A few notes from Kaleb V.A, Director of R.O.P's show, 'New Beginnings'.

~Read an indepth article about the origins and making of 'New Beginnings: Traveling the Transcontinental Railroad'!~

This article is a blog post by Kaleb Vanden Akker. He wrote it to share his perspective and inner processes involved to get 'New Beginnings' where it is today.

Origin story behind the concept of the Luther Family Diary

Did you know that, when I started Rocket On Productions in 2016, I had been working within my own family on making a diverse array of video and music-based content? I never had intended to make a theatrical production. “So how did you get here then” You may be asking? The journey began in 2017, when I had free time despite having then become a middle schooler and quickly taking on major video projects for my school since I had the talent to do so. As a 5th grader, I enjoyed writing poetry and brainstorming stories I could tell in my own videos. The puzzle pieces for a potential story started to become clear in 7th grade when I sat in my social studies class and for an assignment, had to write either a letter to someone or write a short diary entry of someone journeying the transcontinental railroad. I picked the diary story. The story I ended up writing, had a strong enough premise that throughout Covid, I expounded upon it until the summer of my 9th grade year where it went from a couple-page, single-entry diary, to a 15-page diary covering many years. Then it sat on my computer for a year and a half.

I never dreamed it would become a theatrical production or see it possible to become a movie. I am shocked that the same Luther Family Diary with 3 characters, would become the foundation for just part of a much larger show anyone will be able to watch starting May 9th, 2025 with 10 characters. I never was told any of this until the late summer of my sophomore year in High School by who I believe is most certainly God. Even then though, I thought my story would become a movie! That is what I had wanted to do since 5th grade afteral, to make a movie!

By my Sophmore year in high school, I thought I knew everything I needed to know. I had the people skills and the ability to balance running a set and its cast. I thought, after writing my script for the Transcontinental Railroad diary movie in one summer, and having made all of the arrangements in the following summer regarding contacts and scene locations, I could make the movie during my senior year. However, my Mom confronted me. She highly suggested I not rush into things, otherwise I would destroy my senior year. I couldn't just let my dream stop right then and there, because I had arranged classes with Mr. Chris Murphy, and Kayla Sprayue (The Director of Theatre and the Media Arts teacher respectively) to make a script of sorts become a movie. With great amounts of hindsight, my mom was right to warn me. So, I inevitably called Mr. Murphy that summer and he advised I make what all you will be able to watch on May 9th, 2025, in his special topics class (tailored to teach me all the steps of pre-production and how to direct a show). He advised me to then get audience input on the script, allowing me to make the perfect script for a captivating movie.

The MIRACLE that this show is!

This show was originally planned during my special topics class to be...say, a 100-piece, easy- to-solve puzzle. The only way all the puzzle pieces for making this show would fall into place neatly and cohesively, however, was if it became a multi-hundred-piece jigsaw puzzle as soon as I (the director) took what the writer (also me) had written, and revamped it. This realization led to having to pray and make very careful rehearsal decisions: It had to be time-sensitive and pitched as a low-commitment show just like Mr. Murphy’s Spring Show ('The Littlefield Gazzete Does NOT End Today'); and there had to be a cast that was as dedicated to the true miracle of a show that it is, just as much so as I have been. And thank God they had been. They had been willing to work with me and my assistant director, Yara, outside of dedicated rehearsals to ask questions and refine deliveries of lines so they could come to an actual rehearsal and absolutely nail their part, speeding up rehearsals! Wrapped in all of that, is the reality that is: ‘You only get quality out of something, via the tender-love and care you put into it’. This whole show has required love and care from both me and Yara Pflughoeft as the directors. Mr. Murphy had put care into the show as the producer for it too. Why? Because all must be in agreement about the product going into it and be dedicated. As I found out, if something falls through... you end up as an audience watching only part of a production because the show is far too large, as the May 8th audience found out. Without Mr. Murphy, audience members would not have been at the show whatsoever.

Rocket On Productions had never made theatrical-related entertainment before. It was only because of the yearning to try something ambitious -quite massive- and it is because of all those who came before me, that there even was a chance to do this show in the first place (many thanks to Michael Slack and Laura Bohnke). I could never have put the pieces of the multi-hundred-piece jigsaw puzzle together alone. That is why it took what has been 7 years now. I needed more help in the form of knowledge and supportive people... those as skilled and caring as Yara especially. She had worked with me backstage before as stage crew for Mutually Assured Destruction in the spring of 2024 and during Lion King in the fall of that same year. Her enthusiasm and people skills, her care and attention to detail, and upon hearing of my writing of this show, selfless volunteering to be a part of it in any way possible, embodied and continues to embody the tender-love and care required to have the cast as a whole, likewise, be dedicated to what makes a theatrical production in infancy grow up to be a full adult.

The Elephant in The Room

Now, to address the actual goal of the story and its execution: It is to bring to light —as much as possible— the actual history and genuine transformation of a fictional woman who has gone through very real brokenness, all because of a bold-faced lie on her husband’s part. That is what she believes anyway, since she had fallen into a heaping amount of spiritual doubt she never thought she’d ever recover from. It blinded her, leaving her to be stuck in one place she felt comfortable, when in reality, she had to get up and move on. You see, this whole show is based around the need for moving. By which I mean, it captures the movement from one home, to a different, far-away-from-true-home, home. On a very spiritual level, it’s all about the pain and yet the true mercy of God’s grace that shows Christians what one needs to do is see that maybe God has bigger and better plans that will suit oneself far better than their own plans. This lesson could be applied to all the other characters for that matter, but to spare you reading more than necessary, I will get to the point now.

As a director, you can be faced with a dilemma when you are told by your producers who can revoke your ability to house your production in their very own venue, you must have the show be one specific way...or else there will be consequences. That was what happened when I committed to making this script I had rewritten because the original was not long enough nor thorough enough to develop into a cohesive story with a lesson like the aforementioned originally. That is what I found out inevitably from my very first couple of editors: Kayla Sprayue and Jodi Vanden Akker. Without knowing the scope of this show, even at the beginning of my special topics class in theatre class, with Mr. Murphy, I was walking into a massive hurdle. I had never known I was going to have a show that was meant to be a predicted 2 hours, maybe 2 hours 30 minutes and best be a full production, have to meet a difficult ask. I had to put the show on (to my best ability) as a staged reading, where the entire cast is preferably seated unless necessary. “Unless necessary”, is where a director’s poor judgment, can be problematic and for a show that has so many cues and plot points based on movement due to the ENTIRE STORY being based on movement, was challenging, to say the least. What the result was, was 2 show times because the entire show is too long for full viewing pleasure. Why would that matter? Truth be told, it was due to a scheduling conflict with the use of the school's auditorium. So, "half gets shown on May 8th, and all 2 hours (roughly) gets shown online as a premiere" had to be the compromise.

THANK YOU!

Those are the primary notes I wanted to share with you about the makings of 'New Beginnings: Traveling the Transcontinental Railroad'. I hope this was informative and helped develop a better understanding of what made the show so special!