Rosebud musician inspires student’s final project

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Kaitlyn Sloboda, a fourth-year student at Rosebud School of the Arts (RSA), is writing her final project, Take My Hand, based on the music of RSA graduate Travis Friesen.
Sloboda, who performed in Rosebud Theatre’s Wind in the Willows, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Treasure Island, will perform Take My Hand in Rosebud’s Akokiniskway Gallery, Feb. 5-7.
The story of Take My Hand began to take shape when Friesen asked Sloboda to play the piano for his upcoming album, and played for her what he’d written.
“He started playing and his heart was so forward. I couldn’t really escape that there was so much story behind each song … I was just totally compelled,” she said. “From that came the idea of a church and the idea of a young woman walking in, a quiet church where we don’t know if we’re quite welcome or not.”
As Sloboda worked with director Deanne Bertsch, dramaturg Kelsey Krogman and music director Paul Zacharias, those ideas grew into Take My Hand, in which a young woman named Tess (played by Sloboda) gets stranded in a church during a snowstorm.
She encounters her childhood friend Luke (played by Friesen), who played music with her when they were young, before Tess ran away from her problems. Five years later, she’s back, they’re snowbound together in the church, and music gives them a way to communicate what they can’t say in words.
Sloboda hopes Take My Hand will teach what she herself has learned, and her character Tess is learning – to face their fears.
In managing the multiple tasks of writing, producing and performing, “there were times, I was like, I don’t want to do it anymore,” she said. “Fearing that it’s too much to take on, or it’s asking too much of me … and then the play just becomes so much more relevant in my life.
“Am I going to back away from fear? Is fear telling me to stop, to back away? Because I don’t want to live in fear.”
Sloboda hopes audience members will carry Friesen’s songs with them.
“I would love if people could get these songs stuck in their head, like songs like ‘Carry on, love will never leave you, carry on,’” she said. “I hope people will take away from this show a renewed appreciation for life and loved ones … the thought of maybe I’ll call my mom tonight. Or maybe I’ll call my friend who I haven’t talked to in seven years.”
Take My Hand will be performed in Rosebud’s Akokiniskway Gallery at 7 p.m., Feb. 5-7, with a 3 p.m. matinee on Feb. 7.
$10 advance tickets may be booked on the Take My Hand Facebook page or by contacting Sloboda at ofwallsandwanderingproductions@outlook.com. $15 tickets may also be purchased at the door. Friesen’s new album will be available for sale at performances.