An Original Rock Oratorio
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At its core, SHELTER ME delves into the profound exploration of tragedy within the context of time. Chronicling a lifelong struggle unveils the challenge of discerning how growth manifests across different temporal phases. My conversations with members of the Dallas Street Choir often revolved around the duration of their individual ordeals—how their situations originated and evolved over time.
During the creation of this piece, I envisioned YOUNGER MAN and OLDER MAN as two facets of the same entity. Are they two iterations of a singular person? That remains open to interpretation. However, their moments together must resonate with authenticity. Time converges within the composition, enabling these two embodiments of a shared struggle to coexist and learn from one another. For the YOUNGER MAN, glimpsing a future trapped in his current predicament forces an existential reckoning: is the pursuit of hope even worthwhile? And if so, what does hope truly signify in such circumstances?
My key takeaway revolves around the understanding that not every flaw within society can be rectified or “fixed,” and thus, some problems remain unsolvable. While we can offer assistance, my observations revealed the honor and resilience displayed by numerous individuals who volunteered their time and efforts to shelter and support those in need. Ultimately, there are limits to what can be achieved. The OLDER MAN embodies the inevitability of certain life experiences.
However, amid these hardships, what struck me most during my interviews with Dallas Street Choir members was their resilience and joy. I witnessed smiles, hope, a profound love for music, passion, and an appreciation for beauty. Their dreams remained unquenched by their adversities; instead, these struggles reinforced their resolve. To dream is to live, and each person I encountered had chosen to embrace life in their own way.
I aspire for SHELTER ME to delicately straddle the boundary between tragedy and hope. This boundary, in many aspects, is symbolized by time and experience. Taking the time to acknowledge the brilliance, humanity, and beauty within those facing adversity marks the initial step toward inspiring tangible change.
Here is a breakdown of the piece, song by song, as per my interpretation. Nevertheless, I deliberately left the contours of SHELTER ME abstract to evoke strong decisions and diverse directions with each performance. If you discern something different within the narrative, I encourage exploration and inquiry into those perspectives.
Introduces the most important character: time. I envision the swirling of harmony and tonal center to be time itself folding in on itself, starting from the end and wrapping back around to the beginning.
“Happy” allows the OLDER MAN to fully introduce himself. He is our “narrator” for the span of the show, as he already knows all that has happened. His introduction can be viewed as both his own and a prelude to YOUNGER MAN before we even meet him. If you interpret the two men to be the same person (despite two versions of the same man being present throughout the story) then their tale is still told chronologically, the only difference is the storytellers have the ability to fold through time and actively interact.
We meet the YOUNGER MAN on his first day on the streets.
I imagine a world where someone from the street choir sings the solo of this song (or maybe there are multiple soloists). This introduces a meta narrative of the real-life street choir being the ones to welcome YOUNGER MAN to his new life.
In the worst of situations, the OLDER MAN has learned over time how to carry his hope. He is already now where YOUNGER MAN has the full narrative to get to, and he uses this optimism to welcome the YOUNGER MAN to the streets. Though the text is yearning for a life they no longer have, the OLDER MAN brings wisdom and knowledge to the situation and tries to impart it onto his counterpart.
In the end though, the YOUNGER MAN is left only with the debilitating weight of time crushing him. He feels alone. How did he get here?
If we’re still acting under the assumption that OLDER & YOUNGER MAN are the same person, then the information provided in this song comes immediately after that of “Happy.” “Happy” lives in the happy memories of childhood, whereas “Alone” is the other side of things. YOUNGER MAN mourns his new lot in life but in the end decides to face it head on. He won’t let it kill him; he’ll try to find a way through the problem.
Memories of his mother echo in his head as he begins to take on his new life on the streets. This could be an excellent opportunity to see the symmetry between OLDER & YOUNGER MAN if the first soprano soloist is singing to the both of them together. The “Shelter Me” theme was written to represent begging. It starts with one person asking for the barest of necessities: shelter. As the song grows, more and more people begin asking for that shelter, until it’s everyone in the choir singing over and over again. It should be directed towards the audience and feel like pleading. The YOUNGER MAN is beginning to feel that it is inevitable to ask.
A moment of connection for the YOUNGER & OLDER MEN. The OLDER MAN knows this feeling. He remembers it. He assures the YOUNGER MAN, though, that giving up is not the answer. Dreaming and hoping are essential in looking towards tomorrow.
A moment of catharsis in the midst of everything where the choir allows themselves to dream. The soloist on this piece can either be a professional or a member of the Street Choir. This song should feel like a release that pushes us into the next step of our journey. I tend to consider this song something of an end to Act 1, despite there not being two acts.
The fight is on and now we’re battling the system as a whole. I consider both “Speed Up” and “So You Want to Solve The Housing Crisis?” to be abstract emotion pieces taking place at the same time as YOUNGER MAN is beginning to find ways to survive in the system. He is feeling a pressure to keep up without an understanding of how. With this much against him, how could he positively survive this?
The struggle turns into cynicism, as even the OLDER MAN himself is hit with the inevitability of failure. As they work harder and harder on their own survival, they see people all around them with a complete disregard for the actual struggles they’re going through. People talk a big game, but don’t always go the extra mile to enact any sort of physical change. They are tired of talk. They are ready for something more.
Time continues to tick on. The YOUNGER MAN has now been homeless for basically a year and it’s starting to get cold. Very cold.
Pain is now the YOUNGER MAN’s only tether to feeling. He’s been stripped of his dreams, of his ambitions, of his hope. The snow starts coming down around him and he is left with only one desire: stay alive. Continue to live for… something. He must find that reason for living but it grows harder and harder to put it into any actual words. And then, back to reality. He is freezing to death. He needs shelter. He needs to hide.
The lowest the YOUNGER MAN gets. He wants to give up and hide away until it all ends. He’s almost gotten comfortable in the hellscape that he’s trapped in, and has lost his will to pull himself out. Now it’s all just about self-preservation. He releases all of his feelings, screaming at the audience, at God, at the world.
And then he is found by the OLDER MAN. He’s found by himself, in so many ways. Two extremes of time, meeting in the middle to make a crucial decision: what are they going to do and, more importantly, who are they going to be? The OLDER MAN reflects on all of the hardship he’s been through of his time, but he always remembers to look up and see what is around him. Past society’s misgivings; past the hatred, the bigotry, the unfairness of it all, is something truly beautiful in this natural world. And it’s important we all remember and choose to continue seeing it.
A celebration of the beauty in life. We are all deserving of it. We must take it, and we must give it. Finally, the YOUNGER MAN sees what the OLDER MAN has been saying. They become one.
The YOUNGER MAN, with all he has learned, knows he has so much time to go but he embraces it. He knows that with it will come hard times but also so much beauty. And so he walks into this new slice of his life asking for the same thing he’s been asking for: shelter. The plea rings out and is left in the air. He is ready for more, but are we willing to help him get it?