For the past three years, Anna Westbrook ’16, a music composition major, has been composing and writing Isabel and the Runaway Train, a musical set to premiere later this week. In an interview with The College Voice, Westbrook spoke about the inspiration behind the musical, working with the student-run theater group Wig and Candle and more.
The College Voice: First, tell me a little bit about yourself.
Anna Westbrook: I’m twenty-five years old, and I am from New London, Connecticut. I graduated high school in 2008, took a semester off, went to state school for two years, took two and half years off and then transferred to Conn. I will be finishing my degree requirements this semester and will be walking in May.
TCV: Without revealing too much, what is the plot of Isabel and the Runaway Train?
AW: Isabel is about a magical train, a place where nobody knows their name. Passengers only have a role. There is a conductor and there is a porter. There are choir members … and there is a horrible pun in which the conductor of the train is also the conductor of the choir. Isabel is stuck on this train, and it’s a runaway train, not in the sense that it’s running away from anything, but that it actually hits people who run away. Isabel is running away from home and is hit by this train. She is the only person there who knows her name and has to learn how to stop the train.
TCV: It sounds really interesting. I appreciate a good pun. So, where did the idea for the plot stem from?
AW: Well, the train is actually an analogy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As someone who has post-traumatic stress disorder, I decided I wanted to write about what it is like to have PTSD. The first thing I could think of was, it’s kind of like getting hit by a train. Emotionally, you’re a little unable to function for a little bit, you have something that triggers you and you feel very off. It can feel like you’re living in a different world. Isabel became a way for me to express what it feels like. The train is like an “Oz world” with a traumatized Dorothy. The themes that come up include, suicide, sexual assault, child abuse and poor communication within families. The musical is, above all, about healing. I would say that is the main function for the musical. If anyone who has PTSD is watching it, who has been sexually abused, or [had] any sort of abuse in their childhood, the goal of the musical is that they know it is possible to heal from those things. It is a process. For me, my response to being burden[ed] with this psychological problem was: let’s make something out of it. Let’s do something creative.
TCV: You wrote the plot, the music and the lyrics to Isabel. What was that process like? Frustrating at all?
AW: It can be very frustrating. Writing required a lot of patience. I was writing it for a year before coming to Conn, and I tell people that the musical is not for school, school is for the musical. I wanted to write a musical and I had a lot of the melodies and could play the song on three chords on the guitar. But, I wanted to make a real, Broadway-style musical. And to do that, I needed to be in a school that could teach me how. I took theater, playwriting and music classes. I’m working on an orchestrated version now. [Editor’s note: For the version opening this week, there will be a small band.] Writing is about re-writing, and the script is now so different than when I started writing it three years ago. The plot has changed and I am so thankful to the professors at Conn who have helped me to reevaluate the story and make the music.
TCV: What was writing the music like?
AW: Most of the music came to me suddenly. The music wasn’t originally written for the musical. Sometimes I would sit at the piano and play a melody… and then sometimes get the whole song. I would then realize that this could be used for my musical if I just changed some pronouns around or rewrite the lyrics a little bit. So, as for lyrics coming first or music coming first, usually it starts with the lyrics. But, sometimes it’s all at the same time.
TCV: That’s awesome. You’re working with Wig and Candle, Conn’s oldest student-run theater group, on Isabel. What has that process been like?
AW: It’s amazing to me to see how many students have gotten involved. For so long, the process was me. I had been largely doing the musical myself for three years. This time last week, it was Rob Jones ’17, the director, and now there’s like twenty people involved! It’s very humbling for me to believe that this is my baby and project, and I understand why I would want to work on it, but all of these other people want to be involved in it. And these are busy people, so I love that they are taking the time. It’s been an amazing learning process, since we’re all new to this. I am experienced with taking my ideas and putting them onto paper, but taking the paper and putting it on the stage is a very different thing.
TCV: The support network is nice, then.
AW: It’s really great to have everyone. Since I’m working with other students, I get to see people showing me what they already know, and I get to see what they’re learning from the process of taking on different roles.
TCV: You, the cast and the crew are also working under a very tight deadline.
AW: We’ve had three weeks from the start of school to production. It’s a staged reading, it’s not a whole production, so no one has to memorize anything, but it has been crazy. But part of the reason why it is so crazy is that we were going to do a staged reading without the music, but my theater advisers told me I should try to put in some of the songs, so I converted the orchestra parts to the piano.
TCV: If you’ve worked on the music, you should definitely have it included.
AW: I’m so glad we did. It needed it.
TCV: Do you see your professional life heading into Broadway or music at large? What’s next?
AW: Ultimately, I would like Isabel to be on Broadway. I don’t consider that’s what’s next, though.
TCV: Right, in the long, long term future.
AW: Yeah, we’re talking in like twenty-five years. But for the immediate future, my uncle is a music producer, so he has a lot of experience writing commercials. I did an internship with him last summer, and he thinks I have the ability to actually make money with music. So, music at large is the goal. I would like to try to perform. Maybe a singer-songwriter? I would also be happy being behind the scenes.
TCV: Congratulations on everything. It sounds like an amazing piece.
Westbrook warns audiences that some of the musical’s contents may trigger emotions or past experiences, given that it tackles issues like PTSD and sexual abuse. For any needed support during or after the show, Westbrook has teamed up with the Green Dot Initiative and Darcie Folsom, Director of Seuxal Violence Prevention & Advocacy. Westbrook says that there will be a representative to speak to, and a follow-up discussion for people to share their responses to the show’s underlying themes. •
