We made a professional cast recording of STUMP CITY STORIES—the Ovation-nominated musical based on the history of New Westminster, by award-winning composer George Ryan. Visit KICKSTARTER to find out more about this superbly entertaining and educational project that will continue to benefit and bring joy to so many.
With Kickstarter we raised $3,000 of the approximately $15,000 needed to produce a professional cast recording CD of STUMP CITY STORIES. We've also received generous grants from the City of New Westminster, a BC Multicultural Grant, and some awesome private donations (thank you "Chung Koh" Project Partners Dennis and Christine Magrega, and "Jim Walker" Partners Peter Julian MP, Chuck Puchmayr, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Accurate Lock Safe & Alarm Co., 5th Avenue Therapeutic Massage & Acupuncture Clinic, G & F Financial Group, Team Dave Vallee, Adam Goldberg, Patricia Curtis, Henry Chen, Raymond Burr Performing Arts Society), Anonymous, and approximately 70 individual donors from British Columbia and other Pacific North West locations, as well as from places as far away as New York, Hong Kong, and Alabama!
STUMP CITY STORIES' 18 songs tell the history of New Westminster and British Columbia in humorous, poignant, toe-tapping style, from the Quayquayt First Nations and the arrival of the British through more recent times--celebrating British Columbia’s original Chinatown (Yi Fao) and diverse populations, the dramas of the Great Freeze, the Great Fire, the Great Bank Robbery, the controversial moving of the Capitol, the blissful nostalgia of the Interurban Line, CKNW radio’s success, and the advent of more recent heroes including film-and-tv star Raymond Burr, astronaut Robert Thirsk, and professional athletes Justin Morneau and Billy Ranford.
(History buffs and project fans: Click here for the 'uncut' video which includes even more praise and info than the short version on Kickstarter. Special thanks to the New Westminster Museum and Archives for use of historic photos.)
This is the third leg of City Stage New West’s ongoing cultural legacy project: to produce a lasting record of this superbly entertaining and informative musical. (Commissioned by City Stage in 2009, the musical was brought to 1500 New Westminster Secondary Students free of charge in 2010.) Once done, the CD will be donated for use to the City of New Westminster, the Fraser River Centre, the Museum and Archives, the Anvil Arts Centre, Library, and School District for future civic events or educational purposes. Many of the songs from this musical are paeans to our City and British Columbia, perfect for use at civic events and in educational settings.
City Stage New West's Stump City Stories CD campaign was the first Kickstarter project in New Westminster, and was featured in an article in Douglas College's paper, The Other.
More about composer George Ryan here.
