jamming out to that. Such a cool, like you said, the arranger, like created this soundscape in your ears that you really do feel like it's a more holistic sound that's coming like a movie soundtrack, like you mentioned, love it.

G. Victoria Campbell: Thank you. Yeah, he's probably so sick of me but like, I feel like every other song, I was like, Joseph, that song needs more birds chirping. Can you add more birds chirping so people feel like they're in nature.

Spencer Williams: I love that. So, you're in this process, you're applying now to festivals and workshops and different opportunities. That's all exciting. It's a lot of work. If you are outside of the musical theater world just putting together every  application takes so much time, but I guess I'm wondering, what is your dream of the show? Like where do you see the show? Like, if, you know, tell us a little bit about that dream.

Like, do you see this on Broadway? Do you see it? What type of a theater? Where do you see it at?

G. Victoria Campbell: Yeah, really good question. I mean, I guess I'd be lying if I said it didn't want to see this on Broadway. I think that's every musical theater writer's dream. But I also feel like because the show is about the environment. I think it'd be really cool to see, you know, in my dream world the show being performed out in nature. I don't know how that could be accomplished, but like most of the show takes place in the woods. So, maybe it's like an outdoor auditorium or like a huge park with the trees around. I just feel like that'll be really cool to see this done in a natural setting.

I mean the big, big dream, of course. And I don't know how you can measure this, but like, I mean, I want this to change people's lives. I want this to change people's behaviors. I mean, not just like walk out, feeling like, "Oh, I've been educated, I've been entertained and maybe I've even been inspired", but like, I want them to act. Like I want them to act now for the betterment of the planet.

And that's my big dream. I think short term, like baby steps, I think it'd be really awesome to have those be workshops back home in Seattle, where I'm from. I mean, there's so many great theaters there between like the 5th Avenue or the Village Theater. And ultimately I want to work with a team, a producer, director, designer, everybody who feels equally passionate about the environment to help represent the values of the show.

Spencer Williams: Those are some amazing dreams. I love them all, but I would agree with you, like seeing the show out in nature out, you know, seeing the earth, like literally around you, it would be such a different experience than sitting in a cold dark theater. Right?

G. Victoria Campbell: Absolutely.

Spencer Williams: Great dreams. I love that. So, before we go today, tell us a little bit about how, you know, if someone heard this, like how do they get in touch with you or is there a way that they can learn more about Treeson?

G. Victoria Campbell: Yeah, so I'm on every social media platform under the handle @treesonmusical. So, T-R-E-E-S-O-N musical. You can go to the website, treesonmusical.com or email me treesonmusical@gmail.com.

Spencer Williams: Awesome. So, I also have this kind of random question for you that I'm gonna throw at you. I feel like a lot of young people are very, you know, very aware of climate change and they do want to make a difference. Have you thought, or have you seen the TikToK musicals and like, have you thought about integrating some of your work there? Cause I just feel like it could be like this again, a world view platform of that.

G. Victoria Campbell: Oh, my gosh, I actually haven't thought about it, but it's not a bad idea. I am like overwhelmed with technology just between the learning Garageband and like GIMP and all these different, you know, the Final Draft script software to write the script.

But sounds like a great idea. I know there's been a lot of success with people on TikTok. I just need to figure it out how to use the app first.

Spencer Williams: If there's anyone listening, who is interested in helping with the Tik-Tok musical and Treeson, and please reach out on any of those handles cause I think like again, collaboration is key, right?

G. Victoria Campbell: Yes, definitely. Thank you.

Spencer Williams: I love that. I've been talking about it, thinking about it and I mean, I just, TikTok right now with musicals and people singing and all of that and dueting I mean, it's kind of what's happening right now since everything else is paused. So, it's kind of an exciting new platform to kind of create new musicals and getting your musical out there. Anyway, so I thought I'd ask.

G. Victoria Campbell: That's a good idea.

Spencer Williams: Well, thank you so much for being on, I'm like so happy that we connected over social media. Like this is one of those  joys of social media where you can connect with people from all over the world.

And we're so excited to learn more about Treeson. We're excited about the development we're really looking forward. So, keep us in touch about anything new happening and yeah. Make sure that you check out their social media pages and follow along on this new journey about climate change and musical theater. A very apt story for 2020. Thank you again so much for being here.

G. Victoria Campbell: Thank you so much for having me.