Appino faced challenges in anchoring the energy and drama of the derby with the hungry times in which it was born. With the aid of dramaturg Mame Hunt and the Rain City Rollers ensemble, Appino conducted extensive research on the derby and Depression-era pop culture, and went to work creating a new version of the Transcontinental Roller Derby. The development process is about shaping the themes and the emerging story to the group of performers in front of me. There's drama in contrasts. For a stylist like Appino, spotting those contrasts and incorporating them into her staging seems almost second nature.
Historical characters mix with fictional ones, divine characters with humans.
The music for the show, composed and written by David Russell with Kevin Joyce, skirts the uptown musical and slides into downtown music hall in the span of a number. And then there's that set.