The creators of “Illinoise,” the brand new stage present impressed by the 2005 Sufjan Stevens album “Illinois,” are the primary to confess that the manufacturing isn’t a musical in essentially the most conventional sense of the phrase.

“It has all the weather of a musical in it,” mentioned director-choreographer Justin Peck (“Carousel,” “Buena Vista Social Membership”) within the newest episode of “Stagecraft,” Selection‘s theater podcast. “It has music; it has stagecraft, design and undoubtedly storytelling. Nevertheless it’s not offered in essentially the most standard means.”

Nevertheless, talking in a dialog along with his “Illinoise” collaborator, Pulitzer-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (“Fairview”), Peck famous that he discovered inspiration in one of the vital acquainted Broadway musicals on the market: “A Refrain Line.”

Take heed to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast beneath:

Now premiering at Chicago Shakespeare Theater forward of a March run on the Park Avenue Armory, “Illinoise” revolves round a gaggle of hikers who convene round a campfire to inform their tales. “An enormous reference level that helped me discover extra confidence on this concept is ‘A Refrain Line,’” Peck mentioned. “It’s about this group of people, and one after the other we’re getting their tales. They arrive ahead they usually share. A few of them are brief, single songs. A few of them are a bit of extra intensive. A few of them construct and construct and construct, and relationships kind. And someplace within the background of all that could be a extra substantial, intensive storyline that finally unfolds. I feel there’s a parallel to that construction with the present we’re doing right here.”

As a playwright, Drury often works extensively with phrases. However as she collaborated with Peck to create characters and craft storylines for “Illinoise,” she started to suppose phrases weren’t the way in which to go.

“As we had been speaking about whether or not so as to add lots of dialogue or textual content to the piece, I began to really feel actually strongly that it didn’t want it,” she mentioned. “There’s one thing concerning the choregoraphy that Justin has created that enables us to attach empathetically in a very deep, emotional means with the characters. I really feel like they’re describing what they’re experiencing so clearly that phrases would really be complicated.”

Additionally on the brand new episode of “Stagecraft,” Drury and Peck mentioned their connections to Sufjan Stevens and the unique album, and the way they went about discovering a kind for his or her challenge that went past a typical musical. “I couldn’t think about turning it right into a jukebox musical,” Drury mentioned. “I didn’t perceive what that will be.”

To listen to your entire dialog, pay attention on the hyperlink above or obtain and subscribe to “Stagecraft” on podcast platforms together with Apple Podcasts, Spotify and the Broadway Podcast Community. New episodes of “Stagecraft” are launched each different week.