Grace Galu (center) in "Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville"

When Baba Israel, a composer, music director and performer of Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville," first read Martin A. Lee's book, "Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana - Medical, Recreational and Scientific," he was so excited about the material, he felt compelled to develop a show inspired by it. However, there was a issue: At the time, about five and a half years ago, very few states had legal adult-use and medical markets. Though committed toward the project, Israel and key collaborator Grace Galu were simultaneously apprehensive that it could threaten their jobs as licensed teachers in the state of New York. It was a precarious situation, symbolic of the struggles that cannabis advocates have faced for years.

Yet, despite the challenges, Israel, Galu and their creative team were able to forge on and tell the history of this deeply misunderstood and stigmatized plant in a show that deftly mixes music, dance and the spoken word. Weaving the music of icons such as Bob Marley with the stories of grassroots activists Dennis Perron and Brownie Mary, "Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville" plays as a thrilling visual and aural spectacle, a seductive time-travelling theatrical concert that encapsulates the highlights and milestones of cannabis.

The production began a limited run at the legendary Off-Off Broadway theater La MaMa on July 14, 2022, and is slated to end on July 31, 2022.

Baba Israel in "Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville"

Recently, Israel and Galu took a break from the show, in which both share equal duties as music director, composer and performer, to discuss the genesis and evolution of the productionand its future. This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

Iris Dorbian: How did this project begin and evolve?

Baba Israel: When I came across [Martin Lees] book, I was really excited about it. I started to hear songs and imagine the words in the book as lyrics. I felt for a lot of reasons that [cannabis] is an important subject I wanted to talk about as an artist.

From there, I started to write songs. The first one I wrote was Rope Dope, which was inspired by Martin Lee. When I wrote it, I knew I wanted to collaborate with a female vocalistto balance my own voice. Thats when I met Grace and she came to the studio. She sort of stepped into that role.

Grace Galu: It was a symbiosis of sounds, of meeting, of intention. Organically, I became composer of the piece because I ended up writing most of the songs.

Israel: For me as a writer, its been an amazing experiencehow Grace takes words and breathes life to it.

Dorbian: There's very little conventional script. Was that a conscious choice or simply something that happened as the show was being developed?

Israel: As my role as an emcee, I use spoken word and poetry as a form of narration. We wanted to do the storytelling through poetry and music. That was intentional. We were working with brilliant designers. Talvin [Wilks, the dramaturge and co-director] gave us this idea of subverting this vaudeville aesthetic, to have someone [for instance] roller skate during a solo even though its a mournful song about Mexicans coming over the border during the revolution.

Galu: I always love operettas. Im a musical theater nerd. One of my favorite shows is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Its part of my influence.

The company of "Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville"

Dorbian: In addition to the federal illegality of cannabis, despite two-thirds of the country having legal medical markets and a third having legal adult-use, what were some other snags you encountered when putting together this show?

Galu: There were a few: the transition for me becoming a composer. That interpersonal gender dynamicsmaking sure there was representation with gender and race in the cast. I feel the cast is representative of cannabis in the world.

Israel: Its a heavy subject. The War on Drugs has paid a heavy price on people of color and all kinds of community. A lot of things that deal with cannabis tend to be very comedic and male, but we wanted to do something different. When I started this project, I was the original conceiver, but we moved into a more collaborative [mode].

Also, this is the largest scale production Ive put on in New York. It grew out of a residency program at HERE [the Off-Off Broadway presenting house, which commissioned, developed and produced the show]. Weve been ambitious. We feel this is an important subject and we wanted to do it on the scale it deserved. Its both a challenge and its rewarding.

Dorbian: What are the future plans for the show? Anything you can discuss?

Israel: The plan is to tour the piece and take it around the country. It will be interesting to take it to different states that are in different levels of legalization. Eventually, we want to bring the show back for a longer run and perhaps on a streaming platform. In a lot of ways, were at the beginning of the journey.

For more information about the show and its run at La MaMa, click here.

Read the rest here:

An Exciting New Theatrical Show Is Tackling The Long And Complicated History Of Cannabis - Forbes