Though the duo of Curran Latas and Michael Braud of “1000Words” may have seen the last of the play’s initial run at Theatre Baton Rouge, their involvement with the project is far from over.
Latas, a theatrical performance sophomore, and Braud, a University alumnus, have seen 11 months of hard work come to a tee with their production’s run at Theatre Baton Rouge, but are already thinking about the future of their creation.
“1000Words,” featuring a book and lyrics by Braud and an eclectically contemporary score by Latas, touches on timeless themes such as love, self-worth and betrayal. But the show, directed by Alys Murray and starring University students Trey Tycer, Brady Lewis and Rachel Lorando, is drawing attention for its distinctly LGBTQ message.
The musical focuses on the relationship between two men growing up in a small West Virginia mining town. While same-sex marriage finds itself more and more a topic of discussion, Latas and Braud are doing their part to make some sense of the bigger picture.
“I tried to make it relatable because at its heart, despite the setting, it’s a love story, and that’s something I think everyone can relate to,” Latas said.
Latas, whose past credits at Theatre Baton Rouge include “A Christmas Carol” and “Disney’s Mary Poppins,” in addition to his LSU Main Stage and Swine Palace credits, found himself for the first time on the other side of the curtain as a composer rather than as a cast member. He described the experience as learning on the job, heaping praise on the cast as a whole for the relatively seamless way the way his first composition came together.
Rather than highlighting the differences between heterosexual and same-sex relationships, Latas and Braud said they tried to emphasize through their writing the ways in which the two are the same.
The premise seems familiar enough at first glance, as a budding relationship is put on hold by the spectre of war and the lovers each do what they feel they must to cope. The pair said that this mirroring of a traditional love story is a point they wanted to make from the beginning.
“There was a point when we realized it was bigger than us,” Braud said.
Whatever the story makes people feel, Latas and Braud have spent countless late nights over a piano and stacks of sheet music to make the production happen, and the experience has elicited paternal feelings in them both.
“Me and my writing partner always joke that we’re the parents of the show,” Latas said of he and Braud’s eleven-month exercise in stress management, which wrapped up its four-day run Sunday.
The months leading up to the duo’s unveiling of its self-proclaimed “baby” to the world may not have been kind, but according to Latas, they have been rewarding.
The experience from beginning to end has been something of an odyssey for Latas, who despite the departure from his typical position in the Playbill found himself no less emotionally invested.
“Words can’t describe it,” Latas said. “Even after five performances, I still found myself getting really emotional watching the finale.”
But the composer isn’t the only one with whom the show seems to strike a chord. He and Braud said audiences have been affected by the poignant subject matter as well.
“People have been moved,” Braud said, whose first original musical, “The Seven,” saw a run at Theatre Baton Rouge two years ago. “People’s lives have been changed in front of our very eyes each time they see the show.”
In the midst of the turmoil and flurry of last-minute adjustments that come with the territory, the pair still manages to reminisce on the time it took to bring the production to life.
Latas and Braud recalled the time that “1000Words” first came into being, a mere year ago, in the Music and Dramatic Arts building that the two have come to call home over their combined time at the university.
Braud, then a biological sciences senior in his final semester, opened the door to one of the building’s numerous practice rooms to find a freshman Latas hammering away at a piano.
“He was creating stuff right in front of my eyes,” Braud said. “I asked him what it was, and he said it was just something he’d been working on. I said, ‘Let’s write a musical.’”
The chance meeting sparked a mutual interest that kept the duo constantly innovating and tweaking the story all the way through tech week.
“I’d known I’d always wanted to write an LGBTQ-themed musical, and his music gave me the chance to realize that dream,” Braud said.
Like the beginning of a fairy tale, Latas sent the music to Braud, who drafted the lyrics that same night, and what followed was an 11 month journey of self-discovery and collaboration unlike anything either had ever been a part of.
But the reality of the situation is not lost on these two. “1000Words” has concluded its initial run at Theatre Baton Rouge and now for the first time since rehearsals have started finds itself without a place to call home.
Latas and Braud, unwilling to rest on the laurels of their recent successes, already have some ideas for the future of the show.
“I just had a meeting with someone, and I can’t say specifics, but (Michael and I) are both very excited for the future of the show,” Latas said.