This past weekend, The Sauk Theatre presented “Desert Song,” a play about finding inspiration in the most unexpected places. A musician, played by Darren Taylor, is searching for the muse of his favorite song, “The Ballad of Eliza.” After meeting a hotel maid, played by Summer Housler, the pair come together to write a song. 

Housler and Taylor’s characters are opposites in every way, but they find inspiration in the musician’s personal struggles. 

With his character dealing with the death of his parents, the foster care system, and self-harm, Taylor worked to portray those struggles on stage. To develop the musician’s character, Taylor focused on his relationship with Housler.

“I really have to give props to Summer because she would just throw something at me and I would throw it right back,” Taylor said. “As we progressed with rehearsals, we changed things up a bit: how we delivered a line, how we said it, and it all worked perfectly.”

In addition to establishing this emotional connection through character work, Taylor only had three weeks to prepare for the production. The original actor had to withdraw from the production for work reasons, leaving the freshly-cast Taylor with only nine rehearsals left to learn the show. 

“He learned his part and he learned it quickly,” Bird said. “He just did the work and it was hard work, Summer was gone for five days the week before production.” 

To put it in perspective, The Sauk’s production of “Cinderella” had 45 rehearsals total.

Despite there being fewer rehearsals, the production was a feat of detail. From the set right down to the costumes, the minimalistic components of the environment allowed the cast to shine.

The costume designer for “Desert Song,” Gianna Green, paid close attention to the embellishments she could add to make costumes unique. 

“I was sitting in my driveway and destroying the jeans, the neighborhood kids were staring at me,” Green said. 

The maid had a clean-cut costume, the opposite of the musician’s. Despite its seemingly simple design, Green had a lot to think about.

“She has her compression socks on,” Green joked. “Gotta keep that circulation strong.”

Director Trinity Bird had the help of the playwright, Mark Cornell, while staging the production. 

“Mark was at our disposal whenever we had a question and we needed something clarified,” Bird said. 

Cornell donated all royalties from his work back to the local community theater. He was even present at the Friday and Saturday night performances, taking notes on how to improve his work. This resulted in some minor edits between this weekend’s shows.

“There was an additional verse in the song at the end, when Mark saw it on stage, he said it wasn’t necessary and we cut it the next day,” Bird said.

This is not the first time that Cornell has asked The Sauk to perform his work. The staged reading of “On Pine Knoll Street” was performed at The Sauk as part of the American Association of Community Theatre NewPlayFest.

Cornell is still making slight alterations to the script as it develops, but the message stays clear. What does Bird want us to take from the show?

“What aren’t we paying attention to that is in our own world? We should take inspiration from those things that we normally wouldn’t notice,” Bird said.